My Backyard

The jungle here is extremely beautiful and unique. There is so much to see right outside my door. There is this really amazing cave that is pretty big and super close. I could probably get there starting from my porch in twenty seconds or less. Inside the cave is this little passage that leads to a little room. One time a small bird called a swiftlet had a nest inside the little room, so when we went in to the cave, the swiftlet got upset and flew out. When it came out, Hudson grabbed it. We took it back the house and looked at it, and then let it go. Another cool thing in the cave is this hole that goes down for a long way. One time when we first found the cave, one of our tribal friends went down in it; he went so far that we couldn't see him even with flashlights! That's pretty crazy, isn't it?

Another neat thing in my backyard is this rock hang over, where people sometimes sleep on hunting trips. There is another place I like that is down the hill that we live on. We call it the flatlands because, compared to most spots around here, it is like a meadow. It really is beautiful and has all of these little trees and shrubby bushes. It even has a little pond that is filled with thick moss, and there are also big water beetles that we have collected and are going to send to a scientist.

Now I am going to talk a little about the jungles here. They are extremely colorful and very mossy. The moss around here is very thick and spongy, and the trees are not like in a forest where most of the trees are straight. Here in the rainforest, you get lucky if you find a straight tree. One thing that we ask of our tribal friends is to not cut down trees close to or around our house, and also not to kill any birds that live in the jungle near our house.

I think it is a big blessing to be able to live here. My family and I have neat opportunities to explore and collect in the jungle. Many scientists would love to be able to spend so much time in such a remote and unexplored area, but God has given us this opportunity since we work with the tribal people who own this land. We are fortunate to be able to do that, but at the end of the day the thing that we are most grateful for is the fact that we are Christians.