Class #7 Entering the House – Entering the Camp

Class #7 Entering the House – Entering the Camp

Selena was glad that her personhood was not immersed in Amach’s body. Not limited by what Amach wanted or needed to see, unable to have any other point of view than what lived in Amach’s head or skin sensations. ‘But what will I be able to see, feel or smell now?’
At this moment, Selena’s being was like one small twinkling of an eye that glided through the crack between the stretched hide covering. The one opening in Amach’s hide hut.
The world was vast, as if Selena could see and feel with a 360-degree view. She didn’t know on which direction to focus or face.
She saw a rocky rise of Earth was behind Amach’s rudimentary hut. Muddy ground was dented with rivulets of water collected from the recent storm. Turning toward the village, a variety of large huts settled to the far-right side of a flat ground surrounding a fire pit. A struggling flame in its center.
‘Wet wood,’ she thought
Rocky terrain continued along one side of this valley until it turned as a wall across the back of the scene. Was that a fissure she detected in this imposing wall?
Scents of cedar freshness came from a thick forest defining the third wall of the camp. Mingled with an overlay of eye stinging odor like rotting meat or strong urine. What was that stench? And how could she smell it without a nose. Not now. She told herself as she pondered how she could move toward the next closest dome. She was immediately there ‘So, my desire directs my movement. I’ll need to be very careful then.’ Her ‘self’ dropped lower to the ground, and she hung in the air next to a wood framed door.
She willed herself to turn from this structure to see another made from woven branches and mud. A third turn brought another hut into view. This one was constructed solely of mud and drawings decorated on the perpendicular construction.
Every home, and she assumed they were homes, were of different styles, different building material. She wondered at the variety. This did not match her previous awareness of the encampment. Through Amach’s eyes, Selena had thought all structures were built the same, round and head high with a fire in the middle of the floor.
Perceiving movement now, she observed the villagers. Brown and yellow and reddish skin. All shades in between. Each had unique features and hair styles. Their clothes were radically different than the others. And no one seemed to mind or draw back from another who was distinctly different than themselves.
The woman bearing a braided length of hair down her back and with bright dangles from her ears, spoke closely with a black woman who had a bone through her nose. They were greeted by a burly man clothed only in a loincloth with what looked to be a bear hide across his shoulders.
How could I not have seen all this when I lived in Amach’s skin? Did these people not perceive each other’s differences? Was it blindness or simple acceptance?