Leavin' Paradise

As I now come into the home stretch of leaving town, I can’t believe how quickly the last 9 months have passed. On the other hand, it feels like I’ve lived in Iquitos and Peru for a lifetime. As many of you know, I have to return to the States to get my passport updated and take care of other personal items which were left hanging at the end of 2008. Although I look forward to returning to see family and friends, I’m already missing the action here. I also worry about losing the Spanish skills I’ve acquired so far. Well, maybe this will be a good opportunity to stay in touch with my friends here but only by writing to them in Spanish! And maybe I can stop having my friendships dependent on Facebook as I'll have the chance to have some real "face time" with family and friends!

I just returned from three days in the jungle assisting with our first water workshop and although it went very well, I was thrilled to get home to my little home in the garden and back to my own bed. For this workshop, there were about 10 of us assisting and we stayed in the village for two nights. We were provided with mattresses, sheets and mosquito nets from Explorama and the village provided us with the floor of the school building. As you can imagine, it was quite grubby and as basic as it gets. I’ve mentioned before, the first question I ask when I come into a new village is how bad are the “baños”? Well, this one was pretty bad. The only good thing about it was that it was close to the school and it had a door. However, I still chose to “hold it” all night and I can tell you it was a painful experience! For breakfast we had salted fish, boiled manioc and plantains, bread and a cup of lemon grass tea. Our hosts provided us with the best they had and we were quite grateful for their hospitality.

The water workshop itself went very well. There were two days of information presented to all age levels, games and songs, opportunity to see the difference between clean water and dirty water at the microscopic level. At the end, a new, clean 20-liter bucket was presented to each family who attended. All the children got their own new blue, plastic cup with the message to only drink clean water printed on the side. Joining us for this workshop was Christie Chatterly and Dave Sparkman. They are both from the University of Denver working on their PhD’s in clean water systems for developing countries. They have been a great asset, helping CONAPAC by evaluating our systems--plus they were just plain fun to have along! Also, this past month, there have been a number of medical students working in the area who are also from the University of Colorado. I met with them about possible collaboration in the future and they also joined us for the water workshop. What fun it’s been for me to have so many English speaking people working together in the rainforest. They all spoke Spanish, too, so the kids enjoyed their ability to communicate and I appreciated the interpreting they did for me!

Now for some animal stories: Lizards, rats and bats, & chiggers. What do these have in common? Well, perhaps many things but mainly they are interested in spending time in my life! A little over a week ago, I noticed a small, baby lizard in my living room (interesting color, almost an albino). Anyway, he was there for a few days but I kept expecting him to exit at some point because this would not be his natural environment for long. I’ve had lizards in the house before but they come and go quickly. Well, when I got back from my last trip to the jungle, I was relaxing in my “mesadora” and what do I see but my lizard--but now he's almost twice as big! (I know it’s the same one because of the odd color). And what do I see him do? He is busy eating dinner, running up and down my living room wall grabbing bugs. No wonder he’s getting bigger and maybe he thinks he can live there forever? I don’t know but as long as he stays out of my bedroom, I am considering him my pet. Any names suggestions? Now, I wonder where he poops??

As I mentioned before, I was staying in the village school, sleeping on the floor along with 10 other people. Both nights, after everyone was settled down with no more snoring or other “noises” (besides bats flying overhead), what do I hear?--Crunch, crunch, crunch…a family of rats had moved in to eat from the food stash we brought with us to share in the village. I’m not sure what they were the most interested in—dried beans or spaghetti—but I wasn’t going to stop them. The good news is I was at the opposite end of the room from the food and I had my IPOD. Needless to say, I plugged that baby in and cranked up the volume. Sometimes what you don’t know (or hear) won’t hurt you! And my last souvenir from Santa Teresa is my third case of izangos (or chiggers). As my previous readers know, this is not my favorite thing but I am optimistic this time they won’t drive me quite so crazy. Despite almost bathing in DEET, they do know how to find the most hidden corners of your body. Well, mosquitoes and black flies await me in Michigan so I will be well-prepared.

OK folks, I’m heading back to the States. Can’t say I’ll have much to say about the rainforest while I’m there but perhaps some reflections on the culture shock I’m sure to receive…stay tuned!