Work Group from the States

This past week a group from Oregon came down to Pucallpa to serve in one of the river communities and in one of the local communities. At the end of their week they invited the staff from the office to attend a praise and worship session at a local retreat center where we were served lunch and refreshments and were able to play a few games and relax. It was fun to visit with some individuals who spoke English and to be encouraged by their enthusiasm to serve the people. It is hard to maintain our enthusiasm when we are facing the everyday challenges of actually living here and trying to adapt to the culture. So the group was a breath of fresh air.

I was especially encouraged by one of the gentlemen that made the trip down. He was 80 years old and as tough as nails. He flew upriver with the group and stayed in the community for 4 days or so…sleeping in a hammock and working a pastor’s conference for the local pastors from the community. After this the group returned to Pucallpa by boat which took 10 hours. Then they spent their time in one of the local communities (La Perla = The Pearl) working a vacation bible school for the kids. I hope I have that much energy when I am 80! Anyway, it was enjoyable and here are a few of the pictures from our time.

This last picture was taken during one of the games. This game was chosen because we were also having a baby shower for Neil and Kelsey, fellow hunger core here in Pucallpa. They are due in the middle of December. So this game was interesting because you chose 8 people and then had them pair up into groups of 2. One member was the baby and the other was the mother. The babies had to literally crawl to their mothers, drink a coke, and the first to burp won the game! It was hilarious and I think it worked out ok because it was a co-ed baby shower and the men seemed to enjoy the game.

Mango Season

The mango season is in full swing here in the jungle and the trees are actually bending due to the weight of all the fruit hanging from the branches. In fact it can be dangerous to walk under a mango tree because you never know when one is going to fall and hit you in the head. Several of the houses have mango trees right outside and when the mangos fall you can hear them landing on the tin roofs...which makes quite a noise.

Here are a few pictures of some of our co-workers trying to cut off a few of the mangos before they fall, hit the ground, and bruise the fruit. I don't think I could participate in this activity due to the extreme heights and unstable surfaces. Just after this picture was taken, one of the other guys climbed 40 ft. or so up in the tree with his machete to cut off some of the mangos. The rest of the guys were down below with a tarp ready to catch the falling fruit. The last picture is of one of the trees, but I'm not sure if you can see all the mangos on the branches. This type of mango is called the apple mango and it is riquisimo!

Our Stalker

Our neighbor Rachel was given a cat, which has in some ways become the neighborhood cat. So when Rachel isn't home or when she is over visiting at our house, Percy usually finds her way over, hops up on our window sills or climbs our screens, and cries until you can no longer ignore her.

Here are a couple of pictures of the cat on our front window sill and on our bathroom window sill.

National Census

Rachel (our neighbor and adopted family member) and Paul playing skip-bo Sunday evening after spending the day at our houses due to a national census for the country of Peru. Each house in all of Peru (approximately 3million people) was visited and data collected concerning number of people in the home, education level, type of house, residency history, etc...

We continue to wait for news concerning another strike that could occur within the next couple of weeks for the Pucallpa area. The local government in now in Lima discussing possible options, so hopefully a compromise can be met. We spent Wednesday and Thursday last week in our house due to a temporary strike. There were no classes in the schools and no public transportation. If there is another strike it will probably last much longer and be more disruptive.

Rabbit Ears

Well this past weekend the Peruvian soccer team played Paraguay in a South American qualifier for the world cup in 2010. Anyway, this is a big deal here in Peru...and especially in Pucallpa. Typically if Peru is playing soccer, usually no other sport qualifies, the neighborhood is practically silent. There are no disco-techs blasting their music, the sound of motor-taxis decrease significantly, and the only time you hear a noise is when the team scores a goal. The whole town erupts to celebrate. Everyone is at home watching the game.

So Saturday night Paul and I get home and prepare to watch the game, but when we turned on the TV our reception was terrible. So Paul gets out the aluminum foil and we go to work trying to fix our signal. We were laughing trying to remember the last time we had to use rabbit ears and foil to watch a show on TV. Anyway, we were able to fix the signal enough to follow the game and in the end Peru tied Paraguay 0 to 0. It was not too exciting to watch, but at least Peru didn't lose!

Managing the Heat!

We are now entering the raining season here in Pucallpa. What a blessing! We are looking forward to cloudy, windy, rainy days. However, the downside to these wonderful cloudy, windy, rainy days is the amazingly intense sun that follows!

Paul and I arrived back in Pucallpa Sunday evening, and Monday we had the first rainy day since August. Since then the days have been extremely hot and humid. I was completely drenched by the time I reached our house this afternoon, walking only a 1/2 mile of so.

So how do we deal with the heat? We come home and go directly to our one and only air conditioned room! So as the Peruvians would say, "Gracias a Dios" (Thanks to God) for this one luxury here in the Jungle! It is wonderful to have a room to relax in and retreat from the heat and the stress that go along with living in a new culture.

Enjoy the picture above. This is the main road here in Pucallpa and those moto-taxis are the main form of transportation. Oh, and the dust you see at the side of the road typically ends up in your eyes, ears, mouth, and most of the other creases on your body...good hygiene is a must here in the jungle!

Back in Pucallpa

We are now back in Pucallpa after enjoying a much needed hunger core retreat in Mancura, Peru. Mancura is located on the northern coast of Peru and was absolutely beautiful and is virtually uninhabited during the off season (May - November).
There are currently 17 hunger core serving here in Peru at this time. 14 of us are from the States, two are from Korea (with a little baby girl - cute as a button!), and one is from Japan. 16 of us were able to participate in this quarterly retreat.
We had a wonderful, relaxing time and were able to have fellowship, have devotionals, share testimonies, and worship the Lord in English.

Trying Something New

Well, we would love to stay in better touch and so we have decided to try using a blog to communicate a little more frequently all the things happening in Pucallpa.

We are currently in Lima after finishing a "Hunger Core" retreat with other co-workers from the states and from Korea. It was a great time to relax and talk in English. We head back to Pucallpa this weekend.