Nappi

Welcome to Nappi. If you go there, you might meet this guy:

Thomas, rocking the Amerindian head thingy that his host family made him.

My visit started at their Heritage Festival, which I wrote about in the last post. The food was good, and the company was pleasant, but Thomas lost the drinking competition.

I have no idea what these seed pods are, but the kids were happy to show me how they are used to paint faces.

Thomas then led his Wildlife Club kids in a song and dance, which was very amusing. They seemed to have a lot of fun. I was lucky enough to be allowed to join the club for a bird walk and leaf lesson. 

Thomas, king of the small children

Of course, by now you all know how much I love water, and swimming, and since my own area has no swimming places nearby, Thomas indulged me (or maybe just wanted to rub it in, however you want to look at it) by taking me around to all of the most beautiful places, most of which were quite swim-able.

First we biked for ages until we got trapped in the mud, at which point we had to abandon the bicycles and continue on foot. 

Thomas beginning to realize the track may no longer be ride-able 

After more than an hour, we were rewarded with some of the most breathtaking views.

We picked a beautiful spot for a little picnic of bananas and farine, while hundreds of tiny fish nibbled on our feet. 

Here he's found a good spot

It takes some getting used to

Your toes' view

Look at this place!

Surrounded by little nibbling fish

I may have fallen on these rocks a few times...

Once Thomas had finally convinced me to get out of the water (which took some doing) we headed for home. 

The next day's adventure took another long bike ride to the dam, where we had another swim, planned the horror movie we wanted to film, and collected tons of snail shells (okay, that part was just me).




Our final task was to interview George, an Amerindian craftsman who makes the most beautiful balata figurines. Balata is a rubber-like tree gum. He explained and demonstrated how he heats it, colors it, and molds it, and then was so kind he gave me one as a keepsake.
I'm hoping that with this interview, and several others, I can eventually put together a short video about the different types of traditional Amerindian crafts that are slowly being lost.

Some of his handiwork

Just as a reference, he said that to make a small one-ounce anteater figurine, from start to finish, takes over an hour of work, and he sells it for the equivalent of one US dollar. This is a lot of hard work, for very little money. It's not surprising this is a dying art.