26th May 2017

today I expected a quiet day after the busy day yesterday. But oh boy, the work from yesterday had to be finished.
in a different team, el flaco wasn't there, instead a young guy, who I thought yesterday didn't like to work because he always wandered around in his clean football clothes and just chatted a bit. Apparently it was just because of his clothes, because today he worked hard.
I arrived a bit late in the morning. Maria, Nanki's wife (also Maria) was giving a speech. I was allowed to eat desayuno first, left the tablet plugged in and helped with the stage work afterwards. When that was finished, the young guys Nanki, Massed and others from Tzama were given the task to get four bamboo stems of 14 and a half meters long. I went with them to take photos. Actually, I didn't have to, but if I'm already there. My intention was to take some pictures that show the handling of the machete.
That's the work tool here in the selva. And with what precision they swing this dangerous tool here. Unbelievable!
I've already seen Jorge split a fruit in his hands. A little bit off or with too much force and half of your hand is gone. Or today the young guy had to cut a shift stick that was two centimeters thick. He held the thin thing and took off individual layers millimeter by millimeter with great precision. If he had hit his thumb ...
In the end, the four stems had to be brought to the dof. The three guys each managed it alone, with tremendous effort. Then there were two younger guys. They left with the first stem together and despite a significant head start, they only arrived in the middle. Five hundred meters were missing. That's when I helped and ... suffered. The two carried the thick part at the front, and I carried the gradually thinner part a bit further back. And that thing was swaying up and down nicely, and with every sway, you could hear the water splashing inside. These things actually have water in them and that makes it even heavier. Every time the bamboo stem swung down, it put tremendous pressure on my shoulder and you can imagine how I felt when the thing was finally on the drfplatz and Nanki helped me put it down. Sweat was pouring down and ... it was clear that a cooldown was necessary now. I think everyone who had been working appeared in the pool within two minutes. I quickly cooled down and washed properly, then I went to the house of Tzama in the pool area, which I can easily do here, to wash all the laundry there. Yes, I have to do it myself here, by hand. At least the facilities at Maria Flores, Tzama's wife, are much better than the option of washing in the river. Jasmin, the wife of Tzama's murdered son, was busy at the pool's drain.
While doing the laundry, Maria called me for lunch. Yes, and now it was time: on the plate, I saw two bananas and six big, thick maggots. The kind that I had seen somewhere on the internet, skewered and roasted, during my preparation for my time in Ecuador.
I had mentally prepared myself for this moment in advance and had come up with the following tactic (I knew I wanted to eat):
First watch a couple of people eat them and if they don't make a face, just eat them exactly how they do it. What others can do, I can do too.
So that's what I did. It didn't taste bad, by the way, it was well-cooked. Nevertheless, I skipped half of the maggots and only ate three. I also took only half of the two bananas. I don't know how they manage to eat their food so quickly. These bananas are bone-dry. You have to produce saliva for a considerable amount of time, so that consistency-wise you can get a digestible mash. The people here manage that in no time. It takes me significantly longer to chew. But in general, I can say that I eat everything here and actually like everything. I have no problem, only with the quantity. I eat very little here. I hope that has the little side effect that maybe one or two kilos are missing at the end of Ecuador. I have reserves.

Two more details about the maggots: they are typical for the selva, but rather rare. I'm not unhappy about that. And secondly: you hold them by the head, where it's black, and then bite off the white part at the back.
Yeah, yeah, I observed well before I took a bite myself.