Demarcation Diaries
7 September 2001
After days and days of sailing, we finally arrived at the mouth of
Xerua, our destination. We met the first Deni which came to our
ship. But it is also a bad day for our team: Merel was hit with a bad
stomach ache and had to stay in her hammock for the whole day. As for
me, I broke my only pair of glasses!!! Without my glasses, I could
hardly recognize the jaguar, not to mention snakes or even spiders in
the forest!
This morning I woke up at 6:45 am. After breakfast, Petros, Paula
and Samuel set off in the voadeira (aluminum boat) to join the others
in the Cuniua team. We hugged each other goodbye. It is kind of sentimental for me because I am
leaving earlier and I might not see these wonderful people for a long time.
We were supposed to have more people joining us today. The
Greenpeace plane "Pata Gorda," would carry Janine, our other
teammate and the medic from England, Nilo, the campaigner in Greenpeace
Amazon, and others to Itamarati. From there they would
come to join us. Manuel and Tim were busy all morning making
contact with Fernando, the pilot of Pata Gorda. Then Manuel told
us that Pata Gorda would pass us in a few minutes. We waited,
hoping to see with our eyes how this "Pata Gorda," which means
"fat duck" in Deni, would fly over our head. The story of how the
plane got its name is actually quite funny: Once the plane tried to
take off with several people and a lot of equipment after visiting a Deni
village. It took off the land a bit, but then the weight was too heavy and
it landed again. The Deni watched it with fun and commented: "It flies
like pata gorda!"
At noon, Comte Savio finally arrived our destination, the mouth of
Xerua. When the ship pulled over the beach, I was confused.
Where is the mouth of Rio Xerua? Bryan pointed at the mouth of a
stream and said, "That's it!" Again, it is because the water level is at its
lowest and the river has become a stream. A local person living in
a village opposite to the village told us that once we pass the
mouth of Xerua, the water level became deeper and the river wider.
From now on, the ship will stay on a nearby beach for 6 weeks,
quite a long time. At 2 p.m., the the crew members began to build a
tent on the beach. I watched with amazement how they built a very
strong tent which could fit in dozen people in approximately one
hour. The only tool they use is machete. They collected the logs
from the forest nearby, and used the skin of certain tree for strings. It
is natural architecture par excellence!
We wanted to know what walking in the forest was like and
decided to go for a "walk" in the forest ahead of us. My first
impression of the jungle is THICK! The bush and foliage is so thick
that we had to literally chop our way through with the machete. In
such an environment, one cannot make much distance in a day -- and
we are just on the edge of the jungle! Imagine what it is really like
inside the pristine jungle! Whenever we stopped, we were surrounded by the
mosquitoes and all kinds of insects immediately. There are also lots of
ants, and they fly! Sometimes one or two ants would fall on my neck and
give me a good bite. We did not go far. When I returned to our ship and
walked up the stairs, I told Ian, "We have just been to the heart of
darkness. The horror! The horror!" Well, I was exaggerating a little
bit, but the jungle is impressive, and harsh. Now I have a better
understanding why many previous efforts to develop the Amazon, whether it
was opening mines, building roads and railways, or setting up plantations,
often involved great human casualty.
A Deni patarahu (chief) visited us on the ship. He was from a Deni
village which is close to the mouth of Rio Xerua. He came all the
here for the demarcation project. Manuel introduced us to him and
he said I belong to the same family as his, while Jan from Germany
was from the same family as Manuel's. What an honor! And what
better way to begin your relationship with the Deni people? I told
Manuel, "Please make sure I am working with him because we are in the
same family."
My literature teacher told me that tragedy always befalls a person in
an unexpected way. And it was confirmed yesterday evening. We
decided to celebrate our arrival with a football game on the beach.
It was evening, we were playing football on a nice beach with the
sunset behind us, and most likely jaguars were sitting inside the
bush enjoying the fierce match between Brazilians and
International teams -- what better football game could you ask for?
Then the tragedy fell, my face was hit by the ball badly, or in
Cantonese, I was fed with a "ball biscuit," and my glasses were
broken. You bet that was an accident: the Brazilians got rid of the
best player in the International team, and they finally won 4-2.
What a shame!
I didn't bring a spare pair of glasses, but I did bring my corrective
goggles. So for the rest of the evening, there was a weird guy walking
around in the ship with his goggles, looking like he was ready to win an
Olympic swimming medal. Manuel figured out that my look was too scary for
the Deni people, and kindly lent me his glasses. And lucky me, we had
the most beautiful sky last night! There was no cloud, no moon, only
stars, constellations of stars. The constellation of Scorpio was so clear
even saw through someone else's glasses, and I murmured to myself, maybe
it is not that tragic after all.
-Kontau
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