Transcript:Filmstrip/The Green Light Expedition Part 3
The dark green areas on the map of South America are Brazil and Peru.
We cross the continent from east to west, arriving in Belin, on the mouth of the Amazon
River, which is where that island is, shown on the right upper side of the continent.
Although there were few Baha'is in Belin, excellent plans were made for our short visit.
I am sitting between the rector on the left and vice rector on the right of the Federal
University of power, who received me most formally after my lecture at the university.
South America has many television stations, often willing to receive Baha'i visitors.
This interview was the first in Belin, during prime time of the evening program, and attracted
wide interest in the faith.
Our next stop was Makapa, where Governor Henning of the Federal Territory of Amapa had arranged
in our honor for a traditional folk dance to be held in a fisherman's village.
On the left are the Governor and his wife.
On my right, Mr. Hamsey, one of the South American counselors.
These people are part of a large black community descended from African slaves.
They insisted we join them in their dance.
The reason for our visit to this part of Brazil was to meet some of the new Baha'is from
this background.
This is their own local Baha'i center.
The children were lovely, but most of the adult Baha'is were away working.
In Makapa, the first Baha'i family, the mother is standing on the extreme right, were
also fishermen, but of Spanish Indian blood.
What appears to be the sea in the background is the Amazon River itself.
It was the beginning of the rainy season when the Amazon floods its banks.
We were flying over the largest river in the world.
Over one quarter of all the river water on this planet flows from its mouth, which is
over 300 kilometers wide.
The Amazon is famous for the beauty of its skies.
Rainbows, always a symbol of hope, beckoned us on in our pilgrimage to the great green
heart of the world.
The vast panorama of clouds, spreading before our eyes day after day, was a never ending
source of joy to me and filled my soul with peace.
An old Indian legend has a beautiful story of the creation of this river.
The moon fell in love with the sun, who rejected her, and her tears fell to the earth in snowflakes,
which melted and became the mighty waters of the Amazon.
We knew Manaus was halfway up the Amazon River, but we were not prepared for the sight that
met our eyes, nor to learn almost half a million people live in this great inland port, 2,000
kilometers from the sea.
It was the discovery of rubber and its exploitation for modern industry that raised up this giant
metropolis.
The rubber tree is native to this part of America.
Here the rubber barons created a city of fabulous prosperity called the Paris of the Amazon.
Isolated to this day in the heart of its jungles and reached only by ship and air.
On its main square, with its black and white mosaic pavement, and this impressive monument
stands its famous opera house, one of the most beautiful in Latin America, and the pride
of Manaus.
So wealthy with the rubber barons, they could order this building from Europe, which cost
millions of dollars and have it shipped direct to Manaus.
It took five years to build it.
Beneath this exquisite dome, audiences gathered to hear some of the world's most famous operatic
companies who were brought by ship direct to Manaus.
All the rooms in the opera house are ornately decorated.
It is still used for operas and plays, and a constant flow of tourists visited by day.
We arrived at Manaus Airport to attend the historic First All Amazon Behind Conference,
arranged to coincide with our visit.
Nine nations formed part of the vast Amazon Basin, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela,
Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana, Manaus is the center of this giant wheel.
For over a month before our arrival, the highs from distant parts of Brazil and Colombia
carried on an intensive teaching campaign with great success.
We often dine together with these friends, as every other moment was taken up with activities.
One result of their work was a cordial 45-minute interview with the governor of the state of
Amazonas, Signor de Silva Reyes, who was particularly interested in the Baha'i teachings
about the life after death, and asked me many questions.
Another result was an excellent press conference, attended by reporters from both newspapers
and television stations.
The teaching campaign, which accompanied the First All Amazon Baha'i Conference, resulted
in a degree of publicity in this capital city of the state that I have never seen equaled
anywhere in the world.
On the first day of Rizvan, we attended the feast, and I addressed the believers, who,
with few exceptions, were all new Baha'is, and about to elect the first local assembly
of Manaus.
Typical of the universal character of Baha'i communities, two friends from Taiwan were
among the nine elected.
During our one-week visit, I gave many lectures at colleges.
This was one to over 500 students of the Technical Federal College of Amazonas.
I was fortunate in having an excellent translator into Portuguese, who had come from South Brazil
for this purpose.
Sitting on the platform on the left is Mr. Hampsey.
An excellent Baha'i exhibition, arranged by the National Spiritual Assembly, was held
in the municipal library, and attracted a great deal of attention.
This was our last meeting with the Baha'is.
Like all huge cities, the entire community was not able to gather, but our hearts were
full of thanksgiving for the wonderful success which had crowned the First All Amazon Conference.
The governor very kindly put this government launch at our disposal to take a sight scene
on the Amazon.
Some distance above the city, we were very surprised to find this floating hotel, with
air-conditioned rooms, a swimming pool, restaurant, and stalls selling exotic necklaces to the
tourists.
Here it was the place where the black water of the Rio Negro, flowing down from Venezuela,
meets the lighter water of the Amazon, one of the sights of this part of the world.
This map shows the root of the green light expedition on the upper Amazon.
From the Nars, we flew to Leticia, a town in Colombia where the frontiers of Brazil,
Peru, and Colombia meet.
We then journeyed by boat to Iquitos, where we took a plane to Pucalpa, another Amazonian
city, and the last place we visited in our long journey through the tropics of South America
before going to Bolivia.
Leticia is an ideal center for pioneering and Baha'i activities, as it lies in the
center of an area with many Indian tribes.
In this part of its port, our boat was moored.
The large building in the background is a hotel.
We like Leticia very much.
It is rapidly growing, but has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
This is the main square, very well kept with modern buildings facing it.
The children were having games and fun in the large pool in the middle of the square.
The ice cream man was very popular, making great ice lollipops on this Chinese machine,
which were then sprinkled with a syrup of your choice.
Two members of the Colombian National Assembly had come to greet us and arranged this reception
in our hotel for some of the prominent townspeople to meet us.
I always thought these big parrots, called macaws, were very dangerous because of their
beaks, but once they attained they become remarkably gentle pets.
There were two pairs of these beautiful birds in our hotel garden, and they played together
all day long, even rolling on the grass like puppies and completely unafraid of people.
During the week we spent in Leticia we had a number of meetings.
I gave a talk in this nearby Ticuna village and the people gathered in front of the veranda
of the chief's house, who next day accepted the faith.
The small community of Baha'is in Leticia, shown here, were very enthusiastic and active
in the teaching work.
Another meeting was held in Marco, the twin town of Leticia, just across the border in
Brazil.
The friends there were equally devoted and steadfast Baha'is.
Sitting on the extreme left is Mrs. Ruth Pringle, a pioneer in Panama and board member who joined
our expedition in Leticia.
She is a trained nurse.
At last the cargo boat we had rented to take us up the Amazon on our 18-day journey to
Iquitos was ready.
For a week Mr. Hampsey had supervised its cleaning and had a table, benches and shelves
installed.
The deck in the foreground was the only dry place in the boat.
We were terribly crowded as ten people slept inside her.
You can see us sitting in our kitchen dining room.
The crew members are at the back near the noisy smelly engine of the boat.
This was our bathroom.
We were very grateful to have it, even though the river rushed by through the open floorboards
and we could barely get in and close the doors.
It was impossible to bathe in the river, but we scooped up water in a bowl and had a delicious
cold shower.
Here is a view looking towards the front, where the steersmen sat all day long guiding
us through the treacherous strong currents of the Amazon.
It was dangerous to travel at night, so we moored on the bank of the river and hung up
our hammocks from side to side of the boat.
Mr. Hampsey is taking a turn at steering.
The boats are built to give protection from the torrential rains and because of this they
are very shut in.
We almost suffocated from the heat and smell of the engine and had to shout if we wanted
to talk, because of this we called our boat the mutt.
My hammock was slung in the prowl, so I could rest a little during the day.
Many nights it poured rain for 12 hours on end and in spite of every precaution water leaked
into our hammocks.
Chiquito is my parrot from Venezuela.
She is very tame and affectionate and I still have her.
She was raised in the hut of an Indian.
Anpikuri also raised in an Indian hut was equally tame and became the very spoiled mascot
of the expedition on the Amazon.
She is a South American agouti.
Over 2,000 km from the sea, the Amazon is often 14 km wide.
The sunsets in this part of the world are unbelievably beautiful.
Dawn was almost but never quite as beautiful as sunset.
The shore of the river is forever fringed by the majestic jungle trees.
See how small this large hut is in comparison to the immense height of the trees.
Every morning we climbed up on the roof of the mutt to have our prayers and discuss our
plans as the noise of the engine inside the boat was deafening.
We wanted to meet tribes less influenced by our civilization than those along the mainstream
of the upper Amazon and turned off into tributaries such as this where we entered this lovely flooded
lagoon.
In this part of the world there are no seasons, only heavy rain periods which bring floods
to all the river banks and low lying land.
The people are accustomed to this and live their lives as if nothing unusual was happening.
The chickens seem to be quite used to it too.
This was in no way an unusual sight and we even saw pigs marooned on flimsy platforms
surrounded by water.
Everyone goes about by boat, big or little, like this man who paddled along swiftly the
top of his canoe only an inch above the river.
When we wanted to visit this hut we hailed a canoe to come and get us.
The man standing in the middle of the boat is Don Pedro, our guide, who knew all the rivers
and tribes between Leticia and Iquitos.
These are Tokayna Indians.
For centuries they and other tribes have made cloth like this from the bark of trees, a craft
known to the people in both Africa and the Pacific islands.
Now they sell these to the tourists in the cities, but more traditional designs are still
used as mats in their huts.
This Tokayna village had very recently been converted to Christianity and they had a
school and regular chapel services.
Their homes and way of life however were still traditional.
We saw many crosses throughout this area erected by the missionaries and dated 1972 or later,
showing how recently and concentrated their efforts have been.
We wondered sadly where the Baha'is were.
The people as always were friendly and we spent some time looking at their homes and meeting
with them and enjoying the beautiful natural setting of their village.
As usual the children gathered about, lots of children and always lots of adorable babies.
We decided to spend the night here and hold a meeting in the evening, so we went back to
the muck to prepare our dinner.
We played our flute, the people played theirs, and sang for us their charming native songs
which we recorded.
All of us had a good time together.
Those who could not come to our meeting looked on peacefully from their huts as they got
the children to bed in their hammocks, like this one hanging on the left.
During our smaller river we went back to the Amazon, where we passed many crosses such
as this in village after village.
The whole aspect of this region is rapidly changing as modern civilization begins to
invade the virgin jungle.
This is a farm on the banks of the Amazon.
The forest has been cut down to make way for it.
On the river a huge raft of logs floats down to the sawmill.
We saw many such sawmills, busy making wood for local commercial use.
Valuable hard wood would be exported uncut to distant markets.
Cattle raising is also rapidly spreading throughout the jungle areas of South America.
To our surprise the animals seemed very healthy in spite of the heat and great humidity.
Gladly we turned the prowl of our boat into such beautiful unspoiled streams as this,
where we glided through a world of mirror images.
So perfect it is hard to tell which is up and which is down.
We left our boat and went to the home of some hospitable Indians, who had urged us
to share in a fiesta or party they were holding that evening.
Many of them were dancing, singing and playing their pipes, such as these which have a shrill
very high pitch of sound.
Although these people dress in western clothes, a few of them had made a feeble attempt to
recapture their past traditions, where they would have been heavily painted and worn
gorgeous feather headdresses and ornaments.
The sun had not yet set but the people had already been drinking their strong liquor
which they prepare in newly made troughs cut from special trees.
So friendly and amiable they were obviously soon going to be very drunk indeed.
Another example of what a curse alcohol is, not only to these people but to people all
over the world.
The men and the women drank freely, but what broke my heart was to see such a dear little
girl as this one on the right, already drunk.
We left the smaller river as the glory of sunset was falling over the jungle and went
back to the Amazon.
Every night we tied our boat to some tree along the river bank, as the swift current
and logs floating down the river made navigation in the dark very dangerous.
Few days often brought new tribes as we turned off into tributaries such as this, gliding
through a world still unspoiled by man.
The soil of jungle strangely enough is very poor and one seldom finds large groups living
together in the wilderness, as neither hunting nor agriculture can feed more than a small
group in one place.
I am about to go up the front steps of this house.
This was a Yagua Indian family.
All the men were away at their work, but each house had a few women and children.
The mother was preparing a meal.
The Yagwas were the only Indians in the Amazon area we visited who were still wearing their
beautiful tribal dress.
Note, the woman's red feather necklace.
Many Indian huts have wild creatures which have been brought up in the home and are entirely
tame like this little monkey and the parrot.
I have never seen anywhere in the world any tribal people who make pets of wild animals
like the South American Indians.
This was a particularly beautiful little monkey.
Many times we saw baby monkeys clinging to the hair of women or girls as if it was the
fur of their mothers.
We heard that there was a group of Yagwas living deeper in the jungle and still dressed
in their primitive tribal costumes, so we set off to see them.
The dugout canoe was the only boat that could pass through these narrow streams and flooded
country.
Our temporary guide was using a paddle which I had never seen before.
I imagine it is specially adapted to these swift flowing shallow streams in flood time.
We met other canoes coming out of a water soaked forest.
Men, women and children are all expert paddlers.
To me the whole Amazon region will be remembered as a land of mirror images through which one
glided as in a dream.
How can anyone not believe in God in such surroundings?
Our guide cut poles with his machete to make bridges over the streams and put other poles
upright in the mud so we could hold on to something as we balanced our way across.
The floor of the jungle has many fascinating things growing on it, although all the flowers
are usually way up on top of the trees in the sunlight.
Eventually we came to this lagoon and were shocked to find our wild tribe of Yagwas all
dressed in city clothes.
There was, however, one man who held with the traditions of his peoples past.
He was a splendid sight standing to greet us before his hut.
We asked him if he would demonstrate to us how they use the blowpipe for shooting birds
and small game with poison tipped darts.
The arrows are small sharp darts of wood, like the one he is holding in his hands, which
came from the quiver hanging around his neck.
From that smaller purse also hanging around his neck, he took out some wild cotton and
wetting the end of his arrow or dart wrapped a little tightly around it to give weight
or flight to his arrow.
After taking careful aim with a tremendous puff of breath, the arrow is blown out of his
two and a half meter long blowpipe.
The best reward of all, however, after journeying hours to meet him, was this wonderful smile
at the end of his demonstration.
We went back to our boat and returned down this tributary river to the Amazon itself,
where we heard there was another group of Yagwas living.
Their way of life still remained traditional, such as his typical hearth for cooking, laid
on the floor of the entirely wooden hut.
The older women still wear their native dress.
I was very attracted to this woman who was evidently a fine person in every way.
The baby had a bad scalp infection and we persuaded her to come down to the boat and
let Ruth treat it.
Ruth Pringle, a skilled hospital nurse, shaved the baby's head and dressed it with medicine
and bandages.
We left the supply of medicine with the mother.
The father watched the proceedings with anxiety.
But these Indians should have trusted us to treat their baby, touched us deeply.
The nearest place they could have received help was a day's journey away.
We parted with warm and friendly feelings on both sides, but the woman I shall never
forget.
Our hearts were drawn to each other, though we could not speak a word.
Their glorious sunset fell over the wide reaches of the Amazon and filled our souls
with peace.
It was time to say goodbye to our guide Don Pedro, the man standing second from the right
next to Mr. Hamsey.
He had read all of a high literature we had with us and accepted the faith.
He was a man in his 50s of character and quality and we were very happy over this event.
We put in at this very typical small town on the Amazon to go shopping.
The statue of the Virgin Mary stood in the flooded children's park on the left.
The only way to reach buildings marooned in the flooded river is by canoe.
A large boat cannot get through the shallow water.
Mr. Hamsey went shopping, obligingly paddled by an extremely skillful young boatman who
could not have been over five years old.
Children are a complete part of the life of simple societies all over the world.
As soon as they can walk they assume responsibilities.
It makes them normal, happy, well behaved human beings.
We set off up another tributary river.
Humble people perhaps because they have so little education and material possessions seem
to have more time to reflect on the meaning of life and the existence of God.
Being more spiritual they become behinds much easier than the preoccupied disillusioned
people of the cities.
This is neither a village nor a city but just a small town of mostly Creole population
with Spanish Indian blood.
These are piranhas being dried in the sun.
The vicious man-eating fish of South America.
To our great surprise they are small fish which form part of the staple diet of the people.
We ate them too and they are not too bad.
That is our SS mutt down at the bottom of the principal path leading up to the village
square.
This little girl had the most beautiful macaw I have ever seen.
He was crazy about his mistress and kept climbing into her arms to be cuddled and petted.
Going up the gang plank onto our boat was always somewhat precarious but it was getting
up on the roof that was really difficult.
It was a very tiring boat to live on and terribly hot and noisy inside.
We are headed up another small river to visit another tribe this time the Boros.
Although the people now usually live in individual houses in the old way of life they lived as
large families in these huge huts called Pocomeros.
They are very well built spacious and cool.
This one was now only used as a meeting place for the village.
One of the Indians obligingly played this very unusual drum for us.
The long pieces of wood are from a special tree and give a pleasant deep sound like chimes.
They are set over a hole in the earth which acts as a resonance box.
Mr. Hamsey gave a talk in Spanish in the village school as the people were interested
in us and our trip.
This mother had brought her baby along as they always do and I asked her how old it was.
Five days, but very well behaved, very children seemed to cry much less than those in our
own civilization, perhaps because the people are more relaxed and peaceful than we are.
We decided to go a day's journey further up the river to visit another group of Boros
and see their famous drums.
Even in Africa, I never saw bigger or more beautiful drums than these.
Like many of the similar African ones, they are talking drums, used for sending messages
over long distances.
They also are used for tribal dances.
Unlike the other Pocomero, this hut was lived in by many families.
Here, the women were preparing their yuca or cassava or mano, a starchy root that forms
the basic food of all jungle people in South America and a great many in Africa to which
it was introduced from here.
The people wanted to have a meeting and, as usual, I spoke in English, Mr. Hamsey translated
into Spanish and the local in-hand teacher standing on my left translated into his tribal
tongue, how desperately we need a universal language.
After my talk quite spontaneously and with great affection, this old Indian woman came
up and embraced me.
I have found that the feeling you have in your heart can always be sensed by tribal people
who are much more sensitive to such things than we are.
The Indians are for the most part short people, though not particularly tall myself, I towered
over most of them.
One can see here how much taller all the members of our party are than the native people.
As usual, they all came down to the boat to see us off in the most friendly way.
This little girl had even brought her pet baby to come along with her.
It is extraordinary how hand-tamed these jungle creatures become when brought up by the Indians.
The green light expedition spent 18 days on this part of its long journey.
Our days and our nights on the SS Mutt were nearing their end.
The next day we approached our destination, the big inland port of Iquitos.
There were many rainbows in this part of the world to add to its beauty.
Civilization, however, immediately destroys the beauty of nature.
Arms from all over the world reach this far up the Amazon, almost 4000 km from the sea.
Local people travel up and down the river in crowded, stuffy ferryboat such as this,
with wooden sides to keep the torrential rains out.
Oil has been found in this part of Peru and its exploitation has brought plains such as
this in constant use.
Oil storage tanks along the shore like these on the outskirts of the city.
Heavy machinery and equipment lie on the fringe of the once untouched jungle.
The disgusting site of garbage poured down the banks of the river meets one's eye wherever
civilization has brought the modern way of living.
The air, the land and the water is rapidly becoming polluted.
Iquitos was the end of our long rivers journey through South America and it left a bad taste
in our mouths.
We wondered what the future held in store for its indigenous people as we saw the cheap
materialism and all the evils of our civilization thriving in this growing industrial town.
We flew to Pucalpa our last stop before leaving the tropics and stayed in this very decent
well kept hotel.
Pucalpa, much smaller than Iquitos, did not even have paved streets but we liked it much
better.
But down by the river the filth in the poor part of town was just as bad.
All over the world villagers are flocking to cities to live in a physical and moral
squalor that slowly destroys them.
At both Iquitos and Pucalpa some of the people have solved the problem of dirt such as this
by moving out to live in floating houses on the water.
The bus was a ferry boat.
If you did not have your own canoe you could go out for a few pennies to the water village.
There were all kinds of shops such as this Gasolineera Santa Teresa which sold oil for
boats.
Many of these Indians are fisher folk.
Fundamentally this home has everything needed including the toilet on the right built over
the water.
Even a miserable hubble out on the water such as this is a healthier place to live than
on the bank of the river with its crowding, filth and lack of sanitation.
The river provides a convenient bathtub and all the people are more at home on a boat
than on land.
The Arina Kocia lake is near Pucalpa.
The missionaries have very wisely built their schools and headquarters out here where they
have a clean and charming place in which to work and live.
We had decided to go visit a neighboring tribe of Indians called Shippibos and rented this
boat to take us across the lake and upper river to some of their villages.
A great deal of fishing was going on.
On our way we passed this Shippibo woman and her child.
It is always a pleasure to watch an Indian handle a boat as they are so skilled that every
gesture seems purely spontaneous like breathing.
This bridge serves its purpose as well as any other kind would.
The people trotting over it as if it were completely flat.
The Shippibos are famous for the way they paint and also embroider designs on their skirts
like the one this girl is wearing.
Their pottery is decorated with similar designs and amongst the finest made in the Amazon area.
I will never forget this child who was kept busy swinging two babies in two hammocks,
one at each end of her house.
She energetically went back and forth, keeping both going at the same time.
Another little girl was busy cooking.
Village children do adult work which makes them responsible and mature but are never burdened
by their parents or treated harshly.
These women sang for us a plenty little song with a haunting air.
They were the last of the Indians we met before we flew on to Lima.
Their wonderful Amazonian journey was at an end.
[MUSIC]
