European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 8, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Timeless love an impossible Bond crosses the millennia by Nancy Shulins a special correspondent Yarima Good is leaving the shopping malls traffic jams and fast food franchises of the suburbs this Winter for a journey 10,000 years into the past Shell to among Earth s most primitive people with no written language and no concept of numbers or time naked indians who least on termites and tarantulas and have yet to invent the wheel in effect she will be in the Stone age. In fact Jarsma will be Home five years have passed since the love of a Man brought Yama out of the Amazon Jungle through the looking Glass and into the_20th Century five years since she first wore clothes or walked in shoes since she Learned to make Light by moving a Little stick on the Wall since she crouched under a Bush to hide from the terrible beast with glowing eyes that turned out to be her first car now the Mother o three in a new Jersey suburban Jungle she can laugh at her Early fears Hal her reflection would Spring from mirrors and attack her. Hal toilets would bite her if she sat on them in 1975, when anthropologist Kenneth Good went to Venezuela to study Yarima s people the Yano mama she was a child and he was the first Quot Tabuh Quot or outsider sliced Ever seen he ended up staying 12 years. The child who d shared her plantains and fishing spots with him grew up so did their fondness Lor one another against All Odds it bloomed into love now Ken is her husband and it s Yarima who s a stranger in a strange land the land of the Tabuh where everything s different everything except love that alone is the same Strong enough to Bridge the 10,000 years Between her world and ins. There is much m this baffling wonderland Hal delights tier Macy a sportswear and Mcdonald a French Fries Michael Jackson and nil football. Automatic dishwashers and disposable diapers still it s a staggering transition from life in a Jungle tribe surrounded by every Friend and relative she d Over known to life in a two bedroom apartment in Rutherford a now York. City suburb if it weren t Tor her children Ken says Yarima would sooner go Home sometimes her dreams carry her Back to the Jungle and she imagines herself lying in her Hammock surrounded by friends she dreams she a walking through shallow streams with tier sister and brother the water Levels Cool on her Bare feet and crabs nibble her fingers As she scoops them up in tier hands then she wakes up those dreams and the videotapes Ken made m attic Jungle Are Yarimar a Only links to her past Short of an arduous and expensive journey Back through the looking Glass she has no Way of communicating with family no Way of knowing they re alive in the Uncle says Ken every Day is the same. In the morning lie women go out to die Forest they make a Yarima has traded a Stone age lifestyle for motherhood in suburban new York. A Yano mama family rests on hammocks in the venezuelan Forest. Yarima Good when she lived in the rain Forest. Since she left the tiny holes for her facial Sticks have closed. The goods with their kids Vanessa left3, David 5, and Daniel 7 months. Tire sit and talk laugh watch each other s babies and take turns going olt to gather food which will be shared then they go to the Stream Wash their babies themselves and the food and come Home with Flowers in their  you re a woman you re a gatherer. If you re a Man you re a Hunter this is what life is reduced to in the  by contrast this is what life is like in the land of the Tabuh English lessons which Yarima likes housework which she hates to which she watches religiously she has David 5, and Vanessa 3, the Only Yano mama children on Earth who can name All Lour teen age mutant ninja turtles she has 7-month-old Daniel a tiny Echo of her with his straight Black hair Almond eyes and High cheekbones. And she has Ken the Only adult this Side of the looking Glass who understands her language and her loneliness. He a everything to her Lover provider teacher interpreter and Friend. Just As she once led him along Jungle paths tie now guides her through her strange new world with its perplexing cast of characters Jesus Christ Betty Crocker. Pee wee Herman Uncle Sam Ken s twice her size with a Long husky body unlike that of any Man she d Ever seen. As a child she called him Quot Long feet Quot and Quot big forehead Quot and touched his Black wiry Beard in Awe Yano mama men Are Small smooth cheeked. And unlike Ken who at 49 is thinning never go Bald Quot she s seen those ads for hair club Lor men he says Quot and she s bugging the hell out of me he s not an easygoing Man nor is he Good Ai hiding annoyance when confronted by a traffic Jam or a Ketchup stain. Quot a Type triple a Quot he says Bui when Yarima s in the room he Speaks More gently and smiles More easily mustering All the patience he withholds from the rest of the world. Quot i never really get mad at her i realize what she s going through is  there san easy warmth Between them As they sit together on the sofa murmuring in their secret shared language smiling at the baby s antics and at each other they do not kiss an Odd custom to the somewhat reserved Yano mama. There Are other ways of showing affection. Once when Ken had been away from the Jungle Yarima amazed him by throwing her arms around him in front of everyone. They also caused a sensation by becoming the first couple to sleep together in the same Hammock. The fierce resistance to change that s enabled the Yano mama it s a very simple relationship. We just we re not overburdened with trying to figure it out. We re just Happy to be  to remain a Stone age people into the 20th Century makes Yarima that much More of an anomaly. She moves through her new world with equanimity and Grace smiling and humming As she mixes baby formula or watches mtg. What is she thinking what is she feeling Quot i d give anything to know what s going on in her head Quot Ken says the three Days a week that he teaches anthropology at Jersey City state College he can guess what she s feeling boredom. Tuesdays through fridays she has 90-minute session. With Tutor Rachel Schwartz. Then she and the kids walk downtown. Otherwise there s Little to do but watch to and wait Tor Ken. To break up the Monotony he takes them to Burger King Kentucky Fried Chicken Rural Pennsylvania new York s Central Park there Are also visits to Willowbrook Vail where pushing a stroller flanked by wheedling kids Yarima vanishes into a Bobbing sea of mothers. In some ways she fits right in proudly displaying David s construction paper Frog on her refrigerator and stocking cupboards with bagels wheaties and other nutritious snacks. She dresses the children in colourful cuddly outfits befitting the Sawy shopper she s become. And included in her Small but growing vocabulary Are phrases any no More Coke Quot she Mother would recognize admonishes. Quot milk. Your Teeth fall  she can t read Road signs yet she s the one who Points the Way to the mall and remembers where they parked she also operates the Var. Rachel is teaching her to count an alien notion Lor a Yano mama whose entire numerical system consists of Cne Quot Quot two Quot and  the written word is another now concept so is the idea of marking time. Ken figures Yama s around-26, but there s no Way of knowing for. O having so much to learn is difficult but Quot though i be the child of the rain Forest cruises a mall. Seen her discouraged she never gives up Quot Rachel says Yarima dreams of learning to drive and buying a red sports car she also wants to move Back to Pennsylvania her first Home outside the Jungle it was there at Bryn mawr Hospital that she delivered her first baby barely arrived in America she was still breaking in her first shoes size 2 Buster Browns sixteen months later during a visit Home she delivered her second child on a banana Leal David and  Loc to 111 ii new acquaintances the stones of then highs Savoi my the Shock value How will Kiev regard then heritage As they get older a will they tool proud of sell conscious a special of different a Quot my Endeavor in Lito is to make both equally proud of How and where they were  Ken save. Ai the moment. I Hough. He has Moie a Nessing concerns he s about to irek into the Aduain wills three suburban to schooners. One of whom. Vanessa get hysterical at the sight of an ant the kids Aie excited about going to the Uncle in much the Way they gel excited about going in a Luiei King to pie pure them. Yarima plays video i ies Ion ilium out relatives and coaching them in Yano mama a Langua a they understand but Don t speak a i m  say David Quot not hungry Lii Quot tins m Tun. Foi a Wink eventually. David s scowl signals the end of ii e game Stop i liking Jungle tie says the visit to Yarima s Village Hatsuji Tweten neat the head Waits of the Oronoco River will tie Yama s lust since Vanessa was born the polite sell assumed woman in Black leggings boars Little resemblance to the naked Indian who walked out of tie Jungle live years ago the Liny holes through which she inserted her facial  have closed nowadays Fie wears eyeliner tins trip she Hopes to entice others with necklaces of i Maslic beads to gather tier lir Wood Loi her Foi if record she d sooner make the last Teg of the journey by holi Coiler than on tool How will tier family regard tier with tier Menean children and Western ways Quot i think Well tie seen As the Rich  says Ken As her husband he s proud of How Well Yama s adjusted As a scientist tie s acutely aware of having upset the balance disturbed tie symmetry of both then worlds to never truly belong in either that is the terrible juice the time traveler a Xis Ken knows his children could t survive in the Jungle though Yarima has yet to accept that Quot the answer he says Quot is to go Back and Forth nine months hero three months there Quot the problem is How to pay for it f Ach 1ni costs roughly $30,000 several potentially lucrative projects Are in the work1. Into the heart. Ken s account of his Amazon adventure was published this year by Simon amp schuster the paperback is due out any Day. Reviews have been favourable one British journalist though berated Ken for introducing Yarima to pop culture and last food instead of classical music and haute cuisine Quot it s a Jingle out there Quot Road the headline the article struck a nerve in Ken who Hales fast Tood and prefers Beethoven but says Yama s Jire Lemn leg Are just that a hers not his she has Many traffic jams Gold chains Ali Ort urns county fairs he does his Best to indulge them All. Though tie did cancel pay por View to after receiving a $189 Cable Bill Yama had watched Rocky v seven lines i Teel t in doing the Best i can arid that  the guilt somewhat says Ken still i come Home trom work continued on Paije tit Page 14 the stars and stripes wednesday january 8, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 15