* REPORT : 5

A Report of a visit to an organisation of forest-dwellers in the Amazon.

A Letter from the Amazon

Céline d' Cruz, SPARC

I have just come back from a very special visit to the Amazon with Joel and thereafter a very boring workshop in New York. This was the follow-up of the America visit by the Japanese professors Prof. Enshu and Saito and the rest. I guess, maybe we needed to do some more homework before we visited. I felt bad because I took Jockin along thinking he may get an insight into the communities out there by interacting with the leaders - but no such luck. Well, every visit does not have to be successful, so it does not matter. It was also difficult for Joel and me to get back to the urban world - especially New York City. The contradictions after the Amazon just stared us in the face.

I was lucky to get to go to Colombia with Joel through the GAIA Foundation-Bogot‡. They wanted us to start saving groups in Leticia, which is a small town in the Amazon. It is on the border of Brazil and Peru. In fact it was so funny that we kept going to Brazil for dinner - just like that.

Martin Hildebrand from the GAIA Foundation introduced us to the first groups we met. He is an anthropologist and has worked with the native Indians since the 70's. He decided recently to explore working with the settlements in Letecia, which is very different from his work in the forest, and with the Indians. The moment I met him I knew he belonged to the Slum Dwellers International family and kept thinking that Fr. Jorge should connect with him when next he goes to South America. In spite of enormous odds he can still retain his sense of humour and not get too sacred about his work. That says a lot for him. These days it is so refreshing to meet people who do not get burdened by their work with the poor. I feel these are the kind of people who have a natural ability to give of themselves. It is truly liberating.

I must say after a very long time I got truly affected by meeting someone who shared a similar worldview -but had still a lot to contribute. It made me reflect a lot on some of our values and reaffirmed a lot of the things I took for granted over time. Also one gets so myopic in one's own world that connecting to a completely alien issue of forests and indigenous people made me see the convergence and the oneness in all that we do and also the contextual differences that need to be addressed.

So ... We had our first meeting in Letecia with community leaders from Brazil and Colombia and Peru. Of course they spoke in Spanish but also in Portugese, which made me wish I had not resisted learning Portuguese from my Goan mother. It would have been useful out there.

Joel and myself both spoke about our country stories and the savings and credit mechanism for housing. We spoke of the exchanges and some details of the Federation model.

They were very keen to understand reasons why the Federation in our context is not registered as they were all geared to set up the structure and wanted to know more about legal frameworks and so on. They said in Colombia a lot is run by the legal framework.

It is amusing how structures give a sense of false security - and demystifying this was something we had to do. Explaining this concept was too early for some of them to understand. However some were sharp enough and in tune and ready to pick these concepts.
At the end of the day they found the reasons for not registering the Federation insightful and we will have to see how they translate it into their context. Of course the relationship with the NGO - both People's Dialogue and SPARC was explained. So too was our role as a support organization - and how this gives the Federation the space to put all its energies into the mobilisation while the NGO plays the intermediary, more formal role. They were quick to grasp how this also becomes a built in check mechanism.

We discovered a leader called Arturo Londones who had such a sharp mind. He is completely street wise and has earned a sophisticated repertoire of survival skills. I was thoroughly impressed with the way his mind worked. He had an ability of moving at lightning speed and could pre-empt a lot of the details and flowed with total ease. In many ways he reminded me of Jockin .He also had an ability to carry others along with him. He gave me the impression that he could manage this process of Federation building without much of a problem. Martin described him very well: as the man who would stay awake at night and do the worrying and the planning for everyone else.

There were also a few women leaders who looked like they could get Arturo to do what they wanted him to do. So that seemed like a good beginning point.

We decided to meet with them the following Saturday (one week after our first meeting) and gave them some homework to do .The homework was to begin savings groups in their own settlements. In fact they already existed as an organization and called themselves OSCA. This OSCA brought together about 80 families from all over Letecia to plan for their resettlement on land farther away from the town. We walked them through the Mahila Milan and South African process of land surveys, saving for housing and technical and design home work.

They had done quite a lot themselves in terms of putting together data for the 80 families and mapping their existing sites. They were not clear of where the money would come from and so we had a detailed explanation on the SA-India savings strategy both for housing and other consumption and business needs.

Already Arturo's mind was moving way ahead in terms of working out the economics of some possible ventures - e.g. recycling projects. So my sense is that the ingredients are all there and the motivation as well. In some countries we struggle to put these basics in place. Almost everywhere else we have had to struggle to get something as organic as this. Joel and myself were quite excited with the prospect that they could go ahead without much dependency on all of us in the SDI network .The cost of exchanges to Colombia will also be very expensive and one had to be realistic about all these details.

It was clear though that the groups here were ready to take off. Our coming helped in the sense that it was good for them to connect with those who had walked the path before and as a result get a feel of what will work and not work when you embark on a new direction.

After we had agreed o meet with these groups the following Saturday we were delighted to travel with Martin into the Amazon, to the places where the Indians still lived in their traditional lives (more or less) in the forest.

We flew the next day to a small village in Brazil and took a boat to the Colombia side of the Amazon. Our first destination was la Pederera. This small village at the headwaters of the Miti River that drains into the Amazon showed clear signs of urban development.

Gaia Amazonas has a house further upstream, about 2 kms from this village and that's where we spent the first night before continuing into the forest.

Patience and listening- that was something I learnt in the days that followed. The Indians communicate through a lot of talking but there is a discipline that is so rooted and you cannot help noticing it. They talk for hours together till they finish what they want to say but when one talks everyone listens and only when he finishes what he has to say the next one replies. It was a test in patience. Many of our meetings went on for hours but I soon began to realize the importance of this form of talking in that context and how it is a skill most of us have lost as the oral form of communication is being taken over by the media and other technological innovations. I was convinced it is something we need to rediscover and nurture because nothing ever can replace this form of capturing each other's thoughts and building on the storehouse of knowledge and creating new knowledge that gets transferred from generation to generation.

Repetition is another way where a lot of the stories get transferred and as each one tells the story he adds his reality to it and so the story gets more and more colourful and explains the "truthÓ as each one unfolds it.

My patience would get tested sometimes, as I was unable to sit from 5.00 in the evening to 12 at night talking and waiting for Spanish translations. One way the Indians stop themselves from dozing off is by chewing coca leaves - so I adopted the custom, enjoyed the mild stimulation and was able to stay awake.... and since I am a woman I had the option of going off and sleeping in my hammock.

Another important concept that struck me was that every relationship has an element of exchange of sorts. The moment you do not have an exchange or a transaction the relation ceases to exist. So that is how you weave into each other's lives and depend and give of yourself to another.

So basic and yet so profound. This permeates through all the aspects of their lives. As a city dweller one would tend to look at it as an economic transaction only but in this context it is more than that and in fact money is still secondary to a lot of the transaction conducted by the Indians.

Slowly with exposure to the outside world they are beginning to create a new reality trying to weave in the two cultures and as outsiders the first reaction is to protect them from this and put a value on it and say its bad. However, one is aware that the forces of "progressÓ and economic "developmentÓ will dictate a lot of what happens and there will a good mix of both the desirable and the undesirable.

One way in which the Indians deal with this is to keep talking about every single thing that permeates their lives, to keep talking till the wee hours of dawn until every idea find its home. This rootnedness in their way of thinking can be basis of a strength with which they can protect themselves.

The THOUGHT is a very important seed in this context. It can be interpreted in several ways but it is what brings about change and evolution. In Amazonian mythology thought is where the world began.

And the first 4 bothers on this earth decided to go to their grandfather, the Jaguar (in the context of the jungle the Jaguar is an important animal in this context and is closely associated with great power). The 4 brothers asked the Jaguar to give them a house in order to house their thoughts. Such a beautiful introduction to shelter!

This is how the story begins as we discovered in several of our long meetings.

In the beginning of the world the 4 brothers wanted a house to house their thoughts and when they went to their grandfather, he kept sending them back saying that there was no need for a house but they insisted. The grandfather told them that as soon as they get a house that would be the beginning of all their troubles.

"You then need to run the house. There will be fights and disagreements and a lot of work to do. Why do you want to have all this troubleÓ?

But the brothers insisted. So the grandfather told them how to build their house. He told them to take 3 long bamboos and tie them together on the top to make it look like a tent and then cover it with leaves. They did as he said but had to come back to the grand father for the leaves.

He gave them the leaves in a box and told them not to open it till they reached the site of their house. The youngest brother was impatient and opened the box, the leaves just kept flying out of the box and would not stop, and that's how we have the forest because all those leaves file out and filled the trees in the jungle.

So they rushed into the jungle and with much difficulty they filled the box with leaves and they went back to their bamboo poles and they made the roof. But they did not have enough leaves so they had to go back into the forest to collect more leaves so that they could complete the roof.

This is how they had to WORK to complete the house. When the roof was eventually completed the brothers were very tired building and so wished they could have night to rest a little bit. So back they went to the Jaguar and told him to give them some time in the day when it would not be so hot and so bright so they could get some sleep.

The grandfather once again gave them a little box and told them not to open it but the impatient youngest brother opened it and É well they had darkness and NIGHT all over the place. And the youngest brother tried desperately to gather the night again. He stuffed it into caves and in all the holes in trees and in the ground and that is why caves and holes in tress and in the ground are always dark even during the day. Whatever the brothers tried to do, they could not stop the darkness. This was a disaster because now the brothers could not go hunting and fishing. They just stayed in their house and thought and thought and thought, but they got hungrier and hungrier.

So back they went to the grandfather and asked him to help them banish the night. The Jaguar told them to find a log that stretched from one end of their home to the other and to place it on the floor and set it alight. When it had burnt through the night would disappear and there would be day again.

Once more the youngest brother challenged the word of the grandfather, bringing trouble but also opportunity. "Why get such a big log? Let us get a small one and let it burn through quickly. Then the day will return and when we want the night to come back we will find another small log and set it alight.

And so there was day and there was night. The brothers fished and hunted during the day whilst the nights were for THOUGHT and for rest.

Then the Jaguar realised that the brothers needed to reproduce themselves so he sent them women but the brothers were frightened of the women and tried to chase them away. So the women decided they would show the brothers that they could grow gardens of manioc and pineapples coca leaves and make manioc bread and feed the brothers sweet fruits. That is why the brothers asked the women to stay and agreed to hunt and fish for them if they tended their gardens and grew manioc and pineapples and coca.

So that is why the night is when a lot of the thinking and discussions take place before going to bed. And that is why it is the house that keeps THOUGHT alive.

That is the Amazonian story of when the world began. Be advised: if you ask a shaman just about any question, the answer will start from "When the world began there were four brother... and so you chew coca leaves until you come to the point. Maybe five hours later. That is how things work in this part of the world and if you are the one who tells the story, you can add to the facts along the way according to how you see it.

I will make myself a cup of tea and come back. My story is still to be finished so please bear with me...

We went off the next morning to Faustus's (an Indian Captain) house, which took us 2 hours by powerboat. Faustus lives in a Maloca (the Indian house. What is an Indian House? Well in the beginning of the world... otherwise take a look at the photo I took of Faustus' maloca).

As you can see a Maloca is like a huge round tent made of reeds and bamboo and a palm-leaf roof. It has a geometry that is sacred and therefore has an energy that is peaceful. The Maloca is where THOUGHT originates so at the centre you have 4 poles that go right up to the roof and form the rib of the main house. Inside these 4 poles you have 4-8 wooden stools where the men can sit when they want to talk to each other. This is centre of the house is where THOUGHT and IDEAS get discussed.
Faustus' Maloca had the sacredness of a temple. Faustus lives here with his wife and 6 children and several grandchildren. It has the most beautiful location near the banks of the river on an elevated piece of land.
Here at Faustus's maloca I had my first introduction to the longish meetings. Whilst the men could not move from their stools while discussions were going on the women could move around. So I would keep moving around as I was restless and could not sit on my stool for so long.

We had your bath in the river and slept in hammocks .It seems the Indians never sleep on the floor (something to do with the sacredness of mother earth). We ate fish for most meals either smoked or stewed with Tapioca (Manioc).

You see a complete synchronization between the forest, man, and the animal world here. However, with all its beauty, you see the scare of all this being threatened by so called DEVELOPMENT.

In 1979 Martin and his team, after years of negotiations, were able to get a parcel of land proclaimed as the inalienable asset of the indigenous Indians. They number no more than 60,000 and now control a vast tract of land, which is the size of England - just forests and rivers and small villages of malocas. Of course the challenge is to be able to preserve this. You need resources to look after such a huge land mass and where will this come from?

As the Indigenous Indians get exposed to the outside world there is bound to be threat from outside interests. How is it possible to organize 60,000 people who live far away from each other without an easy way to connect in the way we would do it in our cities? What are the implications of economic development? Who is going to determine all this? The Indian way of making all these decisions are so different from the way the outsider thinks and accommodating all of this is not going to be easy.

A lot of the issues are similar issues to ours involved in struggles against urban poverty. How to preserve what belongs to people and yet expose them to new concepts. This is something that needs to be constantly examined. In the urban context the dilemma is not so great and one is basically dealing with damage already done. Here is a longing to preserve all this goodness and one wonders what is the price one will have to pay for so called DEVELOPMENT.

Martin explained that for the Colombian government the Indians and the rain forest were by no means a priority since there are more important issues in this country that is bedevilled by civil strife, drugs, and crass US interventions.

Joel was more disturbed than me and his mind was working overtime on finding some economic options that might work for these communities and which would not lead to their impoverishment and to the destruction the forest. The point is to find a balance between the old and the new and as Martin put it "is to create a third way".

You feel so' little' in the face of these lager forces but our experiences in our context have shown us that there is hope and one can collectively shift the present consciousness to make it work better for those whom history and the economic order have marginalised .If we can make a difference for and with pavement dwellers in Bombay and the shack dwellers in South Africa and the urban poor in Cambodia nothing seems impossible. However, consistency and rigour and the stamina to walk along until you create a path are what will make the difference. The challenge is to be able to have a significant critical mass to make this shift.

The tools in a city context may be different but the issues are the same and this convergence for me made so much sense. You may not have daily savings (which is a symbol of power in our context) but you have to find symbols that mean power in this context. One Shaman had a very wise comment on this. He said that saving for them means conserving their forests, as that was their most valuable resource. It protected them from the outside world. It gave them food and it gave them shelter. His words seemed to make so much sense. So he spoke of saving the forest and conserving their knowledge and information to help them do it, just like we speak about savings and loans and enumeration and house models. Oh God I kept learning and all my senses were working overtime just absorbing all the similarities and differences but I can now see more similarities than differences.

After four days on the rivers and in the forest we came back to Letecia and once again met with the Arturo and the group of homeless poor. In our absence the leaders had started savings groups in Letecia and in Brazil.

Arturo was bubbling with ideas and could not be stopped. Well, you cannot stop someone from thinking and the symbol of the thought as the beginning of a house fit in so well with where Arturo was.

The Leticia groups worked out saving circles in the different settlements and chose money collectors and determined procedures for bookkeeping. They had zillions of questions on savings and one realized that instead of working out systems for them they needed to understand the principles behind their own systems. The thumb rules we used are as follows:

The savings group should include the poorest in any settlement

It should be have an in built check mechanism
It should always be inclusive and not exclusive in any form
The basic unit should be the community and not separate saving groups all over the place. This is what makes savings into a tool for mobilizing communities and not just a micro credit stunt.

At the end of this visit I felt a sense of achievement. When we started off we did not have any expectations but came out of it with so hope. We did well as SDI ambassadors although we really missed having Patrick and Jockin and Mahila Milan around. We realized that as professionals we are limited in so many ways when we go off alone but this was an exploratory visit and we were not sure what to expect and now that we have opened the doors the Federations can take over.

We have planned for an exchange in January where the Colombians will visit India and then we need to plan of how to find the resources for future exchanges and ongoing organizing work É OSCA is ready to build houses for the first 80 members in Letecia.

Meanwhile GAIA Amazon i.e. Martin and team have to decide what kind of support team they need to put in place as their agenda is with the Indians and the forest and while they are keen to take on this they need to do this separately.