The news of the discovery of four boys alive in the Colombian jungle caused a stir. The little ones survived a plane crash and, after being rescued, they are treated at a hospital in Bogota.
Lesly, 13 years old; Soleiny, nine; Tien Noriel, four; and Cristin, from one, were saved from a plane crash on May 1st. Members of an indigenous community, the Uitoto, their mother, the pilot and a community leader died in that accident. The big question that arises is how they managed to survive in the jungle.
The Uitoto receive education from an early age to be able to feed themselves in the jungle. They are polite to recognize edible plants, build shelters, and recognize hazards that can surround them.
Fidencio, grandparents of the minors, revealed to the press that “the children are very finished, but I know that they are in good hands, I know that this is going to turn out well. They are happy to see us. They survived by eating farina and after they ran out they started eating pepas.”.
The key role due to Lesly, the eldest of the boys. “She always took care of them when the mother worked. I gave them fariñita, casabito (flour and cassava bread), any fruit in the mountains”said his grandmother Fatima, mother of the woman who died in the accident.
A soldier who participated in the search referred to the interaction with the indigenous people during the weeks that the work lasted. “From us, they learned to navigate with GPS. And they taught us a lot about the jungle, its traditions, its deep spirituality”.
At the end of each day, at nightfall, the indigenous people celebrated a ritual to find answers to their questions. They chewed mambe, burned chili peppers, and one of them communicated with a grandfather from the afterlife. A native declared on Thursday, a day before the discovery that, “According to our beliefs in the Amazon, each territory has a management and this is the culture of the Yuruparí. After a few days, the beings in the area seized the children. When they appear, they will be in good condition because they will have taken care of them.
In those labors, there was a loss: Wilson, a rescue dog. “It was midnight, we stayed near the plane, and suddenly Wilson ran out and never came back. Days later, a unit looked at it about 100 meters away, but the dog ran away again. It is very strange because a canine as trained as Wilson would never abandon his guide ”narrated one of the soldiers. The dog still doesn’t show up.
If it worried the lives of the children for 40 days, no less striking is the wear and tear of the search team, which traveled on foot between 250 and 300 kilometers of jungle. Most of the soldiers lost between three and ten kilos. “We sleep in a hammock, with a blanket, a net and an awning, and the children, out in the open. I don’t know how they resist”, a soldier wondered before the happy ending.
