This is our third trip operating solar ovens with the Ye'kuana women, it’s Val's pet project and our most successful so far. This time our culinary workshop culminated with the baking of a cake. Dee-licious. Btw, using solar ovens limits cutting of firewood (i.e.: broken backs and deforestation), keeps women and their children out of smoke-filled kitchens and huts, limits respiratory illnesses... and saves time - time re-allocated towards education, writing, reading, voting, etc. Speaking of which, the Trojan Horse was a damn good idea.Image (c) Val Druguet. 
My old friend Gonzalo, the village wise-crack and 'scientist' as he likes to call himself (the dude with the glasses), helps me identify and classify plants and animals within the Ye'kuana belief system (wherein, for example, butterflies and birds are kin...). I show him the computer and explain the meanings and inner workings of the digital age (as if i knew them myself). NB: The soccer jersey is for color. I have no contract with Pirelli per se. And I don't like italian football either.Image (c) Val Druguet.
Every afternoon, after a morning spent in the field collecting data and photographing local fauna and flora, we sit down with the elders and identify each plant and animal in their Yekuana names on the computer. Stories and behaviors are gathered for each species and transcribed in both Spanish and native Yekuana and entered into a database. Printed, the database will serve as first edition of a book to be used as basic pedagogical material for the local school house. The aim of this project is to answer the elders' call to preserve their knowledge of - and reignite an interest in - the local environment, especially in younger generations. Image (c) Val Druguet.
Here Lisardo (community leader) and I confirm translation of text for nature guide from Yekuana to spanish. And vice-versa. The people of Jodoimenna wish to educate their children to both western and Yekuana worldviews and belief systems. Googa-booga!Image (c) Val Druguet.
Computer hooked up to deep cycle battery trickle charged by 26 watt solar panel. Yummy! Next thing you know bonobos will be working the internet, too.Image (c) Dave Rosane.
Together we record the yekuana names of plants and animals for the audio component of the school book and nature database. Here, Isabel (Isaias's wife) gives us the names of commonly planted mada, or magical plants.Image (c) Val Druguet.
Lisardo, Community leader, checks out the camera. Plan: to train Yekuana students so they can make their film. Enough National Geographic, already!!Image (c) Val Druguet.
Just kidding (the basque gourd sort of gives it away). Image (c) Val Druguet.
Those of you who have seen 'Deadman' by Jim Jarmusch will understand where I'm coming from (this here, of course, is Ignacio Sarmiento, chief of the elders).Image (c) Val Druguet.
Val hangs out after hours - our life, in a notebook.Image (c) Val Druguet.
For sure.Image (c) Val Druguet.
Lisardo, Derrick and I on the move with GPS. Land rights and demarcation oblige.... Couple hundred miles in 10 days!Image (c) Dave Rosane.
The Monkey Wrench Gang, Yekuana style. That's, from left to right: Ignacio, Armando, Lisardo, Freddy.Image (c) Dave Rosane.
Extraordinary, everyday events. When the Moon hits your eye...Image (c) Val Druguet.
Us two with Isaias Rodriguez, headman of Jodoimenna.
Image (c) Lisardo Rodriguez.
Searching for Sphinx, Arctiid, Saturnid moths, etc.Image (c) Val Druguet.
3 Lepidopterans, we discovered, are known as 'Mahewa', and are prey to the great Potoo. The rest are all Matuto. Here, a Black Witch -- Ascalapha odorata, a giant Noctuid (size of your hand).Image (c) Val Druguet.
Yutaje means 'foam of the water' in the Piaroa language. Val and I will be working there this summer with Cornell. The Mountain is a Tepui (sandstone mesa of the Guyana plateau). Image (c) Val Druguet.
