Dear friends who love literature.
I am responding to the invitation of @theinkwell of @jayna and @agmoore
[The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #11 - World Building
I leave you with my exercise, thanking you in advance for your kind reading.
(Foto propia)
We left the hamlet of La Paragua with the sun reaching its zenith. On arriving at the rustic port, all the impression of a three-day journey, over increasingly difficult roads, was left behind.
Before me opened the sinuous mirror of an immense river framed by intricate riverbanks that announced a journey into the depths of the Amazon jungle.
While my companions filled the curiara, a slender boat built from the hollowing out of a huge tree, with shipments of medicine and food for the tribe, I stared at the small welcoming committee. The man manoeuvring the outboard motor who stayed in place and another man who jumped ashore to receive the parcels and send back the news and requests of the community.
The transfer of the supplies from the rustic jeep to the curiara attracted the attention of all the inhabitants of the two-street hamlet. Such visits were not common in a community that lived almost exclusively from the extraction and trade of gold. We went on official duties, in charge of educational functions, but at the same time to carry out sanitary work.
When we finally boarded the curiara - the new teachers, the camp manager and some indigenous people who took the opportunity to return to their villages of origin - a journey began for me that would take me back in time.
I began to hear the distant sounds of birds, of the variety of apes and other jungle dwellers, the thumping of the boat against the water, strangely united with the sound of the engine. After a while of silence and contemplation of the sober but imposing spectacle I began to perceive a lingering conversation, a rhythm of words never heard before, a soft and continuous way of speaking where no one word sounded louder than the other.
I noticed the speakers, two unassuming women less than five feet tall, their straight, black, shiny chin-length hair with a fringe that ended just above their arched eyebrows. Both were adorned with a pair of neatly designed, handcrafted earrings made of coppery metal and bracelets of coloured threads. They wore simple, very simple tops with a striking contrasting border and a relatively wide skirt that reached below their calves. On the skirt of one of the women lay a child who was gazing brightly at me.
Making contact with the child's gaze and hearing for the first time the ancient language of the Sanemá Yanohami, we sailed from north to south along the magnificent river. From time to time the skilful navigator would slow down to the minimum speed. Then a roar of water could be heard. We were in the presence of the whirlpools that form when the water hits a large rock. Once the danger had passed - years later, I learned that there are inclement forces at work there - we could resume the average speed of the journey.
I knew we were getting there when we began to slowly enter smaller and smaller rivers. From the green of the jungle came nearby voices that, I don't know why, sounded cheerful to me.
When the boat reached the small beach and its bow sank into the sand a myriad of white butterflies covered the shore in a flight towards the tall trees. That was my first glimpse of the encounter with the Sanema people.
After the cloud of butterflies cleared I was met head on by Mama's wise gaze and Woraima's beautiful smile. They both placed necklaces made of coloured seeds, red, brown and black, strung on a thread similar to the bracelets of the women who accompanied us.
I walked up from the river bank towards the tribe preceded by the running of the children, as I walked I saw, on both sides of the road, women with their young held on their hips by a sash made of natural fibres, some wearing flowers in their hair. In the distance the men were looking at us holding their bows and arrows.
All were dressed with only a string around their waists with the exception of some men who wore loincloths made of a red cloth.
The female girls and women showed over their calves a tight string. I later learned that with it they moulded the sign of their beauty.
When I reached the plan, the vision of the communal dwelling opened up before me. An imposing churuata made of large logs topped by a high roof, made entirely of moriche palms. On the sides of the churuata a series of movable "windbreaks" served as protection for the small bonfires, distributed among an infinite number of vine "chinchorros" that hung at different heights from the roof.
Outside the feast was being prepared. Children painted their little faces with ash and red clay. Some came up to me and stroked the waves of my hair as if they were playing at sailing in it.
Woraima would cook, from time to time handing me, in small dried gourds, a broth, or bringing me some dried food placed in a banana leaf.
That was the beginning of my stay in the world of that people who have remained, for millennia, suspended in time.
Thank you for reading
(Original photo by Bárbara Brändli)
@gracielaacevedo
Está genial, realmente captaste la esencia de "Construcción del mundo". Me has transportado a ese mundo indigena congelado en el tiempo. Felicidades ^_^
It's great, you really captured the essence of "World Building". You have transported me to that native world frozen in time. Congratulations ^_^
Muchas gracias, por tu comentario, @jadams2k18. Me alegra haber tenido la capacidad de enseñarte este mundo.
A remarkable world you have built in your story.
And so we are gently led into this place from another time, a world of gentle welcomes and good cheer. Your descriptions are brilliantly vivid. They carry us back to that place and time hidden somewhere in the Amazon
This was a lovely journey you invited us to share. Thank you for posting your story in the Ink Well community.
I am glad to have effectively introduced you to this world in the bowels of the jungle. Such a world miraculously survives on the planet.
Without false modesty I can tell you that my exercise falls short of the immensity to be described.
Hello @gracielaacevedo,
It is with great pleasure that I read your description of this place and these people out of another time. As I read your story, Borges came to mind and his reference to Guaraní in The Library of Babel. There is a timelessness in that story, as there is in all his stories, and in your story.
I saw in my mind's eye the world you described. The pictures are wonderful. Perhaps sometime you will write an essay (probably not for Ink Well) about the experience of taking these photos. You know we have a book review community. That might be great.
Thanks for answering the invitation to write with this memorable story.
Hello, @agmoore .
Thank you for your open and generous reading.
Timelessness is precisely what characterises the Sanema Yanohama world. According to scholars the culture of this human group has remained until a few decades ago with the defining characteristics of the Paleolithic.
I would love to know which book review community you mention. A few months ago I did two publications for Hive, in Spanish, on this book, which is a jewel in the anthropological and photographic sense. I don't think I put them in the right place. I would like to make them available to an audience more eager for this kind of content.
The children of the moon. Part I: As in the Upper Pleistocene
Children of the moon. Part II: Ya bokono shamabe / Language
I still have a lot of material to share about this human group.
I am satisfied that I have succeeded in making this world "seen".
My pleasure to read your story. The Hive Book Club is a community for readers who love books! I've written two reviews for them. Here's a link:
https://peakd.com/c/hive-180164/trending
Thank you very much, @agmoore I will gladly check it out.
From La Paragua down to Sanema, your words paints a vivid picture. Full of color and life. Making me wish i'm there to experience it as well.
This is a beautiful story, one in which you do justice to the prompt.
Just wanna know though, is Sanema a fictional place?
Either way, i love your story. Keep it up.
Hello @bruno-kema
I think we should all have the possibility to experience a jungle experience. The village that inspired my exercise exists. Sanemá is the name of their language and is located in the Alto Paraguas (a sector of the great Paraguas River, a tributary of the Orinoco River). There are many other Sanemá communities, as well as others where people of different languages live. For each language there is considered to be a different nation spread over the jungle territory. A lot of world to build... thanks for reading.
Wow... A whole lot of world to build indeed.
I'm glad i read it✌
I love this so much, @gracielaacevedo. It has so much power just in the descriptions and word choices alone, and is a wonderful example of world building. With your descriptions of this undeveloped area and its inhabitants, you've created a world and taken us there. Some of your descriptions are spectacular:
Thank you for sharing your story in The Ink Well!
Thank you, @jayna.
I'm flattered to think that I got you to an unfamiliar place and that what you saw and heard interested you.
I believe that the power you say my words have comes from the deep emotional connection to the world I describe. I get emotional when I write about it and I give myself completely.
That is wonderful. What a great way to write! It sounds like you really immerse completely into the story, which surely helps to bring your creative mind to life!
I have a couple of questions for you, @gracielaacevedo. We are looking to grow our team of curators at The Ink Well. Are you interested? Are you on Discord? If so, I can tell you more about it there. We have been meaning to reach out to you.
Also, I wanted to ask you if you would kindly replace your featured image with one that does not have any copyright restrictions. Even though you took a picture of the original image, it really is not free to use. All images from the Internet and books are protected by copyright laws unless stated as free for use, so you would need permission from the photographer or publisher to use it. Sorry about that!
We've featured this story in The Ink Well Highlights Magazine, so we will update the image in the magazine as well. Thank you!
Gracias por tus palabras, @jayna! Si, estoy en discord (1261) no lo uso mucho por cuestiones de tiempo, pero allí podemos encontrarnos y conversar.
Con cierta tristeza, ya que las fotos de Bárbara son inigualables, editaré la imagen del escrito por una propia,. Gracias por todas las gentilezas.
I made a mistake in the number my discord pager, @jayna. Is #1361
Hi @gracielaacevedo, I was not able to locate you that way. But my name is the same on Discord. Would you mind sending me a message or friend request?
Done
¡Excelente, @gracielaacevedo !
Bellísimo.
Gracias, Querida @adncabrera!
Me emociona tu comentario; tú que sabes producir bellezas!.