Each person attending the ceremony drank from the cup of wine and then was given their own cigarette. Most likely the non-Gorongosi people attending the blessing hadn’t experienced this before. We were part of something quite foreign but connected to the prosperity of our project. This was day of ritual and preparation for our biological survey of the mountain.
Yesterday, was about identifying a good location for an upcoming bioblitz. A bioblitz is an intensive biological survey of a particular place. The first one was done with Ed Wilson at Walden Pond and they have since been conducted around the world. They expose many non-biologists to the world of nature. They teach participants about the importance of biodiversity. They make everyone a kid again exploring the dirt, leaves and pond water. Fundamentally, a bioblitz connects us with the living world around us and conducting this survey of biodiversity.
Tomorrow, we will head back up to Mt. Gorongosa – a 2-hour drive or a 15-minute helicopter ride from from Camp Chitengo to conduct a bioblitz with local Gorongosi kids on the mountain and students from the Gorongosa Education Center. Before the survey could happen on the mountain it was important that local officials and elders would bless the activity. An early morning trip took some camp educators, Life on Earth team members, and the National Geographic crew to a small community at the base of the mountain. As we arrived some pigs and piglets, and chickens scattered about. Initially, each member needed to remove their shoes and walk across the dirt and animal dung yard. Females were sent to one bamboo mat on the floor and the men to another. Some community elders started the blessing in a closet sized shrine facing the seated crowd. Some words were said and wine was poured. A young man circulated a small tin cup of wine on a saucer to each person on the ground. This was followed by the same man solemnly circulating the seated participants with a single cigarette. There was a short dance and clapping and then an abrupt end. It was later discovered through our park friends that a woman had died yesterday in the village and they couldn’t continue the celebration of the mountain for a longer time because of their grieving.
We moved on to the next planned blessing up the mountain to the waterfall site that was visited yesterday. On the way every kid around came out to visit us with a smile, wave and a big “Ola!” all in unison. We climbed the rutted, steep road crossing through banana, papaya, and pineapple fields. Climbing higher we came upon some beautiful flat-top acacia trees not far from where the bioblitz will be held.
The ceremony was located around one particular tree within a beautiful grove up on the bluff. There was a crowd of 150-200 community members of all ages. Joel the Nat Geo photographer commented that every mature girl had a child except for maybe 2. Sadly, the average lifespan of a Mozambican woman is 40-42 years old.
Much of the ceremony was centered around 3 district officials called “Regulos” who came together for the first time for this event. Each had their uniform. One had a cowboy hat a something like a army soldier sweater and another had Khadahfi-style general’s uniform.
The ceremony started with Greg Carr giving some introductory words in Portuguese adapted from Krishnamurti:
“We watch this tree every day. As the sun rises slowly over the horizon, over the trees, this particular tree becomes all of a sudden golden. All of the leaves are bright with life, and as you watch them, the hours pass by.”
Tsonga translated this into Gorongosi for the main group attending.
Each day I have been trying to use more of my Portuguese but found high up on the mountain that most spoke their local language, Gorongosi. Throughout our visit we met some wonderful warm people.
We visited the streambed again which was quite active with locals bathing and getting water. The were many insects in the water and I also collected some tadpoles. It is possible we could find some new species on the mountain.
A goat was killed for the event and a feast of rice, beans and goat meat. In a sense this was payback. Recently some mountain dwellers had brought goats to the upper reaches of Gorongosa. Their habits are notoriously destructive for native vegetation. This was one solution to the problem. Eat them.
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