Day Fourteen

Awoke to the Old Man and Typhoid Mary chattering outside the tents. They were here to do the specialized weaving of the top leaves of the roof--evidence of the fact that some skills may die out with the older generation of Huaorani. The comedor is almost completed, although things are getting frustrating as Otobo is now asking if we should just have a dirt floor instead of finishing the laborious bamboo flooring. We advise that if they want to charge tourists the big bucks, some luxuries(like a floor!) are going to have to be made.
We eat a ¨big lunch¨ as the Huaos associate eating alot with being very strong and more capable afterwords, unlike me who finds a direct correlation between eating alot at lunch and dangerously slipping into a food coma while staring at a computer screen.
After lunch, we hear a motor and shortly after a canoe with several guides and two tourists pulls up. The tourists are giving us quizzical looks and inquire what we are doing here. I explain that Joe and I are political exiles and that we are serving out our sentence out in the Amazon. They seem to buy this explanation and ask nothing further. They leave to go tour the main compound, to return later, and Joe and I talk of how we can creep these people out even further--something about proposing to trade our bottle of rum for the guy`s girlfriend.
Later another motor in the distance---It is Caiga and Bartolo returning from The Outside with a re-supply of bread, butter, eggs, and other goodies. We rejoice like we have been given a new lease on life. Later have a sandwhich of rice topped with BBQ sauce--can life get any better?




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For all the Kansas Citians and others interesting in supporting a good cause---a friend of mine is doing a 24 hour-straight walk at Rock High to raise money for an orphanage that is being built in Guatemala. Please check out the site for more info: http://www.laboroflovewalk.com/default.asp