Update 2

Hey Everyone,
A lot has happened since I last wrote! Here’s the latest:
We took a trip down river about two hours to a Shipibo Village along the Ucayali River. The village makes money off tourists by making beautiful beaded jewelry and Shipibo clothing. We played a futbol game with the kids and were amazed by their skill – they kicked our butts! The children are very sweet, and love having their picture taken. They swarmed Laura, and had to look at every picture she took. As we left, a little girl shyly placed a beautiful bracelet she had made into my hand, as a gift. It was so sweet. I will definitely be getting some souvenirs there before I leave.
We had a new experience right here at km 38 last week too! We have some sheep that eat our grass to keep the land fairly clear, and one morning before we let them out of their little pen a ewe gave birth to a little brown lamb. It was so cute! The miracle of life is always so wonderful to see, and it amazes me how tender animals are to their young. The lamb is growing quickly and enjoys jumping around and exploring every little tuft of grass. This morning while Mauro was painting the sheep’s hooves with violet (it keeps the parasites out and kills the ones that are already in their hooves making them lame) I discovered that the lamb is small enough to fit through the fence as well.
This past weekend we traveled up the Ucayali to Masisea, a town about 4 hours from Pucallpa by boat. That was an interesting experience. We arrived Friday afternoon and played a game of futbol with the kids. It’s a very good way to make our presence known (we always have a large audience), and shake the stereotype all Americans get: stuck up, rich, and above interacting with the natives unless absolutely necessary. Then we had a meeting to welcome in the Sabbath a home that the brand new church there meets in. The church was planted only a few weeks ago, and this was their first Sabbath without the Bible workers there.
Next day we had church service and then it began to rain. We were supposed to leave for the boat back to Pucallpa by 1pm, but the rain never let up. So, we settled for plan B. The next boat would leave at 5am. We hadn’t slept very well anyway the night before, between the techno blasting from club a few houses up through the wee hours of the morning, and the roosters who started making noise at 1am. So, getting up at three to catch the moto to the river was fine. Except for one thing. At 3am there really are no motos making rounds in Masisea. So, four crammed into the one driven by our hostel owner, one rode with Domingo, the Bible worker, who had brought his motorbike, and Jenni, Tara, and I waited in the dark for a moto. It was a little unsettling, but we did our best to blend in, and finally a moto came for us. Next came the bumpy, slippery ride down the very muddy road to the river. When we got there we paid our driver and started walking what we thought would be a few feet to the river. Only to discover he had decided the road was too muddy to go farther, so we had to walk the rest of the way. Now very late for the boat, we hurried along as best we could in the dark, and came upon the motorbike, with Domingo and Margy. They had wiped out on the road and were waiting to be towed. Thankfully in the end it all worked out and we all made in onboard about two hours later, thanks to the nice boat driver who waited for us all. Not like transportation in the US!
I think I will write a small book about advice on Peru when I get back. I’ve come up with two entries already:
1. Don’t inspect your surroundings, wherever you are, because chances are, you’ll see things you really didn’t want to see! For example, I used our outhouse at the hostel in Masisea and began to look around. Hanging a few feet above my head were huge spider skeletons caught in webs (when I say huge I mean 3-4 inches wide). As I stared at them I realized if those spiders were dead, then something much larger then them was eating them! And I really didn’t want to see whatever that was!
2. Never complain about what you have, because it can always get worse. For example, I was rather shocked by our transportation from Pucallpa to Masisea. For some reason my idea of public transportation by boat was a bit different then the real deal. I had envisioned a clean, roomy, fairly new boat with a bathroom. Not so in Peru. Our boat was old, rickety, very dirty, and smelled like rotten meat. Boards on the floor covered some of the water and other liquids that were sloshing in the bottom, and everyone piled their belongings, including trees, live chickens, bunches of green platanos, and cases of Inca Cola (a local soda) on top. If you have to pee between the plentiful stops between villages along the route, if you’re a guy or child you’re lucky and pee over the side (children also take care of other business over the side, which I was unfortunate enough to witness on this trip), and women bring pee basins (pee in the basin, then dump it over the side). While all this was rather uncomfortable, the trip back was much worse. The boat was half the size with the same amount of people, and the roof was so low I couldn’t sit up straight. Plus, we got a boatload of smokers. Lots of fun, especially after getting up at 3am to get to the boat, only to sit there waiting to leave for three hours!
So, my adventures continue. This Sunday if the strike doesn’t happen we will be starting our first clinic. Please keep us in your prayers. We’ve been doing inventory of our meds, and it’s tedious, but now we’re ready to buy what we need and finish up preparations for the clinic. Feel free to email me with questions or just to say hi! emilym@southern.edu. God bless!