Meliza: Our environment is special and different because we live mostly in the jungle, right? We live in an environment surrounded by rivers, lagoons, giant trees, animals, and insects. It's different because we can't enjoy or see other spaces like we do here. Here in the jungle, we have all the resources that make us different. Just being in the jungle makes us different; we as a people are different. The environment where we live, our homes, it is all different. My environment is green, fresh, a peaceful habitat, with the sounds of birds and insects. And it's very different from the city. Very, very different. So, for me, it's a healthy environment, an environment of peace and tranquility, of good health— good mental health, good physical health. We live from our self-knowledge, our ancestral knowledge.
Nora: To have a connection to one's ancestral land in the modern day is not common.
Meliza: Of course, and the ancestral land for us is an inheritance. Firm, present, where we can care for it, maintain it, sow seeds and share that ancestral knowledge with our children. The land is special. It's a blessed place.
Meliza: The children are already learning about how to live within the environment, within the jungle, within a community. They learn about the uses of the plants, about medicine, about the growth process of a plant. They learn about the food we can find in the forest, which is healthy food. So the children adapt quickly. They learn when they are young and experience this way of life.
