tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8882454.post110098801758679240..comments2023-09-08T03:48:17.672-07:00Comments on Shorn Again Believers: keylawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04134596750620373075noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8882454.post-1137874207029918272006-01-21T12:10:00.000-08:002006-01-21T12:10:00.000-08:00This shot of people in the jungle is actually us c...This shot of people in the jungle is actually us coming<BR/>from Ivon to Tumi Chucua, and is from a color slide.<BR/><BR/>I managed to reduce its digital size by crude cropping<BR/>-- I am really sorry to have clipped really nice jungle<BR/>parts off. But I think I've got most of the people<BR/>still in there.<BR/><BR/>I think everyone is quite cheered to be leaving Ivon<BR/>for our own Base.<BR/><BR/>Look how many actual people are in this shot. Granted<BR/>I 've crudely cropped away most of the jungle, it's<BR/>still a great picture of the group.<BR/><BR/>We had a genuine extended "family". Looking through<BR/>our albums, I notice that where there is a child on my<BR/>mother's lap, 50% of the time, it was not actually one<BR/>of hers. Biologically. I myself was fairly aloof and<BR/>savage as a child, yet there I am in the arms of a half<BR/>dozen mothers. <BR/><BR/>For the record, I am in the "camp" that had a wildly<BR/>wonderful experience in Tumi Chucua. I know other<BR/>children were lonely or felt they missed out. <BR/><BR/>I am not sure it is comforting to hear from me, to know<BR/>that others were really "there" with you.<BR/><BR/>I loved every minute. It is all holy. Everyone cared<BR/>for me, all the time. We are the descendants of giant<BR/>saints, people who accomplished huge things against<BR/>great odds, in the face of danger and obstacles. These<BR/>were not "risks", they were realities, they were<BR/>happening. <BR/><BR/>Missionaries were being killed every year around us,<BR/>the Base in Ecuador was wiped out in a flood, the light<BR/>posts in La Paz were decorated with the bodies of<BR/>previous administrations, Bolivia was infamous for<BR/>"revolutions" and inflation running at 2000%, Che<BR/>Guevara was one of our neighbors, and several times a<BR/>year the noon-day sky would brown-out with an insect<BR/>horde. Was there any time you could hold still outside<BR/>of your mosquito net? And our parents who fought the<BR/>Nazi's and Imperial Japanese (ALL the JAARS pilots were<BR/>veterans), found a Japanese and an Austrian soldier<BR/>next to us in the jungle, trying to hide! Our parents<BR/>faced the greatest evil -- that banal thing without<BR/>feathers -- and found good company in the face and fact<BR/>of unrelenting suffering. <BR/><BR/>Caesar, one of our shy neighbor kids, once told me that<BR/>these gringoes laughed like Gauchos, but prayed like<BR/>Nuns. (!) <BR/><BR/>We do not have Time - in the jungle, a day was<BR/>something that sank its teeth into you. We struggle in<BR/>other ways now. I wish I could hear your stories,<BR/>again and again.<BR/><BR/>Thanks.keylawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04134596750620373075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8882454.post-1137873632578410492006-01-21T12:00:00.000-08:002006-01-21T12:00:00.000-08:00Interesting that many of the children in the pictu...Interesting that many of the children in the picture are not offspring of the parents holding them or immediately next to them. Everyone looked after us kids. Our parents were not possessive and the kids were not clingy and insecure. A lot of love. Of course, there is...a dark side.keylawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04134596750620373075noreply@blogger.com