The next couple of days we went exploring in the dugout canoe. Raul took us to his village - at first we were a little apprehensive, with visions of "villagers" trying to sell us stuff - but our fears were soon set to rest. This was a real village with real people. It is located on a thin finger of land between two distrubutary rivers and so it is a very long village. The government has recently installed a sidewalk the length of the village to make it easier for the people to get to the village's central space and school.
As we walked down the sidewalk - we had parked the boat in some one's back yard - we saw house after empty house. Everyone was at the village's central space/park. They were playing soccer. Everyone was. The kids on one end and the adults on the other. Raul explained that other villages were invited for tournaments. Its a day long event, and everybody gets to play; kiddies in the morning, then the ladies, then the gents. Its very serious business.
Raul also showed us the jail. This consisted of two long horizontal boxes under a house. Most infractions include jail time...tell lies about your neighbour; 1 day jail. Get drunk and beat your wife; 3 days jail and a hefty fine. Don't show up for your civic duty; 2 days jail, a fine, and 4 times the duties you tried to avoid. Civic duties include cleaning the areas around the sidewalk and cutting the grass in the central space. Now, they don't have lawn mowers, grass cutting is done by machete. Everyone gets a stretch of 2 m, unless you try to skip out, then they give you 8m! All these rules/laws are decided upon by the village during monthly meetings. Oh and the jail times do not include bathroom breaks or meals.
On the way back down the long and winding sidewalk Raul stopped a couple of times - once at a starfruit tree and once at the sugar canes...we were double fisted nom-noming on jungle treats
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