Kids between two cultures
Penti has eight children. I asked him with how many wives (since he had explained me before that a Wao can have up to three wives, which, according to him helps everybody to live well and avoid divorces), and he said, just one, his present one. His oldest son is 23 and is a nature guide working for a travel agency in Coca. The youngest is 5 years old.
I ask whether his younger kids are staying in Bameno, and he says that now all of his family is based in Coca.
I ask him, but won´t the younger kids grow up like city kids? Penti says yes they would, very affirmatively, and smiles. He says, we go back to Bameno from time to time, to spend time ther, nice and quiet, fishing, eating sleeping. Just as Conan also, he referred to the traditional Wao lifestyle as a relaxing, holiday-type way of life that they enjoy as taking a holiday from hectic city life.
Then he points out a point on which the pecari (small jungle pigs) cross the river, sometimes 100 or 200 at once, he says.
In this context, all through the visit I had been trying to get a feeling for our Wao friends´ relationship with time and concrete numbers, and here are my findings: When Penti says, a boatride will take 10 minutes, it will in fact take very close to 10 minutes, rather less. When Numa, our non-Wao guide said on the way to Bameno, maybe 2 to 3 hours more, it was in fact 6 hours. When Penti said, we would walk maybe half an hour, we walked for 25 min. Also, I remember that some other time estimates from others were equally precise.
I ask whether his younger kids are staying in Bameno, and he says that now all of his family is based in Coca.
I ask him, but won´t the younger kids grow up like city kids? Penti says yes they would, very affirmatively, and smiles. He says, we go back to Bameno from time to time, to spend time ther, nice and quiet, fishing, eating sleeping. Just as Conan also, he referred to the traditional Wao lifestyle as a relaxing, holiday-type way of life that they enjoy as taking a holiday from hectic city life.
Then he points out a point on which the pecari (small jungle pigs) cross the river, sometimes 100 or 200 at once, he says.
In this context, all through the visit I had been trying to get a feeling for our Wao friends´ relationship with time and concrete numbers, and here are my findings: When Penti says, a boatride will take 10 minutes, it will in fact take very close to 10 minutes, rather less. When Numa, our non-Wao guide said on the way to Bameno, maybe 2 to 3 hours more, it was in fact 6 hours. When Penti said, we would walk maybe half an hour, we walked for 25 min. Also, I remember that some other time estimates from others were equally precise.