54 pages 1 hour read

Bruce Olson

Bruchko: The Astonishing True Story of a 19-Year-Old American, His Capture by the Motilone Indians and His Adventures in Christianizing the Stone Age Tribe

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1973

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Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 11 Summary: “In and Out of Civilization”

The men come over to help Olson, giving him food and water before taking him to a house to recover. Olson finds out he is now in Colombia, so he decides to head for Bogotá. He only has enough money for a train ticket halfway there but feels certain he will make it. While on the train, soldiers apprehend him because he has no identification. They decide to send him to Bogotá for questioning. When he hears this, Olson says he was laughing internally; the military was freely sending him where he was hoping to go anyway.

In Bogotá, Olson is questioned further, and eventually, he is able to convince an anthropologist that he has been staying in the jungle. The anthropologist takes legal responsibility for Olson and gives him some money for a place to stay. A few days later, Olson meets an American family, the Martins, who offer him a room on a more permanent basis. Olson stays in Bogotá for a month, wondering why he should go back to the jungle when it had been so dangerous. Still, he feels irresistibly called to convert people, feeling a strange love for the Barí despite his treatment at their hands.