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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Back to Basics

whilst traveling along the great Amazon...

We depart from the tiny village and sail a bit further up river. In the afternoon, we come across a boy in a tiny canoe, casting his net. As we pass close by, he greets us so I give Braulio a sign to cut the engine.

The youth comes up to us in his canoe and offers us his fish; which we accept gratefully. Braulio makes a remark in the native Quechuan tongue about our desire to find lodging. The youth nods, without caring how many we are.

In his house, there are an older sister, and two younger brothers. His parents are traveling 'down river,' as the adolescent explains. The house, built completely out of natural materials found in the region and elevated on pilings to protect it from flooding, is very close to the river. It only consists of one big room and a kitchen; there are no bedrooms or living room, much less a dining room. Some of the walls are only waist-high. To sleep, they hang their hammocks, which are then taken down in the morning. There are no decorations; they only possess the bare essentials.

On the floor of the kitchen, there is a box filled with soil, in which they build a fire and hanging over it from the ceiling there is meat and fish being smoked. My wife brings in rice to share, which we eat along with the fish. Dinner is delicious, served on squash skins. We eat sitting on our haunches. The locals use only their hands. If they had silverware, they'd need a plate; if they had plates, they'd need a table; if they had a table, they'd need chairs; if they had all of this, they'd need a dining room, but just as we are, in the tiny kitchen, we feel very well and very close.

Braulio tells us there is no problem with staying to sleep, everyone does it because everyone has to travel and rest in the homes they find along the way. So we ask him, having come from families of farmers ourselves, if they are the owners of the land. He tells us: "The people construct their houses wherever they like and when they want. When the land doesn't produce anymore, they search for another place."

"And what happens with the abandoned house?"

"It quickly decays and becomes part of the soil, and in a few years, is completely consumed by the jungle again."

"But whose land is it where you build?"

"The land doesn't belong to you, you belong to it. From it you came and to it you will go. Everything that you see in your body is a loan from the land and one day you'll return it back to it. The land existed long before you were born, and long after you are gone, it will continue to exist. God gives you the Beauty of the land and the miracle of life to enjoy, not for you to take possession of it, nor to have a paper that says you own it," he pauses with a little smile on his face, "the land laughs at this paper."
 


Excerpt from Spark your Dream
by Candelaria & Herman Zapp, 2007
argentinaalaska.com