La Casa

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We are here and it is such a wonder.  I must admit that the first day I thought, it's really good this is only for six weeks, because it is a hard life.  We arrived on new years eve and met the family of Mira and Carla, who were preparing for festivities.  All along the bus ride, through the little local towns, people were all preparing in the same ways: getting paper maiche men ready to burn, roasting pigs in huge pits, drinking chicha and cervza, and gathering in large extended families.  With Carla's family we joked and laughed and ate a lot of bananas!  We left early though and headed back to la casa de Mira, as it is deeper in the jungle and we needed to come by boat in order to bring our bags along.  Later on we set up our tent, taught the children how to use a natural toilet and a simple outdoor shower, feasted on papaya and plantain and quinoa, and went to bed early.  (By the second day Aurora was loving papaya, and by the fourth they both conceded to eat plantains by the bucketful :) )

New Years day we awoke to the mist of the jungle rolling over the hills.  It is so beautiful!  The house is in a clearing and Mira is planting many banana and papaya and mango trees.  The view over the valley is breathtaking, and the river runs wide and swift through the bottom.  Up on the hills there are many many trees, including the junta, a sacred variety of palm.   We breakfasted on lentils and rice and juice of the tree tomato.  Then I had a nap!  The abuelita visited us, and she had a nap too.  In the afternoon, I helped to make the roof of the centre por la medicina.

In the clearing is the little house.  Everything here, everything you can see and touch and live with, was made by hand by the people who use it.  The little house is a bedroom and a kitchen.  It is made of wood and bamboo and has a tin roof.  There are three windows and a door and it is so cozy and sweet to cook and eat and hang out in.  This house is typical of family homes in the jungle today.

The centre par la medicina is much bigger.  Mira saw this centre in a vision and is building it accordingly.  It is made in the traditional Shuar style, with a roof of palm leaves and pillars of palm trees.  It is oval in shape and will have many rooms.  There will be a second floor with several bedrooms and open spaces, so that visitors can stay comfortably.  The first floor will also have four bedrooms, a big kitchen, and a place for making ceremonies.  Mira has been working on the house for five months already, and it will take another month or two to get it fully built.  The roof will have over 3,000 palm branches in it, and there are many planks to cut.  Today, we folded and pressed palm leaves.  

The palm branches are gathered from up in the forest with a machete.  Several men go up together and carry huge bundles of them down to the clearing.  The branches are then grouped into sets of about six.  They are laid flat and tied together with string, and then left to dry for a day or two.  Once they are moderately dried out, but not too dry, they are folded in half and pressed,  laid out to finish drying in long rows.  After a couple of days they turn brown and flatten down quite a bit, and then they are ready to put on the roof.  With a bamboo needle, Mira will stand on a ladder and the second floor beams of the centre, sewing the branches together.  

The roof will be waterproof and provide much needed shade, and is fully sourced from the immediate environment.  As palm trees are cut for building, more are planted, ensuring that the supply does not run out.  Equally, new houses are not built every year.  There is alot of making due with less here in the jungle, and this includes not needing new or bigger or more improved housing.  As I visited other homes in the valley this evening I thought, we could call this way of life either one of poverty or of sustainability.  It is both…because balance with the earth requires us to live inside of her, with her, to not abuse her or overuse her, to listen to the rhythms of co-creation.  (There is much more to be said here about colonisation, choice, progress, and stewardship, and that will be another post…) I am happy here in my bare feet and my simple clothes, and I think that by the end of six weeks it may be as difficult to accept modern life once again as it was for me to settle in here the first few hours.  

As it turns out, I cannot connect to the internet in the jungle :)  The signal just won't reach, so I will have to write my posts each day or couple of days, and then put them online all at once when I visit the village.  from la case de hermosa….ciao!