When I look at this image, my mind says bugs, spiders, snakes. I can imagine quite a bit of annoyances there. Sleeping there at night would make me hyper-aware of noises in the jungle around me. Is any of this like the reality you experienced?
It's difficult to sleep in the high 100% humidity. It makes for a listless night.
The tribe I was living with had dogs. These dogs would bark when any living creature larger than a rat got near the village. This village was no larger than an acre, mind you. They were also in a perpetual state of warfare with a neighboring nomadic tribe that was even more primitive. The tribe I stayed with had converted to Christianity, yet still practiced their old ways. This rival tribe was known to be able to slip into the village at night totally undetected by the dogs and slit people's throats while they were sleeping. So I did worry about that. Someone did rummage through my stuff one night and I saw the barefoot footprints. They said it was the other tribe, but who knows. I was completely at the mercy of this tribe for my survival and had to trade my labor and an expensive LED flashlight to ensure my survival. They were extremely delighted and grateful I gave them that flashlight though. They taught me how to survive in the jungle.
This deep in the jungle, aside from hostile tribes, there are also cartel operatives, guerillas, smugglers, and other criminal elements roaming around in the jungle at night. One night, not at this location, but in a different region, we were attacked and had to fight for survival.
Do you see the mosquito net there? Often times I would wake up in the night and it would be completely coated in insects. Mosquitos, and a variety of other insects, some as large as your hand. Insect-borne diseases are the number one threat in the jungle. You don't sleep well in the jungle at first. It takes about seven days to acclimate. Still to this day, I can be sound asleep and hear a noise while I'm sleeping and pop up wide awake with an adrenaline rush and be ready to go. I call it jungle sleep. You're asleep, but also somehow awake and listening. If you don't gain this adaptation deep in the jungle it can be fatal.
Honestly, after Golgothans comment, I can only read your comment and visualize this in Portland.
Heh.
Instead of just malaria it’s HIV, hepatitis, and malaria!
The insects would be a deal breaker for me. Why did you do that to yourself? You should get tested to make sure you didn't pick up babesia or chagas or some other nasty shit you're not aware of because your immune system is keeping it in check. Missionaries have major issues with that.
For all I know, I'm a walking talking petri dish. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. See my other response about parasites for more details.
The only question that comes to mind is why would you want to do such a thing? I'm not enough of an adrenaline junkie to attempt it myself. Good on you for coming out the other end in one piece. Sounds completely alien and brutal to me. But then I'm just an ordinary city mouse.
I did it to have an adventure and see what I'm made of. When I entered the jungle, I was all bundled up: Wide brim hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, bug spray, long sleeve shirt, gloves, long pants, and hiking boots. When I left the jungle, I was barefoot, only wearing my swim suit, and as red as a lobster.
I kind of wonder the same thing. I tried sky dyving, totally boring, my heart didn't skip a beat and I didn't care. Surfing, on the other hand, way more fun but no adrenaline.
I think it's far more interesting to listen to him describe the experience. Great question.
Did you consider trying to teach them how to live better? I can think of at least a dozen simple things they could do to improve their quality of life. Or are you one of those "they are better off living like savages, who are we to judge" kind of people?
Did you consider trying to teach them how to live better?
Yes, many times. But ultimately, their mindset is very different than ours, and, there's things they do they've always done and they aren't going to change anytime soon. And you don't want to be rude because if something happens to you out there... well, you'll never be heard from again and nobody will ever know what happened to you.
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