A little Amazonian Anecdote

The last weekend in Brazil, I was able to get online and decided to send a story back to Canada for folks to read. Here is that same story:

The last night on the boat, we were back staying in this indigenous community (Kambeba). The leader wanted the people to perform their traditional animal dances for us, because his people were so happy to receive the soccer uniforms the Canadian team brought. After the dancing, the team went back on the boat for a late dinner. Dinaldo (my Brazilian friend) was asking if any man wanted to go fishing with some of the tribesmen. Two men on the Canadian team really love fishing, but they didn't want to go. We had already tried fishing in the evening and didn't catch anything. (I was the only one who caught a piranha at a tourist place a couple weeks ago!) No one wanted to go that night, so I went. It was myself, Dinaldo, one other YWAM guy named Robson and two young tribe guys. We were going out in a small boat, so I took a life jacket with me. It ended up being useful three hours later for my sore bum!!

The boat set off across the dark, wide river. No motor, just paddling. Full, starry sky. Trying to keep calm (thinking about possible snakes and the dark, deep water). Then we went toward the trees. Yikes. We ended up going INTO the bushes--into the jungle. The men had a spear for fishing instead of rods like we had used earlier. We went to the shallow water in the jungle where one man had a flash light and a spear and he would find sleeping fish and spear them! Again, trying to keep my mind from worrying about crocodiles, for this was the place where they would be!! Having to constantly brush bush off my face and head and hoping that no snakes would fall down from above. It was probably the most thrilling thing I have ever done. After awhile, it just became normal. And then it became boring. It was so long and I could do nothing but sit there and move branches. I missed dinner and when we returned, the lights and generator were off and everyone was asleep! (It was after 11.) The other YWAM guy continued on with the two men for another 20 minutes and apparently, they saw a crocodile! The guy speared about 10 fish.

The photos are of the leader of the Kambeba tribe

and Robson cleaning some of the fish the next day.
The big fish is from the spearing adventure
and the little ones are ones caught off the back of our boat.