12.) 28.07.08 in the Chacra

Today we went to the families ´garden´ - a patch of cultivated land (about an hacre) in the middle of the jungle. It takes about half an hour walk through the forest to get to the chacra. The sight is quite impressive: it is a pretty much cleared piece of land, where they grow satchainchi (a local nut to produce oil), platanos, Yucas, tomatoes, papayas and all kinds of other fruit and veg. I have to take back everything I said about the men being lazy. Angel cleared this whole patch of land himself, with a machete and an axe and planted all these plants. He goes to work in the chacra every day in the early morning hours, when it is not too hot yet.
We took the machetes and the axe and start clearing a part of the chacra thats overgrown- that is hard work and withing minutes i am covered in sweat and dirt. We work for about an hour to clear a piece of about 15 square meters. You can´t imagine the amount of vegetation here. I have great respect for Angel for maintaining this garden, it´s unbelievable how he did all this by himself.
The chacra provides a little income for the family, as they sell all the fruit and satchainchis on the market in Iquitos, which they use for rice, sugar, salt and oil. The only things you can´t get in the jungle. They also get their wood for cooking from the chacra and we hack a tree into bits using the machetes. We carry the wood back on our heads and - which is really difficult, when you have to balance over log-bridges and muddy paths.
I somehow manage not to fall and am happy to make it all the way back.
Everything here is so much hard work. To carry the water from the spring, to wash the clothes, to get wood and food. The only thing that seems to come easily is fish and fruit. You can more or less just grab them. Everything else requires a great amount of sweat and effort.

I have totally changed my view about the males of the community this week. They still sit around a lot and don´t help at all in the house, but they work hard to provide the family with meat and all the essentials. I can see how men and women both have their place in this society and why it is that way. It is like the cavemen- the women look after the kids and gather fruit and vegetables, while the men go hunting..