Before we left modernity, our guide Ed said that we should bring lots of little gifts to hand out while we were in the jungle.  In Mentawi, this mostly means two things: smokes and candy.

Fully stocked and excited to go, Batiste and Joanna (a French couple I met in Bukittingi) and I jumped in a loaded boat to head upriver for a few hours.

After docking at a hut beside the river we walked with a shaman who had shared our boat and offered to have us stay with his family for a few nights.  After about an hour and a half of slipping on all sorts of jungle mud and rickety log bridges, we arrived home:

One of the first things any of us noticed once we got into the house: monkey skulls hanging in the back room.  This trip was gonna get weird.

During our stay, Ed tried to integrate us into daily life a bit to get an idea of what daily life and chores are like for the Mentawians.

One day, we went fishing with the women in the family to watch as they pulled shrimp and crabs out from overhanging banks with a pretty standard fishing net.

That same day I went on an expedition to find grubs with the kids, who apparently really enjoy the grubs when they’re at their freshest most wriggly.

For out last night in the jungle we trekked to a different house a few hours away.

Our guide for the hike, who lived nearby, later gave us a look at traditional canoe-carving as well as letting us shoot his bow.  We were all pretty terrible.

I’d like to see one of those bows take down a forest monkey, though.

Something I had before only associated with the Lion King, when our guide talked about the chance to go “grub hunting” I was actually pretty excited. She being a bit of an insecto-phobe, Joanna and Batiste stayed behind on this one.

While our all-around awesome cook/guide/porter/fixer did most of the heavy work with the axe, the children were also excited to get into nooks and look for these tasty treats.

Ed (our guide) and I mainly stood back and watched, through I did a lot of slipping in the mud (even barefoot, I had no hope) and taking of photos as well.

After we finally acquired a pretty impressive pile o’ grubs, we headed back to the house and (after they were toasted a bit on the fire) took to snack time.

I didn’t get any video of the actual consumption, but my main thought while eating one (and only one) was that it took forever to chew it down to where it seemed safe to swallow. I was told “banana” before I tried, but I thought the flavor a little more earthy than that gives it credit for.

Perhaps the most intrinsically exciting chore I got to tag along for with the Mentawi people was a shaman making poison to tip his hunting arrows with.

In the end, a simple song.