The Woonan are another indigenous people here in Panama. They are the ones I have been talking to about making the logo for the bags: one of their traditional crafts is carving tagua seeds or “vegetable ivory”.
I met with the artist and his father yesterday. I was expecting to hear ancient stories from the elder about the different animals and the epics and so forth… but as so often happens when working with another culture, what actually happened was different from what I expected.
It turns out the ancient legends the anciano wanted to tell me were the war stories from their “Guerra Mundial” with the Kuna and the Colombians. There were no legends about the iguana. I sadly fear that this kind of a project is too late. The stories that there were are mostly already lost, at least from the Woonan people.
We were sitting up on the terrace of our grand old house with a view to the Panama Canal. At first, they were negotiating, asking how much I was going to pay for the stories. This didn’t really sit well with me since my main motivation was to help them preserve their heritage… but that is the reality of such an interaction. Once I explained that I was not writing a book or anything that I would profit from and that I am searching for a story for my logo, but otherwise just want to help them not lose their history, the atmosphere changed. I felt they were wondering why they bothered with the trip. I began to explain how if they get these legends and stories written down about each animal, it will help them sell their crafts to tourists because tourists like that kind of thing. I said we should be talking about how we can both benefit each other, and coined the term “ganar y ganar” for win-win.
I told them I would write their stories for them in English and they could post them on their website to help sell their products… Oh, they don’t have a website. And then I felt the familiar heavy weight on my shoulders of knowing how much I can help - the feeling that I always listen to and that keeps me from getting what I need.
The truth was, I already had 5 websites in queue needing my work. I don’t want to make another one. But then I thought, looking at these two guys who don’t even own a computer - man, if it’s not me that builds them a site, it won’t be anyone else for a long while.
But having just come out of several hard fires with the lesson that “I don’t work for free” because if I do it sucks away my energy, I decided to be authentic. I said, well actually, I know how to make websites and I would be happy to make you one. But for me it’s a lot of work, so I would propose a trade.
And then some magic happened.
It turns out that if I make him a website and I “charge” him the same amount of money that I normally charge -nothing for free here- and he “pays” me in the equivalent amount of his tagua seed carvings, which I will use as the bags’ logo or “symbol”, at the normal price… then we have a win-win situation! It is way easier for me to make him a website than to come up with the cash to pay for the seed carvings (they are each handmade -not cheap). And I could tell that he felt like he was getting a good deal too. (and of course, he is)
I think this has been the most successful negotiation of my whole life: it was easy, authentic, stress-free and I made a friend!
The one element that adds some stress is the fact that I am only in Panama for another 2 weeks. That means that I need to figure out what I want him to carve and have him start carving soon!
