Excursion to Sagüi

On our recent trip to Sagüi, we came to see how loving the indigenous people really are, which helps dispel the image of friday nights drunken bouts.
The road the pickup had to travel to get to our departure point into the bush took 3 hours off our hike, thankfully, and though we crossed 2 rivers in the pickup, the road was remarkably good.

Later we found out why. The local Alcaldia (town government), when building the road, had told the Ngäby Witnesses that their brothers would be using the road for assemblies, so could they please come and crush rocks for the next year to help out?
They did. For one year. For free.


Traditional ngäby home - one of many we saw along the way


Here we've set up camp at the site. Pics are somewhat out of order. Notice the wonderful group kitchen. Our ngäby brothers worked hard and silently all weekend to prep the site and keep the campground clean.

Old versus new...
The assembly site. It's powered with solar panels, as there is no electricity in the whole 'Comarca'.
A few of our happy ngäby sisters. Smiling and other facial expressions are difficult for the natives, as they rarely show emotions visibly. However, they will laugh hysterically before and after pictures are taken. Their smile here is a rarity.
6 got baptized, out of 200 publishers. 742 were present on the last day of the assembly.
Our hike to and from the assembly site.
We met this little girl doing her chores along the way. She was in a hurry.
No matter how hard I tried or how many funny faces I made, it was next to impossible to get these girls to smile for the camera.
Our luggage, delivered first class on our return trip.
This is our version of a traffic jam.
On the way there, I had to take the horse. Knowing nothing of these weird 4 legged things with attitude, I slowed everyone down.


This indigenous girl was enraptured with the swimming mask of one of our latino friends.

That little monkey took one look at Chris and made a beeline for her.

A little bevy of native beauties.
One of the families who had to travel loooong distances to get there. One old blind man traveled 2 days.

The final test lol. Some sisters cried.

Buses Comarca style.

Rivers were getting flooded on the return trip. They were at pickup bed level.
She doesn't seem phased.