Some Memorable and Favorite Moments from a recent trip to the Communities (-Jess)

When Mariela or Eblis Jr. or Jose would get in the hammock and snuggle with me, and show me Cat’s Cradle games, or play with my hair, or tell me stories about their day, or just wiggle around until they’d eventually fall asleep on me.

Watching Candy (an otherwise relaxed pup) romp around from one side of the trail to the other just like my dog Sassy when she gets to go for a walk in the woods when Freddie and his dad took us out to their chacra to show us all the things that they grow (yucca, corn, sugar cane, plants for fiber, strange fruits that I don’t remember the name of but were pretty tasty, medicinal plants, and lots of other stuff) and Freddie cut us some sugar cane while Eblis dug yucca. I am definitely going to have a garden if I ever end up owning any land.

Finding myself alone in the forest after the rest of the group had moved off to another part of the chambira plot, walking a row of marker-sticks and painting the tips red and listening to the quiet and the forest noises and feeling the changes in temperature as I moved under different kinds of trees.

Listening to happy squeals from ever-growing groups of kids as we’d pull out the next game or activity (Red Rover, Frisbee, making cards, doing origami, playing Crazy 8’s or Old Maid or Memory, singing silly songs, Andrew flinging them into the river almost as fast as they could rush back and climb up on him again). Spending the afternoons playing, and realizing that even when we go back home to the States, there will be a village out there in the Amazon where a generation of kids know our names.

Watching the silhouette of a rat tight-rope-walk on a clothes line directly above my mosquito net and hoping he would not fall.

Going out to cut and measure rows with Don Uber and Doña Emma and 40 or so other people and trying to figure out how to manage my 15-foot measuring stick in the undergrowth without whacking into trees or people while they highly entertained themselves teaching us naughty words in Iquito. Now, despite the fact that there are only 20 or so people left in the world that speak this almost extinct language, Andrew and I can now say moderately obscene things. (Isn't that always one of the first things you're taught when learning a new language?) They taught us some other useful stuff too; “I’m cold” is one of my favorites because it sounds something like “Keeshy-mooshy”.

Coming home from working in the community work day and being tired enough and comfortable enough to fall deeply asleep in the hammock on the porch in the early afternoon and waking up to see 5 other people asleep in hammocks on the porch with me.

Watching Angela’s family dye their chambira fibers: Freddy was sent to pick normal-looking leaves from their backyard, Eblis Jr. ground them into a pulp that turned bright red, Angela got the water boiling and Freddy added some salt, Mariela kept stealing spoonfuls of soup that had been moved aside to make room for the dye on the fire, little Jose walked around pointing up to indicate he'd heard an airplane pass overhead, Juan Carlos worked on a stitching a basket, Eblis Sr. cleaned and sorted his fishing gear for a trip up to the lake that afternoon, and Andrew and I watched wishing that we knew how to do things too.

Watching from the bridge as the tiniest little sliver of thumbnail moon set over palm trees and the river below, while a cool breeze was blowing and I could hear everyone greeting each other as they passed on their way home from playing soccer or talking with neighbors, while little candle lights started popping out of the deepening dusk to light thatched houses where families were gathering for the night.