10.) 27.07.08 fishing and washing

This morning we went fishing with the whole family. We borrowed a big net from the neighbours and walked through the jungle to a nearby pond. Angel throws some cooked rice and beans (leftover from the days before) into the water and starts lowering the net into the water.
Angel and Nilsa hold the net between them and start wading through the water towards the shore. The two girls Deisi and Rosa get in the water and walk at each end of the net to make the fish go into the middle of it. When they reach the shore they slowly start pulling the net up at the ends.
In the middle of the net are about 100 jumping silvery fish, the size of a hand, which look pretty tasty to me. I help picking out the big ones and filling them into a plastic bag. We end up with about 3 kilos of nice fish and throw the rest back.
The whole action took about 20 minutes and I am amazed at how easy it is to get food in this place.
On the way back we pick some platanos (the green bananas which are used like potatoes) and dig out some yukas (manjok root, again almost like potatoes) for lunch.
Nilsa asks me how I would like to prepare the fish - I don´t have a clue how to cook fish in the jungle so I tell her to just do it the way they usually would. She cooks a pretty tasy fish-soup with platano base and red peppers served with yuka. The little fishs are eaten whole, with head and tail. I prefer not to eat the head as it is really hard and not very yummy.
I learned today (and already had some hints the days before) that men in this society are pretty useless beings. All they do is sit on their arse the whole damn day- the women and girls in the family do all the work. They are being treated like kings, always get the best and the most food, never help with anything in the house and never ever say thank you.
The other night we had a thunder strom with very heavy rains, that destroyed one side of the roof. Who got up to fix it, climbing on the roof in the middle of the night in the pooring rain? Nilsa. And guess who stayed in his warm and dry bed. Yep, Angel. I helped Nilsa and we fixed it pretty quickly. Still that helped build my opinion on the men here. But I can see where it is coming from by the way they raise their kids. The sons- 13 year old Victor and 1 year old Perci are spoiled rotten and never have to move a little finger, while the two tiny girls Deisi and Rosa have to work hard all day, carrying the heavy water buckets through the jungle, looking after little perci, cleaning, washing etc. Apart from that they get the smallest portion of food and are served after eveybody else.
I made the big mistake in one of my first days to share some of my meat with the girls, because I had way too much. The rest of the family was not amused.

In the afternoon I went to wash some clothes the way the women do here - in the river, with a bowl and some soap. The family looked very amused when I walked off with my bowl on my head.