Taking Care of Their Own

---

As we spend roughly 36 hours in the jungle I took notice to a continuation of a relational norm that I had noticed previously. Prior, it was apparent to me that our host families took us in as their own, even though we weren't actually part of their family. We became family for the time being, since it was 2 weeks. This is part of the collectivist culture ideals that they hold highly and that we learned about in the Culture Smart Ecuador book prior to coming here, along with hearing it continuously in any cultural lesson that we had. However, when we entered into the jungle, our tour guides and the people that we were staying at the hostel of continued this treatment and taking care of us as their own. When we were in the jungle and going down the Rio Napo, someone in our group got a cut on their foot, and our one guide took notice and shared his knowledge of the land by using a plant he knew was healing for wounds on her foot, taking care of her. Rather than just letting her worry about it, the guide make sure he took care of it. The next day someone wasn't feeling well in the morning, and word got around, so the woman that owed the hostel we were staying at decided to make a tea for her and give her a local medicine in hopes that she would feel better. Again, this women took the time to make efforts to make this person feel better, when she really had no obligation to do so, and could have just left it up to our group leaders to handle it. Although we were only with each of these people for a short period of time while in the jungle, they took us in as their own, and decided we were theirs to protect and take care of, even if it was just for a short time.

---