Marankiari Bajo
When FIMRC started looking into indigenous communities to work with, this was the first one they came across. Marankiari Bajo is a pretty large community and is very organized with their healthcare and lifestyle. The huts/houses are built on a grid system, they have a composting business, and they even have a radio station that reaches 20,000 people! Their health clinic is one of the best I've seen with accurate book-keeping, modern technology, and a full time health provider. Since they are so up-to-date with their healthcare, FIMRC likes to come here to learn from them.
Marankiari Bajo is located about an hour north of La Merced. We pulled up to a very touristy looking area with an artisan market and locals dressed up.
Welcome Ceremony
We were greeted by a group of women who brought us over to a tent and dressed us in traditional clothes. They painted our faces with red berries; all the men got 3 lines on each cheek and all the women (except me) got 1 line on each cheek. The lady decided to paint a star on each of my cheeks... The guys in the group told me it meant I was the sacrifice.
Our group went over to the main tent and learned more about the Asháninka culture and how their village community came to be. It had something to do with a legend about a worm and a hummingbird... Not sure of the details bc he spoke really fast. We also were taught a dance where we had to clap, twirl, and shake our hips. It was pretty funny to watch us attempt it together.
Wedding Celebration
We also learned what the stars on my cheeks meant... I've have a jungle husband! The stars indicated that I was the bride-to-be and was getting married today. So I guess I kinda was a sacrifice of sorts? Good thing we're not planning on coming back here bc I'm not sure how serious this arranged marriage is...
We moved from the big tent out to the middle of field and started dancing around like fools. There was a group of guys playing instruments and we each had a Asháninka partner who we danced with. It was a celebration of the day and for us coming to visit!
After the stories, marriage, and dancing we were able to just hang out with the locals. They brought out a parrot, mono (monkey), and snake for us to take pictures with. Turns out the monkey really liked water bottles and attached to Alex's water.
Clinic Visit
The touristy welcome ended once they started "collecting donations" aka pushing themselves on us for money. We loaded up back in the van and went to the REAL Marankiari Bajo. Our first stop was the clinic to learn about what works, what to expect, and set a goal for other communities. Marankiari Bajo is actually the community that told us about Orito Bajo so that we could go help them.
Community Projects
Since we can't really contribute medically to their community, we were supposed to do manual volunteer work to help the community with a project. Last time FIMRC came, they helped collect logs for firework and building projects. This time however the project fell through so we got a tour of their compositing and tree growth projects. Both are very advanced stuff.
For the composting project, they've created some special juice mixture which expedites the composting timeframe from 8 months to 45 days!! It's ingenious and made entirely from local organic food by-products. The tree growth project has successfully taken a cleopatra fruit tree and grafted other fruit branches to grow on the trunk. So one tree trunk can grow many different types of fruit at the same time!
Radio Show
Our last thing we did in Marankiari was a radio show campaign on dental hydpgene. We wrote a Telenovela (Spanish soap opera) about a guy Alejandro (Alex) chasing after a girl Lorena (Lauren) but she refused to go out with him bc he had bad teeth. Alejandro visited the dentist Dr Jorge (George) and got his teeth cleaned. After that Lorena and Alejandro fell deeply in love. Moral of the Telenovela: if you want a girlfriend, you should have good clean teeth.
((Food side-note))
For dinner tonight we ate tortillas which are actually omelettes!! It had spinach, cilantro, and tomatoes in it!! I love having breakfast for dinner so it was super exciting and delicious!
Teaching English
Our day was still not over because after dinner we headed to ICPNA - Institudo Cultural Peruano Norte Americano. We went there so the students could practice their English. The students ranged from age 10-30 years old since it was an 9pm night class.
My first amigo was named Juan Carlos and he was 21 years old. He had been studying English for 5 months and was doing pretty well! I guess today was my day with the men bc he asked me "who do I look like?" so I responded "my mom". He then told me "well your mom must be very beautiful as well". Oh and as we were switching partners he asked for my phone number haha
The second amigo of the night was Pablo who was 14 years old. He had been studying for 3 months and was doing really well. Our conversation was about the basics like how many siblings I have, what's my occupation, etc. He then asked my age and when I told him 23 he immediately responded with "oh so how many kids do I have?"
Quick recap of the day: got married to an Asháninka tribesman, picked up a local boyfriend, and had a couple imaginary kids. Sounds like a pretty successful day!
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