10 March 2006
A visitor from across the lake
A still Lake Murrary
© Greenpeace/Prout
Posted by Merel, GFRS volunteer
The Lake is a perfect mirror. Over the mirror slides a canoe, from the hunting camp across the bay. The Kuni canoes are so narrow that everybody stands in them! The men from the hunting camp come to visit us every day and help with all possible things. Some days ago, a few of the women also came across to our camp.
Unfortunately they didn’t speak much English, but Sep told us they wanted to see what the camp looked like, as they had woven all the palm leaves for the roof - quite some work!
Today, an old man comes to visit. Curtis, our camp coordinator, goes down to welcome him, but the man ignores him and walks straight up to Bart and me, joining us on a bench. From his fibre bag he takes out a small package and unrolls it.
He gives the contents to Bart. It's a big black stone, heavy as lead, with some glitters in it. “Its gold,” he says.
We admire the stone, but look slightly incredulous, so he takes something else out of his bag. This time, it’s a letter of recommendation, written by a former employer for whom he worked between 1970 and 1974. He was a machine operator and worked on the building of airstrips. A missionary used his authority to guarantee that this letter is an exact copy of the original.
When the man realizes we are not going to buy the stone, he wraps it up again, puts it back in his bag, gets back into his canoe and paddles away in silence.
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