Wow. I thought that Uatsi was pretty cool, but Kachabri ("Kachabri Arriba" to be exact) was unbelievable. It’s also located on the Talamanca indigenous reservation in Costa Rica, but much further into the jungle mountain range.

In order to get there, six of us and our supplies had to take my car to Suretka and pay someone to watch it. We loaded all of our stuff on a boat and crossed the river.
Our leader, Timoteo Jackson, had arranged for someone to pick us up with a truck on the other side.

After about a half hour of riding in the back of the truck and picking up  / dropping off people we saw along the way, we finally reached the house of tribe member Elias Sanchez and family. We unloaded our stuff off the truck and joined him for a tour of his house (well, "hut"
is more like it) and a bit of lunch.

Before I knew it, we were being joined by lots more indigenous people. I hadn’t been told much about our itinerary before we left, so I was leaving myself open to lots of surprises. It turns out that we were there at this house to meet with some people who live deep in the mountains. They walked 3 hours down from their mountain location to meet with us.

Don Timoteo led a prayer and proceeded to hand out much-needed clothes
and toys. If I’m not mistaken, there were about 20 members of the
Bribri tribe with us. Don Timoteo was visibly upset because he had been
expecting more people. Saying that these people are "shy" is an
understatement. They were literally scared of us, many having never met
"gringos" before in their lives. It is the tradition that we don’t
speak directly to them, but instead to the elder, who translates
everything.

Don Timoteo would translate from Bribri to Spanish, and I would
translate from Spanish to the two volunteers we had who only speak
English.

We also got to hear about some of the struggles of the people who live
in the mountains. Many have no schools less than 3 or 8 hours away.
They also have no medical care. Some don’t even have access to water
without having to walk a very long way, carrying it back to their homes.

Afterwards, we had to get going so as not to lose daylight. The sun
goes down and it’s pitch dark by 5:30pm at the latest. So we walked for
about an hour, carrying our stuff, further up the mountain. It was
totally beautiful and a bit mysterious. We were thankful it wasn’t
raining.

When we reached our destination, we were met by our host and
her 3
daughters. This mother of 53
and her young girls live alone in a part
of the mountain that is inaccessible when it rains. They are completely
self-sufficient. But they work hard and are very fearful of many
things.  For one, the sons have all left in search of a better life in
the capitol city and have not come back to visit or to help
financially. The mother is afraid the daughters will do the same.

It got dark about 15 minutes after we arrived, so we all rushed to find
the hole in the woods in case we needed to use the "bathroom." Some of
us washed up or rinsed off in the river. Then we all sat down together
for a few minutes and got introduced.

Our hosts didn’t say a word to us, but the mother did speak for about 3
minutes to Timoteo, who then translated for us. She said she was glad
to host us and hoped that we would be able to help the tribe with some
of their really important needs.

Our dinner was the same meal we had been having for days: Rice,
spaghetti, and plantain. Though both for dinner and breakfast we had a
tiny bit of tuna mixed in with the spaghetti, which was surely a
special treat for us, and undoubtedly donated by Timoteo, along with
the rice.

Sleeping was one of the biggest shocks. We all slept together on the
floor, which is nothing but tree bark on a raised platform. Underneath
our bodies slept the pigs, piglets, chickens and (emaciated) dogs. They
oinked all night. Even with a sleeping pill, I couldn’t sleep because
of the bugs, pigs and cold temperature (I was still cold even though I
was wearing my clothes and a jacket).

Going home after breakfast the next day was a bit more challenging than
getting there the day before. First we walked back down the mountain to
lower Kachabri to the house of Elias Sanchez. He spent the night
preparing proposals for us for an aqueduct system that would bring
water to 10 families and for a cultural center where tribe members
could gather together for meetings and for classes.

We had no way to get a hold of the guy with the truck (don’t ask me why
we didn’t make arrangements the day before). So we walked to Amubri,
which is the largest inner-reserve town (which isn’t saying much!).
That took a few hours. I was sweating like crazy, but I was fine, amazingly enough.

In Amubri we found a guy with a bus who offered to take us back to the
river crossing for $8. We gladly agreed to pay him, and we continued to
collect a bus full of people along the way who also needed
transportation. The rest of the trip was fine and we made it back to
Timoteo’s house for another lunch of rice, plantain and, this time, a
tiny piece of chicken.

Needless to say, I was never so glad to get home and take a shower. I
forgot to mention that Laura  (our Volunteer Coordinator) and I were
both sick with some kind of flu / bug. But because we had promised to
go, we felt we couldn’t back out of it, as they had been so excited and
had made all the arrangements for us.

It was an amazing experience and neither my description, nor the
photos, can do it justice. We do think many things came out of it, most
importantly the beginning of our relationship with the folks who live
deep in the reservation. With this new relationship and the help of
Timoteo, we’ll be able to get in there and help build them a school,
bring them much-needed supplies and do our best to make their lives
easier without conflict to their traditions.

If you are interested in hearing more about how you can help, please
contact me. Your physical presence here as a volunteer or your
donations would be greatly appreciated and would make a huge impact on
their lives.