My new hut seems to be the a housing for a female chicken, she’s laid 4 new eggs in the corner and since I’d gone unnoticed quietly writing, the neck feathers are now raised high and wings are spread in defence over the eggs, I stand up as the wind blows the cloth which acts as my door, it’s the last I see of her.
I’ll take them to Penti he’ll be happy for the new eggs, I enter his family hut to find relatives and his partner, I hand her what turned out to be 7 eggs and made a sleeping gesture, they roared in laughter as though I’d shit them out myself.
I’m sure the hunting men had special names for me like “princess balls” or “girly man” which is fine, I’m not being speared.
Sitting in the open grass observing the tribes play football a mature teenage girl comes and speaks, 10 minutes with her I’ve leaned enough to answer the previous questions asked, an elder tribesman walks past and frowns, tilts his head and walks on glaring. She assures me some senior members are traditional and not to worry. Reality still kicks in from the things seen here; walking with the hunting party through the rainforest, boars and monkeys over shoulders covered in blood, for centuries relying on the jungle for what they need and matching that with their own tools provided by the environments, spears, blowpipes, fire and medicine culminate the priority list bringing true culture with shaman’s visions and a genuine delicate touch to the things around them. The taller men are a few inches shorter than me whereas back in Scotland think I'm just below the average height, they walk with raised chests which rest their long hair I believe packs of dogs have once influenced their ways. They growl in day to day conversation and when all goes quiet a human wolf howl breaks the silence. In dances the girls chant in a circle and the boys form a triangle with the eldest at the frontal point panting loudly “hah hah hwooooooo” before howling as a group in sync. Some men smile wide showing teeth while talking followed directly with an immediate frown of anger, this happens in as commonly as the conversation itself, it’s hard to tell if they’re telling a funny story or very pissed off.
Eating around the fire today I saw my friend Digi for the first time since moving huts, as the small spider monkey came forward I crouched, hesitant and cautious before suddenly running into my stomach with the tail around my arm and shoulder, I’m one of the few who don’t kick her.
I haven’t written for a while, allot has changed, I made a joke about being nervous when I first arrived like charades I scratched the side of my neck, looked left then to my feet and picked my nose mumbling. The whole camp loved this gesture and now when I see people they do it back. By the next morning everyone in our community was doing it when they saw me laughing hysterically, I did it back as they almost fell over. To laugh at yourself seemed to be the key. They could also see now I showed no signs of being awkward, very much relaxed with them. One man in particular who held stern face, a physically strong hunter male and from the beginning I thought he’d been plotting to turn me into a baguette... this afternoon he stood next to me as I watched the young ones start the field fires for the fiesta, he folded both arms, sharp eyes pierced the thick brow below the straight line traditional fringe. He looked at me, I looked back, he looked away and smiled almost holding in a laugh. Yea he wanted to do the nervous joke thing, but far too honourable for shenanigans. When I’d returned later back I found waiting in my hut an old senior frail man, with a long grey moustache he sat cross legged for me to join him. I laid out a world map from Coca tourist information, offered him a smoke which he accepted and pointed to highlight Ecuador on the map, the Amazon, equilateral line through to the Congo and on to Asia. Circling Europe I ended the shape at Scotland and put my hand on my chest. He took some time staring down and pointed at the Antarctic and the mass of white. I made a gesture of being cold; we sat for around 15 minutes as he conducted his completely silent interview.
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