Matu

According to one headman, called Matu, hunters were increasingly returning empty-handed.

EcoEarth.Info Environment RSS Newsfeed 2009

According to one headman, called Matu, hunters were increasingly returning empty-handed.

EcoEarth.Info Environment RSS Newsfeed 2009

According to one headman, called Matu, hunters were increasingly returning empty-handed.

Rainforest Portal RSS Newsfeed 2009

 Of course, our cool self-absorption kept us from seeing that Matu knew everything we thought we were the first people in the world to figure out, and she knew it very, very well.

And Then: Parts 1-3 2010

         At some point in our childhood not noticed by us but apparently deemed remarkable by Matu, Matu, without consulting us, made plans to decorate our room in a ballerina theme — all pinks and whites, white ceramic lamps in the shapes of swans with frilly tutu shades, and so on.

And Then: Parts 1-3 2010

 The next thing I remember is a blazing white room and Matu — my “mama two,” my “mama too” — bathing me, the warmth of her hands and the blankety reassuring softness of her voice as she gently turned me this way and that and rinsed me with water that she scooped up in her hands.

And Then: Parts 1-3 2010

 Matu smelled of vetiver and flowers, and Deena smelled like rain on clean hot pavement.

And Then: Parts 1-3 2010

At that time, Molly and I — Molly was only a year and a half older than me, and I was very precise about this “only” — were just on the verge of thinking about stockings and hairspray and such, but Matu had already started avidly monitoring our behavior, our grooming, our posture, even our facial expressions.

And Then: Parts 1-3 2010

 Night after night, after Matu tucked us in and turned the light out and closed the door, Wolf would jump into bed with me, and in those moments before we went our separate ways in sleep, Molly and I talked, our words shaping thoughts between us as we wondered together about the world we lived in and other worlds that we would never know.

And Then: Parts 1-3 2010

 Instead of the wagon wheel headboards we had requested (Molly wanted hers mounted by a real saddle), Matu had gotten rustic-looking pale wood headboards that were stenciled across the tops and sides with stylized, very well-behaved lizards.

And Then: Parts 1-3 2010