Day 25

Wake up with an aching body as sleeping on the ground has taken its toll. We stroll into the "house" that the Huao slept in the night before and Conan makes some pankake-ish cakes over the open fire. With nothing on the itinerary for the day, we decide to go see if we can pitch in over at the Huao women's craft expo. Susan, the Peace Corp volunteer puts us to work drilling holes into the seeds the women have gathered to make necklaces and other jewelry. The work is a little monotonous but it allows us to chat up Susan and trade stories about the Huaorani--she has many as her involvement in the PC has given her about a year and a half of experience living/working with them. Also talk to a North Cal man by the name of Sean, who with his wife is currently traveling along with their daughter (one of the Duke students). In talking with him, he had an activistic rhetoric that would normally motivate the devil's advocate harboring inside of me, although in his case his passion came off as genuine and original. His community-minded investments had led to him and another person purchasing and developing a whole main street in a small town called Lolito in Northern Californing. His descriptions of the Utopian-styled town inspired me to visit the place some day.
Later that day, the group of Duke students along some Huao who had departed to do some GPS mapping early in the morning had still not returned to the settlement by the approaching sundown even though they were supposed to have around noon. Their absence drew a bit of worry from many although I was surprised how calm Sean seemed to be with the fact that his wife and 19 year old daughter were potentially stranded/lost in the rainforest. Eventually as darkness had almost fully fell, the group showed up and attributed the problem to engine trouble or something like that.
Had another vegetable-rich meal for dinner and retired early to the sound of group of Huaorani laughing and chattering.