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I don't remember how, but when I woke up, I found myself deep in what seemed to look like a rainforest. Looking around, I found a stick to walk with and began looking for a shelter. Sure, it was hard to move through the green carpet, but I could see the wildlife right through its very eyes: colorful frogs croaking on the leaves, snakes hanging around, looking for prey... I even saw a bunch of colibri flying west (as I thought), so I decided to follow them up to see if they could lead me to a house or village nearby.
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It was true, I soon saw a native village: thatched houses, wildly dressed people with amulets around their necks. They were in the middle of celebrating some kind of native holiday, when they noticed me standing silently there and watching them. I immediately perked up, getting ready for defence. The oldest man of the village came up to me and asked something similar to "Who are you? What brought you here, young lady?"
Though I wasn't a linguist yet, I understood that it was a language of the Tupian group, which I didn't understand at all. I asked them in basic sign language if I could come in and explain the situation on paper, parchment, even sand, for Pete's sake! The man got my vibe of thinking and ordered some girls to give me a stick, so I could draw.
When I wrote "Guarani" and connected it with me by an arrow and a few question marks behind, I could tell them I couldn't get what they were saying. Then, by drawing natural signs surrounding me and question marks, again, I noted that I didn't know how I got there. A crude drawing of a colibri plus me and an arrow to the village meant how I got there.
The people stared at me suspiciously, but then the chief came, put his hand on my shoulder and told me in rather broken English not to worry, because I could just call for help when it would be available.
In a few days, I saw a tour bus coming over to the village and thanked everyone who was there: from the colibri to the chief of the tribe - for saving me from being trapped in the wilderness forever.
