Today was a special day for the community; they were celebrating San Juan and Humisha. To contribute to the decoration of the Humisha tree, we brought over toys and gifts for the children. In the community, we helped the villagers chop wood with an ax to start the process for creating charcoal. Then, we placed the wood in a circle and piled grass on top. The final step was to pat dirt on the mount. The community members lit the fire to complete the charcoal-making process.
After that laborious work, we cut down a large palm tree and heaved it over to the front of the school. We braided the leaves and tied them together to create a cross in the middle to celebrate their Catholic faith. While securing our toys onto the tree, the villagers added their own gifts like fruits, fans, and oars.
Following our successful decorating, we learned how to make juanes, which is a tradition for San Juan. This delicacy consists of rice, chicken, egg, and olives wrapped in a palm leaf to be boiled; it symbolizes the head of San Juan. We passed time by making kites out of plastic and sticks for the children. Soon, it was time to celebrate Humisha. We began by dancing around the tree, hand in hand with the children, taking turns chopping down the tree with a machete; the adults played music and splashed us with water. Eventually, a community member knocked the tree down and the kids sprinted to the fallen gifts. We happily retrieved our gifts and played with the children.
To finish off our final day in the community, we played volleyball with the villagers and said our goodbyes to the children. Later that night, Roldan, our tour guide, took us out on a boat ride to see the constellations. We managed to see a sloth and a bat; and we heard frogs croaking from far away. Roldan ended the night perfectly as he spoke to us about his culture and the beautiful nature of the Napo River.