Willy and Karan TwoLives / Chapter I-Panama


After three years in Africa, first with Habitat for Humanity and then with the Peace Corps, Willy and Karan Schreiber again joined the Peace Corps and were embedded with the Embera Indigenous Tribe in the Darien Province of Panama, next to the Colombian border.

They empowered their new neighbors, friends, and the Tribal Leaders to start a sustainable business selling the extraordinary handicrafts that the Embera create. The result was a Tribal Cooperative for the manufacture and sale of Embera handicrafts.

At the end of their Peace Corps assignment before they departed to return to their other life, the Tribal Leaders, in an unprecedented act, offered to give Willy and Karan land if they would stay.

Willy and Karen explained that they had another life that they needed to return to; and, from that day forward they were honored by bearing the Tribal names “Willy and Karan TwoLives”.

Willy and Karen now live in Potrerillos, in the Chiriqui Province of Panama.
 
Fundacion Amigos de Boquete vocational woodcrafts shop – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living
With help from the Rotary Club of David, the Lions Club of David, and Fundacion Amigos de Boquete, last year Willy started a vocational wood crafts shop and classroom at the Arturo Miro School and Farm for homeless young men ages 12 to 18 in Potrerillos.

Olmedo Miro, grandson of the School's founder, then made a generous donation to bring the wood shop up to professional standards.

 The wood crafts produced at the School are now sold at the office of Fundacion Amigos de Boquete.  Discussions are in process with three potential buyers to craft made-to-order boxes for exotic coffees and cigars.

Thanks to the generous donation by City View Electric of Minneapolis, Minnesota, of a 40 foot container, and their hard work in installing lighting and electrical outlets, Willy is in the process of converting the container into a metals workshop and classroom at the Arturo Miro School and Farm.
 
Fundacion amigos de Boquete container – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living
I look forward to reporting back to you in September regarding our progress.

Willy and Karen TwoLives continue to live Two Lives as you will learn in Chapter II - From Southern California to the Southern Tip of Chile by Motorcycle.

Next Panama’s Gonzalo de la Guardia: From Origins to Legacy

Best Places In The World To Retire