Los Ninos

2-1-12

Children are such a blessing.  They are so honest and real, and their laughter is such a joy!  We are staying this first week with Mira, his wife Carla, and their children Daira, Daniel, and Etza.  Etza is just two weeks old :)  Etza was born at home, with the help of one of the grandmothers.  

Mira y Etza

Daira and the baby

Daniel, Aurora, Daira, y Mathias

One of my kids favourite things to do is to chase the chickens and the ducks.  The birds are kept for eating.  They roam at will and eat whatever they like, but are fed corn once a day.  They breed and make lots of little chicks, and these all grow in turn.  When they get to be a certain size they are then killed.  So, there is meat to eat, but not all the time, it depends on the rhythm of the life cycle.

Everything here depends on the rhythm of its cycle.  The moon and sun are straight overhead, varying only slightly from right to left, as we are so close to equator.  The tides of the moon are felt strongly, and my body is adjusting accordingly.  Each day when we awake the energy of the morning is palpable, quiet work and caring for the body and the garden before breakfast.  Then after breakfast is an energetic, relational time.  Neighbours are visited, food is gathered from the hillside gardens, projects for the day are begun.  Lunch comes, and after lunch the hot afternoon sun beats down upon us.  The energy becomes hazy and heavy, and all one wants is to sleep.  Then mid afternoon we start to get things done again, washing and mending and building and playing too.  After dark we eat dinner, and then the kids go straight to bed, exhausted.  

Tomorrow the children here start back to school.  My kids were so curious about school! They really thought that Shuar children would run wild, learning to use spears and weave baskets and such things.  Well, the reality is so much more boring….the marks of colonisation are deep into the land, and the children attend a neighbourhood school along with all their cousins and friends, wearing uniforms very much like the uniforms in England.  In the daily life I sometimes do feel like a homesteader more than a jungle tribe.  However, there are key differences.  The music and the dance and the ceremonies are some of the difference, a commitment to visioning and to sustainability is another difference, and a sense of real nourishment for the soul and love for humanity and the earth is a third.  These qualities are in the more subtle planes of being, and it is these planes which will become more and more apparent to us as the weeks pass.  For now, I am really appreciating the loving energy of the Shuar people, they are very kind and eager to engage us, even though we can hardly speak to them with our minimal Spanish.  

Daira playing house

Uncle Paco with one of the horses

Aurora and Mathias are adjusting a bit more slowly than I am, as to be expected.  At times they say that it is so beautiful here, that they would like to live like this all the time, they love the food and they are happy and chattery and engaged.  Other moments they just want some space and privacy from the sense of community, they want me all to themselves for a little while, they are frustrated to no end with their bug bites, and they are even more frustrated at their inability to communicate clearly.  Today they each broke down and cried at different moments, sobbing their eyes out.  I am taking time to talk to them one to one, to listen to them, and to prepare them for ceremony.  We have really only just begun our exploration of life here, and the jungle has yet to open herself to us.  If I am completely honest, it is a hard adjustment for me too.  I crave cigarettes and chocolate bars, and here I don't even have access to green tea.  All natural, all emotional, all real.  Ohhhhm ;-)