Jack Voelkel
Sophie Muller: Beyond Civilization
Forty years Among Jungle Indians in Colombia
Part 1 of 2
The rain poured down in the thick Colombian jungle, soaking the lone white woman to the skin. The Indians who were paddling her canoe became silent and sullen, as they mumbled together about the identity of their passenger. “Who is she and what is she doing here,” one asked the other. “I’ll bet she is a witch, and she might cast a spell on our families! Let’s get rid of her!”
At the next stretch of extra long rapids, the paddlers unloaded her duffle bags as usual, carried them along the bank, set them down below the rapids, and then went back for the canoe—presumably. She waited. And waited. Where could they be? Running up the bank she just caught sight of them disappearing around a bend in the river, paddling furiously in the opposite direction!
There she was, deserted in the midst of rapids and waterfalls – left to all the hazards of the jungle, miles from any hint of “civilization.” Who was this woman, and what was she doing in such a precarious situation – and how would she face this drastic predicament?
Her name was Sophie Muller, and a few years before she had been studying advanced art at the National Academy of Design in New York City. One day her attention was arrested by a small group of people “blowing trumpets and preaching” on the sidewalk. She recognized the leader, Jack Wyrtzen, from leading a dance band and playing the trombone solo in a minstrel show in the Reformed Church. She also recognized Jack’s wife whose father was her doctor. She thought, "What are these two nuts doing on the street corner? Must be off on some kind of religious binge" (Wyrtzen).
Out of curiosity, Sophie responded to their invitation to study the Bible, and though coming from a vague belief in theosophy and reincarnation, over time she opened her heart to Christ. Shortly thereafter she enrolled in the National Bible Institute. Her ambition to be a renowned artist was set aside. Her prayer became, “God, show me what You would have me do with my life” (Muller 1988:6). His answer was to give her a burden to go to a tribe that had never heard the Gospel, which became her call. She applied to New Tribes Mission, and in 1944 was on her way to Colombia.
Finding a TribeIt was not easy for a missionary to secure a resident visa in Colombia in the 40’s, and the couple who were to accompany her to set up their mission was denied entrance. For the next 8 months, Sophie wandered around the country, learning Spanish, talking to missionaries and mission executives trying to find a tribal group where no missionary had ever been. One day while staying with the Drivers, a missionary couple who were working with the Cubeos, she fell into conversation with some rubber gatherers. They mentioned the Curipaco tribe that to their knowledge had never seen a missionary. But quickly one commented, “You can’t go there! They’d kill you and take your possessions.” His friend countered, “Oh, the Curipacos are good Indians.” Yet another wanted her to know the dangers of the jaguars and boa constrictors.
Thus it was that some friendly Cubeos agreed to paddle her to the edge of Curipaco country, the headwaters of the Guainia River. After days of paddling, then walking through the jungle to another river, more paddling, she was left stranded. After several long hours of desperate anxiety and prayer, God’s peace flooded her heart. He had called her; though she was lost, He knew where she was; and though there seemed no human help was available, He was there. His answer was a trader’s boat manned by four Curipaco paddlers who stared at her in astonishment. Explaining her predicament to them, the trader said, “You can come with us. In three days we’ll reach Sejal, a Curipaco village just two days away from the government post of Maroa on the Venezuelan border.” This was just what she was looking for: a Curipaco village well within their territory but near a post office and store.
During those three days on the river, the trader introduced her to the customs and ways of the Curipacos. “You will not change them,” he warned. “They love their drink and dancing and their tribal customs too much.” “No,” she replied thoughtfully, “I won’t change them, but the Word of God will!” (Muller 1988:19)
The BeginningIn Sejal she met Capitán Lapa, the chief, who approached her hesitantly and held out his hand. “You have come!” (the common Curipaco greeting). Sophie, rather excitedly, showed him her Bible and told him in Spanish that it was God’s Word. “The One in heaven who made us…,” she said, pointing to the sky above. “I have come to teach you to read it.” The chief looked at her rather quizzically. Teach them to read – an incomprehensible thought. What was her real motive? Deciding to trust her, he led her to a clay hut with roof of palm fronds, and Sophie embarked on a unique pattern of evangelism.
With the help of the chief’s son-in-law who knew a little Spanish, she learned enough of their language to make a syllable chart, employing a method devised by Frank Laubach.[1] Within a week she was teaching a small audience to repeat after her the sounds of the syllables on her chart.
At first I had to go back and forth between two syllables until they could really see them in their minds. They loved it when I dictated words they liked: ku pe (fish). They could see quickly how they would be able to read words, and their motivation increased by the day (Muller 1988:24).
Incredible as it sounds, within a few days, the faster ones could write whole words in their own language, as she pointed to the syllables on her chart: two syllable words, then three syllables, and more. She taught twenty-two boys and girls in the morning and the teens and young married men in the afternoon. In the evening she attempted a meeting, hoping that some of what she said in Spanish would filter through.
Each morning before class she taught them a chorus, with her pointer moving along the syllables. Soon they had memorized them and sang them lustily! After two months she journeyed to Bogota via the Orinoco and Meta Rivers, and with a borrowed mimeograph machine, produced the first booklets ever in Curipaco. The inside cover had a full syllable chart, which meant that the booklet served as a primer and reader for them. This was followed by a simple catechism, Bible stories, and Gospel songs which she had translated with the help of two Spanish speaking Curipacos. Motivation really doubled when they found they could read the booklet in their own language (Muller 1988:27).
Training LeadersRapidly Sophie was gaining fluency in the language of the tribe. Soon the evening meetings, in which her talks were amply illustrated by flannelgraph materials, carried spiritual truth into the hearts of her listeners. Three young men, Melisio, Anilo, and Paulo, responded more and more to the message and became her helpers. God was at work, answering not only her prayers but those of many who were interceding for her.
These three men accompanied her on a trip down river to another Curipaco village, whose inhabitants had heard of this strange white lady who was teaching Indians to read and were excited about her coming. Now she had helpers who knew what she was about, and could chant out the syllables. Because of them, she speeded up the reading process from two months to two weeks. The men spent time with the slower ones and encouraged them all.
For the two weeks I would be here, I must teach these folks all I could about the Gospel story, morning and evening, and the pictures were great memory aids. Even now some of my companions from Sejal could write up those flannelgraph stories in Curipaco with great accuracy. This became their assignment as graduates whenever they were not needed to help teach. The Bible stories they wrote were the key to correcting my grammar mistakes in subsequent booklets…The night noises of bird calls, crickets, and multitudinous insects were sweet to my ears. But sweeter yet was the drone of syllables that went on in the community “schoolroom” long after I had retired: “da, de, di, do, du; ja, je ,ji, jo, ju…” for I knew that very shortly these Curipacos also would be able to read God’s Word in their own language (Muller 88:32).
[1] Frank Laubach developed the “Each One Teach One” literacy program, which has been used to teach about 60 million people to read in their own language.
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