Colombia. In the green jungle hell, four starving siblings aged 13 to 11 months miraculously survived alone for five weeks after a plane crash.
We were justifiably amazed to learn that four children aged thirteen, nine, four and one had been able to survive 40 days alone and with virtually no means in the jungle. They are the survivors of the crash of a light plane that took off from a place called Aracuarara and was trying to reach San José del Guavare, one of the most important cities in the Colombian Amazon. The pilot and one passenger die in the accident. The children’s injured mother is believed to have survived four days before dying in turn. Her four little ones are alone in the world. It seems that their mother would have advised them not to stay there near the wreckage of the plane and urged them to go and try to find their father.
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The eldest, Lesly – thirteen years old, we recall – packed a suitcase, a tarp, a towel, a flashlight and batteries, some camping supplies, a bottle of soda, two cell phones and a music box. Phones are not used to communicate in the absence of a network, but to keep busy and entertained, especially at night. And the music box to entertain and soothe the little one who is only eleven months old. Here they venture into the heart of the jungle on an incredible odyssey, a trek of forty days, bereft of everything, lost, left to their own devices in this hostile environment, if there ever was one. hostile ? For us, including adults, definitely. For them, although children, obviously much less. The proof: you survived. They knew what to eat and drink without putting themselves in danger. They knew where to rest and sleep, protected from predators, to avoid the myriad traps of the forest, in short, they managed to blend in with the environment and, in a way, appropriated it. It seems that the little one, who was just a baby, was bottle-fed for lack of milk with a liquid extracted from certain vines. A leader from the National Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia enlightened us on what we consider a child prodigy, a miracle, to the rest of us. “The survival of children is a testament to the knowledge and relationship that indigenous people have with nature, a bond that is taught from the womb,” he explained. Thanks to this connection, these four little castaways survived. That saved them, that enabled them not to despair, not to panic, not to go mad in the face of the green hell of the jungle. In other words, they survived in good physical and mental health because they belong to a people deeply connected to their roots and to the transmission of what makes them rich. It seems to me that behind the beautiful story of these Amazonian Tom Thumbs lies a fable that we should ponder, especially at a time in our history when we are constantly being praised for being broken. Breaking with everything, gender, historical and spiritual heritage, culture, family, landmarks, roots, especially roots… In short, according to the most modern preaching, the new man would be the “absolute uprooted, the utterly deconstructed”, now it is being urged to rely on some “artificial intelligence” to guide his destiny. By the way, wouldn’t this just be the ideal hominid that the “system” loved and would do their best to sell us for the survival and prosperity of this globalized jungle that we find ourselves in without good? Do you know where we’re going without a reliable compass? The small castaways from the forest survived. It seems high time for us to ask ourselves this question.
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