Day 14: The Heart of the Amazon

If you know me, you know I love nature, that I could spend hours, days, weeks looking and exploring and noticing every little bit of magic and beauty and connection. If you know me, you know I love science, specifically field science, asking questions, looking for answers, getting muddy, making connections. If you know me, you know I love to explore, to go somewhere new, to leap out of my comfort zone and suck the marrow out of life. But I have to say that none of those things were the heart of this experience for me.
I sat alone in the boat heading back to Iquitos from the field station thinking about the heart of the Amazon. It’s the people.
The people who live there. The guides who share their knowledge and stories, their hand when you didn’t even realize you needed it, their guidance for how to stay unstung/unstabbed/undead, their favorite place on the planet as a surprise gift, their machetes and laughter and deep care, and who go into the local communities and cities to share their knowledge with the children and teach them to see and love and protect their jungle. The Maijuna who share their indigenous knowledge, their strategies for protecting and sustainably using the forest, their names and stories and smiles. Those who created places to walk above the trees, places to study the bugs and plants and frogs and… , and laws to protect and conserve the land and all the magic it holds.
The people who have passed through. Each time I sang a song to calm my fears or took a deep breath as I imagined things waiting in the darkness to sting/stab/kill me I thought of those who have passed thru here in order to get somewhere that would offer them a better life. I know several of them personally. I think of their light and laughter and brilliance and bravery and resilience and ability to find beauty even in struggle. I am in awe for so very many reasons. And I trust that the forest gave them gifts of beauty and magic.
The people who don’t start here, but come back and create home and family. The researchers who’s passion oozes out of their pores and makes you want to catch every frog, count every epiphyte, catch bugs or fish or birds, who make you ask questions and push yourself to find answers. The women who fell in love with a place and realized that teachers have the power to inspire generations of conservationists and change agents, and created an opportunity for us to come and learn and become part of a family in order to connect our students to this place.
People. The heart of the Amazon. Thank you. I am sad to leave but so filled with gratitude. I told the trees again today. And the river. But I’m telling you: the people are the 💚Read more