Édito: on the android version of blogger there isn't a way to organise photos and they appear at the end of articles so I will add the photos captions in the article itself.
11 of May.
We have now been gone for 80 days and are visiting our fourth camp near the ocean. We have been here for about 4 days and life here is very good. Our camp is on the beach and the Agta are very kind to us. This camp is pretty big so there is more things such as a volleyball and basketball court giving it a nice taste of holidays. Work is pretty intense though as there are more than 100 people living here in 19 houses. More about those two weeks in the future, today I would like to tell you about the inland camps.
The strip of land the Agta live on is squashed between the ocean and the Sierra Madre moutain range. This creates two main environments; the foothills and rivers, and the shore. So far, the three camps we visited are situated at the end of the rice fields of surrounding villages and just before the moutains. This allows the Agta, to have good access to their hunting and gathering spots, as well as being close to farmers in order to trade goods or occasionally help in the field in the form of cash labor.
Djibut-
Our first stop was a small camp of 6 houses where the Agta live in the middle of the rice fields. In fact, they have an agreement with locals where they take care of the surrounding fields in exchange for 50% of the rice harvest. The first contact with the Agta was quite strange as many of the Amerikano, i.e. strangers, coming here, do so for mining as a rumor is circulating that the moutains contain minerals such as gold. Anyway, the Agta didn't really know what to make of us at first, although they warmed to us after a couple of days. I guess, with hindsight, it takes a day or two to be accepted and not only seen as an attraction. Many kids are seeing puti, white people, for the first time. Not much other than our work happened that week as it was still the rainy season - at some point we had to stay 2 days and a half in the tent waiting for the weather to improve.
Cemento-
Twenty minutes walk from Djibut is Cemento. During our stay in the former place, many Agta coming to visit were asking us when we would come to stay with them. We went there on week 4 as the rain was still very strong and the first attempt we made to reach the place failed. For information, the camp is an 1h30 walk and the main hurdles are mud and a big river. Our second attempt was quite an adventure. After finding people to help carry the food for the week, we set on the trail and arrived to the river. It was very big and we couldn't directly cross. We knew a boat man was living nearby and was usually available if one can scream loudly enough for him to hear the call. After 15 minutes of calling, we were now maybe 20 on the river bank and no sign of the banka, boat. Looking for a possible solution to cross without getting the equipment wet, we found after an hour a place in the north where the river was much wider and deeper. This helped a lot as the main issue was not the height, but the strength of the current. In fact, even a meter of water is enough to be dragged and to fall into the water where it is quite hard to get back on your feet, which means having to swim and getting everything wet. And also some of the fellows in our group do not swim. Just in time, the boat man appeared as we were already in deep water. With his help, we were back on track. At about 4PM, 2 hours before the night we arrived to Cemento, or rather, in front of it. In fact, the camp lies just on the border of the second river, and we had to cross it. Once again, the usual boat as nowhere to be found, and as the night was coming upon us we wondered what to do. This is the point where it got a bit messy as the porters wanted to go home to attend their cattle, our tents were still in the first camp waiting to be moved, and the boat was still missing. After spliting the team and quite a lot of misundertstandings, we ending up with the porters finding the boat, part of the team crossing the muddy jungle at night to get stuff from the other camp, and the athlete and your narrator crossing the river twice more to get some tents which ended up half soaked. Even a small and charming looking river can be secretly tricky! Nevertheless, we had arrived and the fire was going strong.
The rest of the week was really fun. Everyone was happy to have us around. We brought a volleyball, that pleased the kids and adults alike. One evening, I told them about football and we had a good game. The result was a small pitch with 2 rows of 10 people furiously shooting the ball at each other trying to break the lines of the opponents, and score between the banana leaves marking the goal. Even mums with babies on their backs took part in the fun.
We left the camp a feeling a bit sad, like a holiday cut short, and promising to come back to say hello in the summer months.
Photos:
1. Agta houses in Djibut
2. Group picture at the end our stay in the first camp.
3. Football game in Cemento
4. Arcelli and Marianne.
5. Juliet and Jan-Paul in Cemento.
Love to all,
Wasabi.
No comments:
Post a Comment