Even with Fernando bailing out the water in the back beside his brother who had taken off his sunglasses and whose hair-coif he still tried to mend through wind and driving rain as he drove the outboard with the tiller between his legs, still a good inch of water passed over their rubber boots unnoticed by the three about to have lunch. Nate gave a carefully made sandwich to each of the girls and they both eyed the concoctions suspiciously. He took a bite of his own and smacked his lips.
"It's perfection on bread,The mango jelly is my own invention. Gives the recipe an international flair.C'mon, try it! I was raised on these !"
Dory took a bite,chewed it carefully and managed a smile: "Lekker". she said."Lekker", chimed in Nina.
"Now I know it's not pickled herring ,"boasted Nate, "the way you cheeseheads are accustomed too, but here we are, all gezellig and all-"
The girls let out a howl. "How do you know this word," asked Dory. This is like the most Dutch word there is.There is not even a proper way to translate it. It goes to the heart of our culture."
"I always thought it meant cozy , said Nate.
"Yes, said Nina," it is ...cozy, but a lot more than that. It is when you are with a group of family and friends and everything...everything is perfect....cozy? yes but so much more."
"I know. Iknow. I know. It's an ambience. A Warmth. A state of being three steps closer to Nirvana than cozy.Gezllig was one of the first words I learn when I arrived in Amsterdam. Yes, it was a Dutch Girl, my first true love, I planned to stay for the rest of my life .I was young and stupid and hopelessly romantic.Still am. Stupid anyway. But I ended up using the word like my Dutch friends countless times to describe moments such as: a group of friends sitting around a table laughing, clearly enjoying each others company or lounging with my girlfriend in her dingy on a warm summer's day reading together.Although you two specimens don't seem to be good eamples of the breed--
"What!"
"Your countryman do seem to have master the way of gezellig as something like a religious ritual that ultimately reflects kindness,openness and a kind of enlightenment that the rest of the world would do well to learn from.
And gezellig is the only word I can use to describe how you celebrate your birthdays. You guys know :you walk into the house and you not only greet the birthday person with a congratulations, but you also congratulate their family members, and even their friends. You then proceed to greet each person in the room with either three kisses on the cheeks or a good firm handshake if you don't know them or if they are men in my case.. And its those three kiss jobs when you greet doubling up on one cheek!" He demonstrated kissing the air "Moowa! Moowa! Moowa! Then you have to kiss the dog !" The girls laughed wildly.
"And The birthday person will have set out hors d'oeuvres and a torte and you spend this wonderful evening sitting in a circle, munching on appetizers and the torte having tea and sometimes booze and getting to know new people and enjoying one another's company.
"I know. Iknow. I know. It's an ambience. A Warmth. A state of being three steps closer to Nirvana than cozy.Gezllig was one of the first words I learn when I arrived in Amsterdam. Yes, it was a Dutch Girl, my first true love, I planned to stay for the rest of my life .I was young and stupid and hopelessly romantic.Still am. Stupid anyway. But I ended up using the word like my Dutch friends countless times to describe moments such as: a group of friends sitting around a table laughing, clearly enjoying each others company or lounging with my girlfriend in her dingy on a warm summer's day reading together.Although you two specimens don't seem to be good eamples of the breed--
"What!"
"Your countryman do seem to have master the way of gezellig as something like a religious ritual that ultimately reflects kindness,openness and a kind of enlightenment that the rest of the world would do well to learn from.
And gezellig is the only word I can use to describe how you celebrate your birthdays. You guys know :you walk into the house and you not only greet the birthday person with a congratulations, but you also congratulate their family members, and even their friends. You then proceed to greet each person in the room with either three kisses on the cheeks or a good firm handshake if you don't know them or if they are men in my case.. And its those three kiss jobs when you greet doubling up on one cheek!" He demonstrated kissing the air "Moowa! Moowa! Moowa! Then you have to kiss the dog !" The girls laughed wildly.
"And The birthday person will have set out hors d'oeuvres and a torte and you spend this wonderful evening sitting in a circle, munching on appetizers and the torte having tea and sometimes booze and getting to know new people and enjoying one another's company.
"Well aren't we gezellig", asked Nate smiling broadly and he gave them both fraternal kisses on the cheek."Moowa! Moowa! Moowa!"
"Yes,now we are ,"said Dory still laughing and pretending to wipe sloppy kisses off her cheeks.
"You see that peanut butter and jelly will do it every time- even better than Coca Cola teaching the world to sing. And certainly much better than your pickled herring or french fries with mayonnaise- disgusting."
"You see that peanut butter and jelly will do it every time- even better than Coca Cola teaching the world to sing. And certainly much better than your pickled herring or french fries with mayonnaise- disgusting."
And how is it again that you know so much about Holland? asked Dory.
"You show no mercy do you ,my darling Amazon Queen? ? I misspent a year of my youth in Amsterdam awhile back. I thought I was in love."
"Oh yes," said Nina," in love with Paradiso and Fantasia."
"Oh you know those places?" asked Nate.
"If I want to smoke hash," said Nina, "I buy it from a friend and smoke it in my house with my boyfriend or even my family. Just because it is legal we Dutch do not make, do not make...
"A public spectacle?" chimed in Nate .
"Yes, a public Spectacle."
"So you take it home and have a few toots and make everything gezellig with your friends and family.
I don't smoke hash , said Nina, well...when... except sometimes when I am not studying and for sex."
"I knew we'd find something in common , Nina,," said Nate, suppressing a gigantic detonation of laughter.
"I do not think you study," said Nina,tossing her blond head with a superior air.Then realizing the size of the foot she had put in her mouth began to laugh hysterically which was instantly contagious and the three of them giggled on the wooden bench for several minutes.
"No I don't study,Nina,said Nate with a quiet serious air, "And I only do it, just like you, when I am not studying and when I am having sex."
"I understood this joke of mine the first time," she protested but again they began to cry with laughter ;Nina with her fair white skinned face turning so red she now looked like she belonged to a different race of mankind.
"I understood this joke of mine the first time," she protested but again they began to cry with laughter ;Nina with her fair white skinned face turning so red she now looked like she belonged to a different race of mankind.
The rain let up around four that afternoon and they found a very large sandbank to sleep on. No chance of the river rising and sweeping them away. They were on the equator so nightfall would come at exactly 6pm leaving them 2 hours to set up camp. Nate pulled tents from under the tarpaulin as if he had an unlimited supply, chucking them to Gustavo who set them on the beach, He removed a propane cylinder and a thermos and slowly forsake the boat with a a deep groan as he alighted .He began to plod then prance around the sandbank island stretching out stiffness like a high jumper readying himself to break the world's record. The girls too each set off in different directions exercising but with less exaggeration.Nate could be heard coughing and they saw him stop several times and grab his nose as if trying to clear his ears.
Gustavo and Fernando choreographed the camping scene to perfection. Tents went up. Something was cooking on a small stove connected by a long tube to the big propane tank.A campfire had been built and while the three bathed in their swimming suits in a small pool of slowly flowing river water where the sandbank met the bank of the river, the girls were vigorously scrubbing their bodies, odd pieces of clothing , and the handkerchiefs they wore as bandannas ,all with the same locally made coconut soap that Nate recognized by its scent and between scrubs he watched Dory bring the round bar to her nose and inhale its scent with smiling pleasure.By the time they had dressed in their tents the flavor of seared meat and onions filled the air.A large aluminum pot sizzled on the camp stove. Near the driftwood campfire the girls laid out their washed clothes on branches that they found. Sparks in great showers shot up from the gasoline produced campfire and the night was dark with only momentary spots of weak moonlight filtering down when the cloud cover thinned briefly now and then.
Nate sat down in the sand near the campfire where the girls were sitting. Fernando brought them each a plate of food : some delicious meat that none of them could recognize in a stew like concoction with rice ,which was quite tasty, and a large Pilsener beer ,in its enormous bottle, to drink.He handed each one a piece of sliced white bread from its bag as if he was dealing cards.
"Well ,"said Nate , mocking great satisfaction, "nothing like the Amazon, right girls ?"
He only let their silence last a few seconds.
"We're still on the main highway you see. Nothing but road signs out here. But tomorrow I promise you, we break camp at sunrise and by midday we'll be heading into town."
"I don't want to go to a town ," said Nina.
"Just a figure of speech Nina. What I meant to say is that by midday tomorrow you will begin to see the things you came here to see after we get off the main river and turn onto a smaller tributary of this river."
"Oh.That is good. Please to excuse me I am going to sleep".
"So far we have to travel," said Dory, tiredly, as she watched Nina enter their tent.
"It is not down on any map , " replied Nate," true places never are...Herman Melville. He wrote--"
"I know your Melville"snapped Dory,"And right next to that quotation put this American: "I met a lot of people when I traveled, I even encountered myself. Thats your James Baldwin."
"They teach him?"
"I'm studying for my Masters in Modern American literature."
"You mean you don't have some deep-seeded hatred for Americans like most Europeans?"
"You mean because of your imperialist military industrial complex, your lack of regard for the suffering of third world peoples, your weapons of mass destruction?"
"Yeah...something like that."
"Nina and I have traveled a lot in our young lives. We threw out our preconceived notions about countries and now only view the people we meet, each one as a nation. And we are not tourists we are travelers. We are not sight seekers but... how can I explain this we put on the people and places we meet like they are costumes and we see how they fit. We take journeys within the journey which is our lives and the biggest journey for me, it was much shorter for Nina but now we are together on the most important journey that we will take for the rest of our lives and that is the trip where you know you must reach out to people not to governments or ideologies but to each person and find the little spark of enlightenment that is within almost every person. It is the journey to meet people halfway because therein you find the important things a traveler needs to know."
"They teach him?"
"I'm studying for my Masters in Modern American literature."
"You mean you don't have some deep-seeded hatred for Americans like most Europeans?"
"You mean because of your imperialist military industrial complex, your lack of regard for the suffering of third world peoples, your weapons of mass destruction?"
"Yeah...something like that."
"Nina and I have traveled a lot in our young lives. We threw out our preconceived notions about countries and now only view the people we meet, each one as a nation. And we are not tourists we are travelers. We are not sight seekers but... how can I explain this we put on the people and places we meet like they are costumes and we see how they fit. We take journeys within the journey which is our lives and the biggest journey for me, it was much shorter for Nina but now we are together on the most important journey that we will take for the rest of our lives and that is the trip where you know you must reach out to people not to governments or ideologies but to each person and find the little spark of enlightenment that is within almost every person. It is the journey to meet people halfway because therein you find the important things a traveler needs to know."
"Yeah,"said Nate, looking deeply into her eyes with an admiring smile," I believe you might be right about that..But how much of that spark of enlightenment did you find in Francisco De Orellana?"
"I found you didn't I ?"
"Well,"he blushed,"thanks for the compliment."
"It's not a compliment-"
"Thanks for the insult then-"
"It's not an insult. This discussion began about how I feel towards North Americans. You now belong to that group of people from the United States that I have met each an individual nation but when viewed collectively help me begin to understand along with my readings a nation who's size and diversity can not be compared with Hollands. So I could never say that the United states is Gezellig, but I can say I have met many more Americans who are enlightened on various levels, travelers on the same journey as me, than the so - called ugly American.The biggest difference for me is that Americans seem to have no beginning and no end. It is hard to explain but they just seem to move through the landscape of our planet with less tying them down than even a gypsy.Many know or care so little about their ancestors and even their family because when they reach a ceratin age teh cast themselves up to the winds and reinvent themselves. I am sure what I am saying is a gross generalization, but that is what comes to my mind. One day I will visit the country and I know how racially diverse it is and culturally and religiously mixed and I know I will never capture what it is to be an American. Am I wrong to think that Americans do not know what it is to be an American ?"
"On the level you are talking every American knows that if they stand behind certain political and religious icons which must be the same in most countries they are in harmony with the rest of the country. So if the majority are proud of of our flag and like to watch football on television every sunday and get the family together for thanksgiving then they know they are part of the one giant american tribe. But virtually every American because of his race, religion, country of origen, socioeconomic background, feels disenfranchised on some level and it is the politician who recognizes and exploits each niche of disenfranchisement who ultimately wins the elections. Like everywhere else it is rarely about the best man. In poor countries like Ecuador, the man who can unite the poor and the poor indians behind him will win the election always. That's why this country never goes forward, but using your meet-them-half-way theory I have met some of the nicest people ever here. But how do you factor corruption into your equation. Nearly everyone is corrupt. It is a system and a cycle that has existed here since colonial times.
And once you learn how it works as I finally did. I have learned to use it to great advantage. So I'm answering my own question. I'm meeting them halfway. I don't really approve of paying for bribes but since that's how the system works I bribe everyone and everyone is bribable so I am meeting them halfway."
"You can't get things done any other way ?"
"That's what I thought too !"
"What a pity. It tells so much about a society."
"And what does it tell about an individual ?"
Dory faltered."You... would know better than I but if you found something wonderful in this person and the system still corrupted them to take bribes then I guess you would somehow have to reconcile the system within your own system of values and-
"Pay the money?"
"Pay the money and not let it interfere in the beauty you have found within them..." Dory shook her head like she had bugs in her ears and Nate found a bottle of Rum and passed it to her.
"Listen, he told her, "don't let this shake your beautiful ideals.I like what you said and I think we're pretty close to being on the same path but I always look for chance, the unexpected in my photography and in my meetings with other people and in what you would call my journey and the minute things become predictable I try to shake them up because for me life is all about the unexpected. It's the place where I want to be and I've found that most of the time I must act in unexpected ways or else nothing unexpected happens. That's my mantra."
"Tha's why you decided in the end to bring me and Nina'".
"Probably. Ive been acting like this; side-stepping serendipity so long, for my own pleasure,that I don't really examine that closely why I act the way I do anymore."
"That's crazy,"she said and gulped the rum from the bottle.
"God loves a moving target!'
The fire had all but died as they kissed three times on the cheeks and she avoided his awkward attempt at her lips. He gave her his flashlight so that she could find her way in a drunken stumble back to her tent. He rested his head back in the sand and nodded off. Gustavo awoke him after a half hour and helped him to his feet saying something about vampires. It was Vampire Bats he was referring too and while there were none in the area Gustavo like many river dwellers had a deep respect for the rainforest at night.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
"I found you didn't I ?"
"Well,"he blushed,"thanks for the compliment."
"It's not a compliment-"
"Thanks for the insult then-"
"It's not an insult. This discussion began about how I feel towards North Americans. You now belong to that group of people from the United States that I have met each an individual nation but when viewed collectively help me begin to understand along with my readings a nation who's size and diversity can not be compared with Hollands. So I could never say that the United states is Gezellig, but I can say I have met many more Americans who are enlightened on various levels, travelers on the same journey as me, than the so - called ugly American.The biggest difference for me is that Americans seem to have no beginning and no end. It is hard to explain but they just seem to move through the landscape of our planet with less tying them down than even a gypsy.Many know or care so little about their ancestors and even their family because when they reach a ceratin age teh cast themselves up to the winds and reinvent themselves. I am sure what I am saying is a gross generalization, but that is what comes to my mind. One day I will visit the country and I know how racially diverse it is and culturally and religiously mixed and I know I will never capture what it is to be an American. Am I wrong to think that Americans do not know what it is to be an American ?"
"On the level you are talking every American knows that if they stand behind certain political and religious icons which must be the same in most countries they are in harmony with the rest of the country. So if the majority are proud of of our flag and like to watch football on television every sunday and get the family together for thanksgiving then they know they are part of the one giant american tribe. But virtually every American because of his race, religion, country of origen, socioeconomic background, feels disenfranchised on some level and it is the politician who recognizes and exploits each niche of disenfranchisement who ultimately wins the elections. Like everywhere else it is rarely about the best man. In poor countries like Ecuador, the man who can unite the poor and the poor indians behind him will win the election always. That's why this country never goes forward, but using your meet-them-half-way theory I have met some of the nicest people ever here. But how do you factor corruption into your equation. Nearly everyone is corrupt. It is a system and a cycle that has existed here since colonial times.
And once you learn how it works as I finally did. I have learned to use it to great advantage. So I'm answering my own question. I'm meeting them halfway. I don't really approve of paying for bribes but since that's how the system works I bribe everyone and everyone is bribable so I am meeting them halfway."
"You can't get things done any other way ?"
"That's what I thought too !"
"What a pity. It tells so much about a society."
"And what does it tell about an individual ?"
Dory faltered."You... would know better than I but if you found something wonderful in this person and the system still corrupted them to take bribes then I guess you would somehow have to reconcile the system within your own system of values and-
"Pay the money?"
"Pay the money and not let it interfere in the beauty you have found within them..." Dory shook her head like she had bugs in her ears and Nate found a bottle of Rum and passed it to her.
"Listen, he told her, "don't let this shake your beautiful ideals.I like what you said and I think we're pretty close to being on the same path but I always look for chance, the unexpected in my photography and in my meetings with other people and in what you would call my journey and the minute things become predictable I try to shake them up because for me life is all about the unexpected. It's the place where I want to be and I've found that most of the time I must act in unexpected ways or else nothing unexpected happens. That's my mantra."
"Tha's why you decided in the end to bring me and Nina'".
"Probably. Ive been acting like this; side-stepping serendipity so long, for my own pleasure,that I don't really examine that closely why I act the way I do anymore."
"That's crazy,"she said and gulped the rum from the bottle.
"God loves a moving target!'
The fire had all but died as they kissed three times on the cheeks and she avoided his awkward attempt at her lips. He gave her his flashlight so that she could find her way in a drunken stumble back to her tent. He rested his head back in the sand and nodded off. Gustavo awoke him after a half hour and helped him to his feet saying something about vampires. It was Vampire Bats he was referring too and while there were none in the area Gustavo like many river dwellers had a deep respect for the rainforest at night.
VISIT http://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/
