In Pozo el Toro there are two good reasons for gathering wood: making a fire for cooking and keeping warm, and carving. It is important to know where to find the right fallen trees for each. So we discovered when we took a group of visitors from Buenos Aires to experience life amongst the”tayhi lhele” (wichi forest people).
They travelled 16 hours in their new off-road vehicles to our home, and then a further 4 (on off-road tracks) to our destination. After cutting firewood in one place we were shown another sort of tree (“hok” or palo santo) which is ideal for the craftsmen who were due to be running a workshop next day. Jorge from Santa Maria also explained which plants provides the raw material for the production of woven string bags, and dyes. (He then asked Chris thoughtfully, and with some pride, “what esle can we teach them”!)
Pozo el Toro rarely receives visitors, and as yet no church has been planted here. However, at an evening meeting round the fire, the elders asked officially to be included in the Anglican family, and next day sent one of their leaders to the confirmation service at nearby Alto de la Sierra.
Our return journey was a bit longer, as our guide took us down some rather narrow tracks, which turned out not to lead anywhere (the city vehicles were severely put to the test!) Stefi was also with us, and found the meeting of cultural extremes such as Buenos Aires and Pozo el Toro fascinating! She has since bravely undergone the rigours of two youth camps…
But the abiding memory of this past month has been the cold. Yes, it’s hard to believe that most of the year we suffer from too much heat. But living mainly outside you notice these things, and it really has been a struggle to keep warm. We longed to be home and beside a fire, something which the wichi do well!
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