Miga-Cove: Our stay with the indigenous tribe Naso Tjër-Di
“Miga”-with this word the Naso greeted us every day. When a person said that, you answered with “cove”. It’s a friendly greeting in the language of the Naso.
After a long bus ride, we arrived in the small town called Bonyic. We were welcomed very friendly, and our host families showed us our homes. We looked around and played a bit with the little kids. After dinner the two pupils who were going to be the project leaders of the next day presented the program.
The next day, the Naso made breakfast for us. They prepared eggs with pineapple. At 8 am we started a long trip to visit another village of the Naso. We went for one hour in small canoes across the river Teribe. When we arrived, the people showed us how to make cacao and we had the chance to produce it. We were also allowed to make our own cups out of bamboo. It was very impressive to see how the people live and how beautiful their artwork and traditions are. We also bought a few little things of what they produced, like turtles or little boats made out of wood. The way back was very funny because it was raining, so we got very wet. After we had put on dry clothes, we had a long talk with the whole group of KUSis, where we discussed many topics of our voyage, gave feedback to each other and tried to find solutions. It also was the birthday of Jannika and Johannes, so we sang “happy birthday” (cumpleaños feliz) in Spanish for them and the Naso gave each of them a little handmade present. That was very nice.
In the morning, we hadn’t much time because again at 8 am we went for a trip to the rainforest. We got divided into two groups and followed our experts into the forest. There we saw a lot of animals, for example beautiful birds, small lizards, poison dart frogs and cute sloths. The man showed us which plants you can eat, which are dangerous and some that you could use for medicines. It was very interesting to see all the living beings in the forest. Next, Jannika held a small presentation and told us interesting facts about the poison dart frogs. When we came back from our trip, we had some time to get prepared for the football matches. First the girls started. It was so much fun to play against the indigenous women. We won with some great goals against them. The boys played a bit longer and, in the end, they also won the match with a very exciting penalty duel. We took some photos together with all the players and in the end the whole group jumped into the cold river and swam a bit.
Back at our host families we changed our clothes and I helped in the kitchen. There wasn’t much to do, for example cutting oranges and pressing them to juice. For dinner we made spaghetti with bolognese and for the vegetarians, tomato sauce with palmita. This is an indigenous plant which is very delicious. Then we had a party with the Naso people where we made a big circle so everybody could see each other and sang some songs. We danced a lot of indigenous dances and showed some of ours, too. During the party we gave our host families some presents that we had brought from home and received some beautiful things like little figures made of wood, traditional clothes or handmade cups and jewellery. They also gave us a traditional drink made of corn. We were so thankful for all the things the people gave to us and how friendly they had welcomed us. That evening was really beautiful, and it felt like spending time with a big family.