"Rip" and Marylou

Untitled Part 8

                                                                                        Settling in

During the weeks that followed Marylou was introduced to a world that in her wildest dreams she could never have imagined. The shortness of day time, the darkness of night, which came very early due to the thickness of the Jungle trees. The complete absence of any kind of sanitation, hence "Rip's" insistence on multiple injection for both herself and Cloe. The Embako as it turned out would eat anything that crawled or walked on four legs, their favourite food being Monkeys which in reality they had to eat or starve. The one thing off the Menu were Spiders which openly walked all over you during the long dark night, but she was told were not poisonous and were regarded as the Village Hoover's eating all of the bugs and crawlies that inhabited the land. Therefore the rule, Do not stand on a Spider. Marylou, with the permission of Chief Obasi was allowed to set up a school teaching the children first of all how to count and secondly to converse in the English language. Cloe's influence in the Village seemed to outstrip that of Marylou and "Rip". When the children turned up for lessons the boys had taken to wearing some kind of cloth Toga around their private parts and the young girls helped by Cloe were wearing sack cloth makeshift dresses. Which did not go down very well with the Chief and the other men, but the women and children loved it and they were in the majority. "Girl Power" As the weeks passed by "Rip" spent a considerable amount of time travelling up and down the Amazon River where the Tribes both north and south were more amiable to learning the ways of the outside world and were now wearing cloths and growing crops, but the Embako and their closest neighbours the Oroso were bang in the middle of the Amazon rain forest and the hardest to reach. "Rip" decided with the Chief's permission to create a barrier in the river. A place free of Crocodiles where the children could swim safely and the women of the Village could wash their cloths without fear. They cut down hundreds of small trees and branches all around four inches thick and chopped them to a length of ten feet before tying them together with vines which hung more freely in the denser forest. Taking them out in Tribes small boats they were hammered firmly into the ground from the shore to a distance of twelve feet into the river and circling back to shore. Crocodiles were not curious creatures and would only see the large fence as something to avoid. "At least that was the theory" At first the Embako were sceptical knowing the lives they had lost to the large Reptile, but when Cloe ran from the shore and jumped into the water all of their fears disappeared and it was party time for the children. As in any civilization change amongst the Embako was less expectable to the older generation. The planting of Crops and the ease with which they would grow, fascinated the middle aged and younger men and women of the Village, whereas the elderly would quite happily munch away on berries and roots that they had lived on for generations. "Rip" through the language barrier was trying to convince them that seeds brought in cheaply from up river were in this climate a guaranteed way of feeding the Village all year round, and it seemed to be working. Marylou and "Rip" were now a strong established couple and Cloe was having the time of her life. Therefore the tantrum she threw, when told that they had to return to the US, came as no surprise. Marylou's Father was ill, nothing serious but enough to make her want to go home. "Rip's" tour still had six weeks to go and therefore he would stay with the Embako. When she arrive home Marylou discussed what she had seen with the Editor of the LA Tribune and suggested a kind of written Documentary on the lives and lifestyle of the Embako Tribe. His first impression was sceptical but as she elaborated he began to see the potential. "We could send a camera team with you on your next visit" he said, now pacing the room. "No camera's" said Marylou, "They would not allow it. If they allow me to take a picture, I will, if not I won't" Marylou spent the next five weeks with her parents meanwhile studying old documentation of Tribes of the Amazon. Cloe went back to school but found it difficult to adjust back into the American way. At school kids were bitchy and spoke mainly about how much money their parents had and how little others could afford. They sat in small groups as her mother had previously described as the IT, Popular girls. Whereas in the Embako Village everyone was treated the same way and the order of the day was help thy neighbour. She could not wait to return. It was a bright sunny Sunday morning when Constance Beiderbecke walked into her daughters room to the sound of her being sick in the En suite bathroom. "Does that mean what I think it means? she shouted through the closed door. The door slowly opened and out came a sheepish Marylou, "I've been to the Doctor's and I am two months gone" she said, "How could I be so stupid" "What is the problem darling? asked Constance, "I suspect you have spoken about marriage and children" "We live in the Jungle, Mum" she answered, "And he won't come home, and I would not ask him to"