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Published: March 9th 2008
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Belen
Hell on earth Day 9 - Lesmahagow to Peru
For the past few days we have been pretty much been on a high. The opening of the centre at Ica; participation in extreme sports; wildlife spotting; singing and dancing at Kusi and meeting people and boys whose lives have been changed for the better. We have been witnessing the successes and the results of many years of hard work and dedication. And then we came to today.
This morning we were taken to a place in Iquitos called Belen. Belen is Spanish for Bethlehem. But Belen is not a place with any hope, any joy, any spirit. Belen, quite simply, is a place which should not exist. At all. It is poverty, squlaor, deprivation and tragedy of the highest order. It is a place where vultures live and circle in their hundreds because death is always in the air. It is place where people live in homes on stilts at the edge of a river which is a flowing sewer, full of untreated sewage. Rubbish and filth all over. No fresh water, no sanitation. I actually felt like I was an intruder in these people's lives this morning, and it was not
Vultures on Stilts
Birds of Prey - but preying on what? comfortable. The air was putrid and stale, and the faces I looked into were full of despair. One of my guidebooks on Peru, describe Belen as "the Venice of Peru" due to its' systems of canals and waterways. As you can see from the pictures, the resemblance is rather hard to imagine. It was a really awful place, full of sadness.
In the midst of all of this there was, and is, a flicker of light and an element of hope. There is a clinic. A clinic which is permanent, and where people can go and receive some medical help and advice. A clinic where there are clean kitchen facilities for cooking in. Hope in the Jungle. We were given a quick tour of the clinic and introduced to the doctor there at the moment. The medical teams that come over to Peru to work on the Amazon Hope medical boats also spend a few days working in the clinic. The clinic is a welcome sight in the area.
We walked through Belen from the river's edge to the maeket area, and my senses were once again assaulted by the sights and the smells. The smells of the
Venice of Peru
Do you see the resemblance? food on display were dreadful, and at one point I thought I'd never eat again. Turtles, upside down and inside out, dried fish and meats and no health and hygiene certificate to be seen anywhere!
The Scripture Union also have a day centre in Iquitos - Centro de Los Tigres - where they look after and teach around 100 boys and also feed them. They hope that by looking after the boys in this way, that there will be a much lower chance of them being thrown out into the streets of the city, as the families of the boys don't have to feed them and therefore not really have to worry about keeping them.
In the afternoon we were taken by boat upriver to the boys' home at Puerto Alegria. The boys' home grew from what was once an orphanage, and it was taken over by the Scripture Union with the help from The Vine Trust. It was another high of the trip. The home is an amazing place in the middle of the jungle, where wonderful things are being done and where lives are being saved. We were introduced to all the boys and were shown
Home By The Water
Would you want to live here? around their home, and then we were entertained by some singing and dancing that they had been practising for our visit.
Before heading back to the hotel, we were taken out onto the mighty Amazon River to see and feel the size and force of this work of nature. It has been an incredible day, with emotions running all ove the place. Today I have seen things that I never expected to see and I have images and smells branded into me no for life. The problem with today will be in the retelling. How do I tell people about the things I have seen here in Iquitos and Belen? How will it look when it is all up on the overhead projectors being shown to groups and organisations? The pictures will no doubt speak for themselves, but they won't be enough. Today was a very rough day, and nothing would ever prepare a person for what is here in this part of Peru.
If you want to help why not join one of the work parties? Look at the Vine Trust's website for more information: www.vinetrust.org
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