The Ngobi Indians of Panama have many beliefs that seem strange to those outside of their group.  For example, the women wear full-length, colorful, loose dresses because they are useful for hiding pregnancy.  They believe that if others discover that a child is in the making, there will be those that plot to do the baby harm.  Since Ngobi women leave their family home to start their own by the age of 13 or 14 years of age,  pregnancy is certainly in the cards and a regular condition.  It is heartbreaking to witness.

In the past few days, I met a retired American medical doctor in the mountains of Volcancito, close to Boquete, Panama.  He was moved by the plight of the Ngobi women and decided to do something about it.  He opened a facility designed to educate their young women through what we would call high school.  Surely, education and exposure to different ways of living would change the participants’ outlooks.  After four years of effort, not one woman finished the program … not one.

What happened?  They sought the culture and path that had been taught to them as children.  What they saw while growing up trumped everything the doctor could teach them.  Their siblings and friends were carrying on the Ngobi way.  Clearly the call of the past was too much to ignore.

Without question, family beliefs permeate the souls and color the vision of most of us.  Are you a Methodist, a Mormon or a Muslim? Were your Mom and Dad?  Do you gravitate toward Fords, Chevys or Toyotas?  Is your choice the family car when you were growing up?  Do you share the political bent of your immediate family? Are you a bricklayer, as was your Father and his before him?

The point is that we tend to march to the same drum that played as we grew up.  We fail to test our beliefs for ourselves, but rather, cling to them without even knowing why or what the alternatives might offer. Truth might just be around the corner, but unless you are looking for it, it might as well be halfway around the world.

Why do you believe what you “believe”?

Credits:  Thanks to SoulSong.org for the fabulous picture of the Ngobi women.