As a member of the Wapishana tribe, I was born and raised within an indigenous territory which stretches across both Brazil and Guyana. I am not only of both Brazilian and Guyanese nationality, but I also learnt to speak Portuguese and English, alongside my native Wapishana indigenous tongue, since an early age.
My local indigenous culture requires me to know how to survive and live in nature and provide daily meals for both myself and my family. As this was the main activity structuring my daily life during my childhood. There was no reason to become exposed to the civilized world. I lived a happy and contented life within the Wapishana tribe.
But at the age of 14, when it was discovered that the Wapishana indigenous territory was rich in gold, my life changed greatly. Many private gold-mine investors located to Roraima, the Northern part of Brazil to provide opportunities to the locals to find gold and thereby earn money.
Alongside many of my native family members, even I was one of those people curious to make use of the new opportunities provided to us. I soon learnt that earning money offered many new ways of life, such as the ability to buy goods and make use of services, which I had so far actually not required.
But with these new opportunities also came many new difficulties and problematic situations. For instance, people working in the gold mine suffered often from malaria, as mosquitos breed in water-flooded regions, which have been deforested and polluted. Gold mines, provide an ideal place for diseases, such as malaria, to spread. The money earnt while working in the gold mine had to be mostly made use of to buy medicinal products to fight this disease.
I got infected by malaria more than three times and suffered terribly from its after- and side-effects. But the work conditions within the gold-mines were in general not at all suitable for under-age workers and I had not yet even completed my basic schooling.
Since the gold-mining work conditions had proven so ill-suited, I soon started looking out for better work opportunities. At the age of 18, I got hired by a Canadian Gold and Diamond Exploration Company in Guyana where I worked for two years which provided me with a fixed income for a while. But thereafter, I knew that my opportunities for work were limited. Without any educational qualifications as well as the fact that all the work I had so far been hired for required a great amount of physical strength and a lot of sweat, I knew that I would soon need to start looking out for a more healthy and sustainable job instead.
Upon chance, I came across the contact of one of my elder brothers who had found an alternative work opportunity within the Brazilian Amazon forest and had moved to Manaus. His job was to guide international tourists and clients from a diverse range of countries on boat trips across the Amazon lake. I found this a very attractive job opportunity because I knew it was something I could definitely do.
I called my brother up and soon found myself traveling to Manaus too.
This has now been 4 years ago and so far, my work as a tour guide has been an extremely enriching as well as rewarding experience. Meanwhile, my other family members have also ventured to Manaus to share the tour-guiding experience. As multilingual English-, Portuguese- and Wapishana speakers, we - Familia Crosa - can effectively communicate with clients from abroad, as well as with the native tribes and contrast our deep and profound knowledge of life in the jungle to others ways of life in the world. This is not only interesting for our visitors but also enriches our personal understanding and own appreciation of life in the Brazilian Amazon forest!