Crossing the river was another hurry-up-and-wait, but we got a closer look at the placer mining/gold panning process. We went across part of the Watut River, wading about thigh deep, and found ourselves on an island in the middle of the river, the main current yet to be crossed. While we waited for a boat we observed the industry all around us. Temporary shelters had been set up on the island, some people were cooking and eating, others were already putting the dirt onto the platforms and washing it. One man was hollowing out a huge drift log, and it looked close to its future shape – a huge dugout canoe.
We finished our crossing in two canoes and made our way through some nasty river-side bogs to Marauna. We quickly realized there wasn’t really a village center as there often is. Instead, it was just a series of houses linked by trails through the tall grass. As usual we simply followed our guides to a particular house where they deposited us. They generally have more of an idea of whose place it is proper for us to invade than we do.
John G once again got itchy feet and set about doing the Walkabout Questionnaire. And once again he was gone several hours, hiking quite some distance (I think he said 15km) to reach all the hamlets of Marauna. Thankfully, unlike Dangal, it was mostly flat.
The rest of us, meanwhile, set about doing the Main Questionnaire. I’ve never seen a crowd so intensely interested! People were crowding in so closely I was concerned Brian and Janell weren’t going to get enough oxygen! I was doing the ‘observing’ portion of the questionnaire – which consists of counting people present, noting who leads the response, writing down any comments that don’t reflect the consensus – so I was on the periphery and had room to breathe.
After this part of the work was complete Brian got his pictures out and showed them around. I was relaxing post-Frisbee fun, when I suddenly got a jolt. Ridiculously loud popping and cracking from my right! Was it a gun? Firecrackers? I looked over and saw a crowd of women and kids scattering in fright. What was happening?
I leapt up and took a defensive stance, prepared to defend our priceless sociolinguistic research at any cost… Well, actually I just sat there, as it all happened too fast to respond coherently. The women and children in the middle of the crowd looking at Brian’s pictures disappeared downward while those on the outskirts scattered. Children started crying, and heads began popping up from where they’d disappeared. Then everyone began laughing. The platform the ladies were sitting on had broken, completely collapsing in the center and effectively swallowing its burden. The popping sounds had been logs 3 and 4 inches in diameter breaking under the weight! I don’t think Brian excepted his pictures to ever be THAT popular!
No one was hurt, though the frightened kids took some calming. I went back to relaxing, looking up a short while later to see them already repairing the platform. We thought we were sleeping there that night so I was glad, but it turned out we walked about fifteen minutes to another part of the village for the night.
They held an outdoor service that night, and we listened to some lovely singing as we prepared for sleep. We’d be back to walking the next day after mostly riding in canoes the past several days, and we weren’t sure how that would go. But we’d gotten work done in two villages that day and felt the satisfaction that doing one’s job brings.
P.S. I forgot to mention the dinosaur. On the evening of day five Janell went to wash. Having used the lovely standpipe shower, she went to the bush briefly, then returned. Looking around for her soap in its ziplock, she saw only an enormous pig, foaming at the mouth. It had eaten the entire bar of soap, in its plastic bag! I guess it’ll have clean innards…
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