Wonder and Awe

“The richest gifts we can bestow are the least marketable.”-Henry David Thoreau

I can now add wanta to my list of things I have eaten while in the Amazon. Wanta is a small nocturnal mammal that lives in the jungle. It has a golden brown fur with white dots and it looks a bit like a giant rat. My host family actually caught it during the late evening. They surrounded it at the river and finally caught it. They way that it was prepared was in shredded Plantain soup that turned thick when cooked and it was good. The meat tasted a bit like pork and it was nice and juicy.
The other night Marlon was heading out at night to go check on his armadillo trap he has out in the jungle somewhere and when he got back he said, ‘Lydia you want to see a glowing bug?’ I was like ‘Sure.’ I thought to myself it is not as if I haven’t seen lightning bugs before but I’ll humor him. He comes over to my room and he said, ‘Turn off your light.’ I did and he open his hand and in it was this glowing fluorescent green blob. He was said, ‘Touch it’, I did and it was mushy. I turned the light on and it was actually a brown mushroom! He told me that where the mushrooms grow it looks like it is the night sky on the ground. He promised to take me one of these days so I can see it. I hope it will be soon. I’m sure it will make a great story.
I am always taken aback by people’s generosity out in the jungle. They will always give you something even when they have nothing they always find something to give you. The other day for example I was out trying to go look to see if a community had cleared the land to make a nursery. I arrived and the parents weren’t home. The kids offer to take me and see the land. We went and on our way back, they start whispering amongst themselves. Finally they look at me and ask me if I wanted some chonta (chonta is a jungle fruit that grows really high up on a palm tree). I said sure. We arrive at the chonta palm and its really high up. I ask the kids how they would get the chonta. They where like we are going to climb the tree next to it (since the chonta palm is wrapped with thorns). The tree next to it is about 8 inches in diameter and they start climbing. About half way thru he starts slapping his arms and legs and he said there fire ant on it. He got down and I told them that it was ok we could go. Robinson was like no, I’m going up. I said you’ll be bitten. He didn’t answer just started to climb. The other kids assure me that he can handle it he’s tough. He goes up grabs the longest stick ever and starts climbing further up. He lasts longer than the other little boy (about 3 x more) does but eventually the ants are all over him. He climbs down and we help take the ants off. He later tells me one bit him right by his eye, the poor little guy, those hurt so bad! Eventually we gave up there but they where not going to let me go without giving me chonta. They said they knew of another palm tree and we go their and success. The boys are 10 years old.
Even though it has been 15 months of being in Ecuador, I can’t help but still have moments that give me awe and amaze me.