Rain & Rats

Rain, rain and more rain here in the rainforest! Hmmmm, well I guess that’s the point but truly this has been a particularly well year so far. February has proven to continue with much rain over the weekend that poor Megan woke up to a flooded house today—what a way to start a Monday! Not too much damage but a hassle for sure and a mess to clean up. The river is unusually high for this time of year but I have to say so much prettier. You see less debris on the shoreline and fewer sandbars. However, high water, so early in the season, has been a hardship for communities who normally plant rice in the fall and harvest it six months later. This is done on the sandbars which form when the water goes to its lowest level. Unfortunately, with the river rising prematurely this year, rice crops have been lost and/or the growing season cut short. Last year, the river was too low in the winter and villagers had a hard time getting into the city due to dried up streams which lead to the main river--quite a long way to carry a canoe. This year they can get to the markets in Iquitos but they don’t have much to sell. Ah, Mother Nature!

Rats, unfortunately, don’t drown when the water comes up but instead seek higher ground like homes and lodges. I wonder why God didn’t make it so that rats couldn’t swim--wouldn’t that have been sweet justice and kept down overpopulation? But I digress—anyway, rats have been showing up more in the lodges and areas where normally they’re not found. I recently lost a piece of the temple for my glasses due to a rat. I’d left my glasses on the night stand while staying at the Lodge and in the morning the whole end was clipped neatly off—like someone took a pair of pliers to them. There’s enough remaining to hold onto the side of my head but just! I will have that temple replaced later this year when I’m in Michigan—thanks Heidi and Mark! They love to come in and chew up things to make nests and trim their teeth. Nothing can be left out overnight or they move right in. More toads have turned up, too, as they’ve been flushed out in the city by all the rain. However, for some reason they just don’t seem as scary and spooky as rats are but instead a delight when they come hopping into my house. :)

Things are heating up at CONAPAC as Adopt-A-School starts in two short months. Our first full year managing the new library is underway and we’re excited about all the possibilities. This year, we’ve found donors to support two students from our AAS and Library program to attend university level classes in Iquitos. This is a three-year commitment from the donor, the student and the parents who will need to provide support for living expenses. We’ve hired a new full time staff member to run our water program and this year we’ll build six more water plants. The University of Colorado students will be back to do their yearly audit in July after which one of the student will stay behind as an intern for 3-4 months. This year we’re developing a pilot project to make the training, testing and monitoring of our water plants more sustainable. We will teach and pay locals on the ground to learn how to be water techs and make regular visits for on-going support to communities who have water treatment facilities. We have lots of service projects lined up for the summer for visiting Explorama guests and in the fall, the annual spelling bee, evaluations and Christmas concert with be held. For me, I’ll be traveling more. Although I’ve signed a new 3-year contract with CONAPAC, I’ll be taking more time off to visit family and seeing the world with James. Yes, I’m going to have a very mobile/global office!