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Published: November 29th 2005
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El Tuyuyu
The title says it all. Hilarious! Back in town after a quite extraordinary week. Everything seems to be getting better and better. On Tuesday we took a boat to Panaillo, where we set up gallery for teaching the villagers basic hygiene rules and risks of infection. After that I gave an English lesson and Pierre tried to teach some history and geography. We then gave out chlorine to everybody so they could purify their water for a month or so. I also instructed the village treasurer how to fill in a basic account book so they can keep track of the community's money. That night I had another close encounter with local life forms. I was lying in bead and as I was falling asleep my eyes were getting used to he dark, and at one point I thought I saw a huge spider on my bed-net (the thing that protects people from mosquitoes). This of course woke me up straight away and I turned my torch on. Of course once I did this, I could no longer see anything outside the bed-net so I was in quite a frightening situation. Eventually I turned of the lights and as I was dosing off and getting used to
Crocodile Dundee
Yes, I caught it the dark, the same thing happened again! Using my torched I whacked the roof of my bed-net a few times then after an uneasy half an hour, I fell asleep. The next day we finished off our work for ADRA before witnessing a fine jungle storm. The way the wind suddenly lifts moments before the rain starts poring is always impressive. After that we met my bedside friends in person.... we found 5 spiders each almost the size of an adult's hand. After 30 minutes of hunting and extermination, we went to sleep, knowing we had to wake up at 2.00 AM to catch a boat. This again was an unforgettable experience. Me Pierre and Sara (a Peruvian woman working for ADRA) assembled all the equipment (weighing around 100 kg) and waited at the village "port" in the middle of the night. The moon was shining on the jungle around us and we could see lights of some night-activity in the distance. Out of nowhere, a native appeared on a canoe and exchanged a few words of Shipibo with Sara before continuing his midnight fishing session. We could hear the sound of an approaching "collectivo" (a motorised canoe type boat
Eliseo and some bananas
Eliseo is in charge of investigating the tribes crops and helps them produce better and faster that acts like a bus on the river) so we started flashing our torches to attract attention. Unfortunately it didn’t stop. Maybe it didn't see us, maybe it was already full. Suddenly there was a huge splash and squirting sound nearby. We turned our heads just in time to see a river dolphin disappear under water, while "flying fish" were jumping for their lives. Shortly after, another boat arrived, and in a flash we were on board. The equipment was scattered all other the canoe (some of it was put on the roof next to a shipment of bananas). We found a place to sit in the middle of what looked like freshly caught cat fish (although I probably don’t know what I'm talking about....). Pierre fell asleep on some bags of rice; while I sat admiring the passing-by jungle as the sun came up.... We arrived around in a community called Paris. The boat had dumped us the wrong side of a lagoon because they didn’t want to go out of their way. After about 20 minutes we found someone to take us across to our destination, Santa Lucia. The guy looked like the main actor in Crocodile Dundee.
More crop investigation
Sarah, Pierre and Eliseo He showed us his canoe, and after bunging up the holes and getting rid of the water, he disappeared before reappearing with a DIY motor (what looked like a transformed lawn-mower motor, every body uses them around here). After a thrilling cross, we arrived in the poorest of communities we've seen so far. There were very few resources and most kids had inflated stomachs due to malnutrition. Flee-plagued dogs were wondering around and they didn’t even have holes for toilets. That afternoon we did our ADRA business, although it wasn't easy because the welcome wasn't exactly "warm". We didn’t manage to find a place to sleep so we ended up camping on some planks of wood next to a family's house. Only half of ours beds were protected by the roof and we had the feeling we were in for a hell of a night. The rain started around 1 o'clock in the morning. It quickly broke into a storm and our beds started filling with water. We jumped out to put our stuff under cover and then tried to cover our bed-nets with anoraks. This worked for a while but once the wind started blowing strongly, we lost all
Museo de la Salud
Thats not dirt, its a tan! protection and most of our sleeping bags and mattresses got soaked. Pierre was lying against me because half his bed had been submerged by the rising water. At this point we were completely vulnerable to mosquitoes; fortunately most of them had taken shelter themselves. Suddenly I felt some animal in my back trying to get under my bed-net. It was one of the ill dogs trying to find a dry spot! I then noticed that there was another dog quietly wedged between me and Pierre... I thought I was really done for when a third dog, much bigger than the other ones, tried to join the party. Fortunately we managed to fight most of them off and get a bit of sleep before the sun came up. It rained all night long and there was another storm around 6 AM. The next day we regrouped and tried to continue to our next stop, but after a few hours of boat hunting (while transporting all the equipment) we decided to head back to Pucallpa. We got someone to take us back across the lake where there was a makeshift taxi service to Pucallpa. After about an hour, a guy arrived and
Museo de la Salud 2
After the hygiene lessons comes the English teaching we climbed in as well as another group of Peruvians. In total 8 people (3 in the front, 4 in the back, Pierre in the boot) as well as all of the equipment (half of which was on the roof). After 10 minutes of ride, the driver stopped for a hitch-hiker and to our half-astonishment (we’re starting to get used to these sorts of things), he climbed on to the driver’s lap and we we’re off again. The journey was a 60 minute-long muddy track through the jungle, and half way there we ended up in a ditch. After 15 minutes of pushing and digging with a "machete" (a short sword that every body aged 5 or over carries around with them) we managed to get clear. We arrived in Pucallpa exhausted but with quite a story to tell!
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