Writings By Phil

Thoughts On This And That

Feeling Like A Monkey In The Zoo

April 13, 1978

The Yuqui children, Daniel and Cristina, hung around outside our house, their little faces glued to the screen, for most of the day. What elation their minds gathered as their dark eyes watched our mundane indoor existence, things like our sweeping the hardpacked dirt floor, washing the breakfast dishes, writing a letter, reading a book, cooking the noon meal, I could only guess. One, or both were always watching us. Matt and I felt like monkeys in a zoo!  Come nightfall, we could pull the curtains shut, but in the daytime, we needed as much air as possible to circulate though our paneless windows.

In the morning, when the children first appeared at our window, they carried homemade stick toys, sticks tied together to resemble airplanes with wheels and a propeller that turned. They were quite creative in their model building. We greeted them and watched them play for a while. When we quit watching them to pursue other activities, they started watching us, instead. Cristina did not say much, but often went into uncontrolled giggle fits, regaling us with her cuteness.  I guessed Daniel was, at most, ten or eleven years old, and Christina, eight or nine.

Alan Foster had worked with Tibaquite’s group for several years before he married Vicky. He learned the language and culture of the people. He told Matt that by the time Yuqui girls had reached Cristina’s age they were already sexually active.  That knowledge was heart breaking! They were so young, so cute, and not so innocent!

April 14, 1978

We asked Eracuyasi (Monica)to weave us some palm leaf mats today. Since we are back in “civilization,” we are using white sheets on our beds. It was our hope the mats would be the final stepping place before crawling into our beds at night. Even though our floor was hardpacked dirt, some always stuck to our feet if we touched the floor when removing our shoes or flip flops. If the mats kept our feet clean, then our sheets would stay clean longer.

Monica wove the palm frond into a mat so quickly it was hard for me to follow her movements and know how she did it. Oh well, I doubted I would ever need to make one for myself. We paid her 2 Pesos for the bigger one and a Peso and a half for the other one.  That came to a total of about 17 1/2 cents. We were happy with our new floor coverings, and she was happy with the extra cash. We maintained a small store with a few staple items they could purchase during the weeks they were with us. They could buy extra sugar, flour, rice, and other foodstuffs to supplement their meat-heavy diet. 

Daniel, Christina and Eracuyasi were all sick and were running fevers, yet you would never know it.  The kids never complained and ran around and played like they were well and healthy.

I tried to pull Tibaquite’s bow back and touch my face with the bow string. I could not do it. Yet, he could do it and not even strain a muscle. How embarrassing!

The Yuqui loved to wrestle and from what I had heard, they loved to have a match with a missionary. Tibaquite was in the mood today and got going with Paul Short while we were eating supper. It was fun to watch, but I dreaded the time should he ever challenges me. I would not know the first thing about such a contest, and I feared the stain of trying to stay upright would be too much for my knee.

In Yuqui culture only high-class people were supposed to win, and if a lower class person was winning the wrestling match the other Yuqui would jump in to help the high-class loser. White missionaries were considered high-class!  I guessed that was also the reason Eracuyasi tried to help Paul today which would make him at least equal to her husband in his position in their caste system..

The Yuqui were a splinter group off the Guarani, a large people group in Paraguay. They immigrated into what is now the country of Bolivia hundreds of years ago. The Guarani would enslave people they conquered. As the centuries passed, the Yuqui developed a culture and language of their own, but that left some similarities of words and culture intact. Slavery was one of those. In fleeing from their enemies the group got smaller, more isolated, and even split into smaller groups. Eligible marriage partners were few, and soon the ruling class was marrying slaves. If children were born to the couple, they were considered slaves if the father was of that class, If the father was high-class, the children were high-class even if the mother was slave-class.

Fin

This story was from the category Tales From Green Hell. If you would like to read more of my experiences in the jungles of Bolivia, please click on that link below.

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Phil Burns

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