On Tuesday, we got up early, pulling away from shore about 7 am. The trip to the Ituc River was uneventful, except that the river was so shallow that twice, we ran up on a sandbar. I was amazed to see the mouth of the Ituc—a tiny channel. It was very low, but we didn’t have to drag the canoe too much until after Arrow Village. At Hummingbird Village, Simon came down to talk to us and said that his brother went back to drinking and is in the city, but he would come the next day without him.
Every time we heard the swishing sound on the bottom of the canoe, we knew we had hit a sandbar and had to get out and push. It happened so often, that we put on our shoes, hoping to minimize jabs from tucumã (inch-long thorns from the tucumã tree) or stingrays. A couple of times we had to take some of the cargo out before the boat would budge. When it was about to get dark, we decided to make camp right where the boat was stuck. We dug holes in the beach and put in posts that we cut with our machetes.
We were beat, so the rest of the day, we mostly rested. An Indian girl got stung by a stingray on a trip, and we felt bad for her, but there was nothing we could do. I remembered when I got stung by a stingray when I was 9 yrs. old. “Sting” is really a misnomer. It is more like a puncture with a nail. They put some sort of salve on it.
We spent some time looking for a source of clean water. We found a place upstream in the little creek where the water looked decent, but it was so fill of tanins (the things that turn water tea colored) that it clogged our filter. Later, we saw that someone put a basin in one of the springs in the hillside, and it fills up with crystal clear water.
This morning I returned from the jungle, to everyone bustling about, getting ready to cut wood. Simon came, like he said. Most of the men of the village came along, and we all watched as he sawed. It was a 15 minute brisk walk back to camp, a trip which I had the privilege of walking a dozen times or so. The posts weren’t super heavy, but after it pressing on your shoulder the whole way, it gets really sore. I only carried one at a time. Some guys carried two. Every time I brought one to camp, I would get a drink and sometimes a snack.
After finishing with all 65 posts, we sat around and talked with Simon. He says he is a believer from the Assembly of God. We played soccer, as if we weren’t tired enough. I enjoy playing with them. I quit before it got dark and went to our abandoned drinking water spot to take a bath and wash my clothes.
When we decided to start putting posts in for our house, it was a weird feeling knowing that wherever we put the first post would determine the location of our house for years to come. There was a dip in the land, which would cause water to pool under the house, so we ended up putting it farther away from the nearest house than I expected, which should be nice.
Today is Sunday. We put in a few posts for Ed’s house early this morning while it was still cool. The rest of the day, we mostly rested.
Later in the afternoon, we got some vocab with the witch doctor and some others. There are lots of words and phrases I feel like I should know, but I can’t recall them quickly when I need them.
The other day, the chief and family went to town. Adnor came back from the river in the afternoon and said someone’s motor was on his boat. Apparently, the chief took Adnor’s canoe and decided it was too big. Somewhere beyond Arrow Village, he met someone in Simon’s canoe. They traded, and the person left it at Simon’s village, then Simon used it to come here. Ed remembered the chief asking if his little motor would push our boat. Maybe that was his way of asking permission. We don’t know yet, but we are glad he didn’t take it all the way back to town, leaving us stranded here for who knows how long.
On Wednesday, Simon had used almost all of the gas and oil for the chainsaw, and there wouldn’t be enough to finish cutting all of the wood. We decided to return home the following day, which was fine with me, because I wanted to be with me family, and our food was running out. We’ll get the rest of the wood the next time we go in to start framing our houses, but we’ll have to wait until the river goes up enough so we can take supplies like roofing, nails, and tools.