Outside the City

Day three

Day three began with Chi puking in bed which set the tone for our day of staying around the house and relaxing. After the puking incident, Chi perked up and was fine the rest of the day. The following pictures show the events that happen on a daily basis for the neighborhood kids, which include going to the market, playing in the creek, and witnessing the preparations of cow intestines for the local market. We also visited a local pool with brown water later in the day and stopped by a street vendor for grilled cow intestines. Eli continued eating because he thought it was ham. He was not thrilled when he later found out the truth.

Above: Beautiful vegetables and fruit available daily

Below: Cow intestines also available daily

Above: Playing in the creek with the neighborhood kids

Below: This boy sucked on a fish head for about 30 minutes. Our kids wanted to follow suit, but Geoff advised otherwise

Above: A cart that carries people to the other side of the river

Below: Lily got to ride to the other side and help feed the pigs and chickens

Above: Cow intestines hanging to dry

Below: The small shack used to prepare the cow parts

Time Outside the City

Day Two

You know that you're a "bad" blogger when it takes you three weeks to post two days worth of pictures and comments. Our plan was/is to post pictures from each day of our trip...At this rate we should be done around March.

Day two was our favorite day of the trip. We started by visiting with the in-laws (Elita's mother-in-law and father-in-law) before treking through the jungle and up a mountain to the coolest waterfall in the world. (We visited the third tallest waterfall in the world on day four, but this waterfall gets my vote for the "most-totally-awesomemest.") The adventure was led by Elita's father-in-law, who, at sixty+ years of age, hacked his way through thick underbrush and scaled steep inclines to guide us to this hidden paradise. And as if this wasn't impressive enough, he carried Zeke on his back during most of the hike home.

The kids were pretty impressive as well. The hike to the waterfall took nearly two hours and the kids (including Chi) walked the entire way. Raechel and I hypothisize that following a man with a machete (who they now call "machete-man") as he cut a route through the dense foilage of the jungle endowed the kids with supernatural power. I think they could of kept walking for another couple of hours...

In a word this adventure was AWESOME!!!

After the hike we returned to the in-laws' for dinner. We were soaking wet from walking the last 20 minutes in pouring rain and were given dry clothes to change into. (Check out Raechel's sweet, skin-tight, brown garb...She is stunning regardless of what she wears, but I really enjoyed the spandex and striped sweater.) The kids LOVED this house. It was filled with animals (cats - for mousing, and everthing else - including the guinea pigs - for eating). The kids were diffinately in their element.

Enjoy the pictures.

Eli showing off the machete

Amazing scenery

Getting some sweet lemons from a tree right off the path

Chi and mom enjoying some of the lemons

A log bridge that we crossed

Bananas growing wild

Crossing the creek where only a few of us got wet

Dad and the kids enjoyed getting wet climbing in the falls

Zeke being carried home on the perilous path by a 60 year old man

We took shelter from the rain in a very primitive house with an amazing view and some puppies for the kids to play with

After the long hike in the rain

Back at the in-laws house where the kids were enjoying all of the animals

The sweet brown spandex

It was also the home of this regal rooster

The guinea pigs fattening up for the market...yum yum

The fire where are dinner was prepared

Chi and Lily helping to make chifles (fried banana chips)

Our chicken dinner

In the kitchen where the whole chicken was being prepared for the fire and below is coffee beans being dried out and prepared to sell

Time Outside of the City

Day One

On the first full day of our grand adventure, we attended a local church and then spent the rest of the day sightseeing near Pedro Ruiz. We visited a fish hatchery tucked away up in the mountains. After exploring the hatchery, we took a short boat tour on a nearby lake before ending our excursion at a bird sanctuary. The sights, sounds, and smells that we soaked in provided a welcome contrast to the sensory overload we are accustomed to in Lima.

This is the church that we attended. It is pastored by our friend's father-in-law. They asked Geoff to preach several times but he kindly refused for lack of Spanish.

The landscape of the hatchery was drenched with rich floral life.

The kids wasted no time exploring this place and almost fell into the water several times

When I saw the lake, I felt like it was something out of a postcard. It was incredible.

This was the boat that we rode around the lake on while the kids took turns climbing up on the front, which nearly gave me a heart attack

The paparazzi found us...These Peruvians could hardly believe there was a white family of 6 in this remote part of Peru.

This was an old sugar cane press at the bird sanctuary. My kids thought for sure it was a jungle gym.

If you can find the humming bird in this picture, you win a prize.

Time Outside the City

We left on Friday, October 29th, for northern Peru. After a 26 hour bus ride, we arrived at our friend's childhood home in Pedro Ruiz, a pueblo (small town) nestled in the mountains of the Amazonas. Our kids immediately made their presence known in the neighborhood by enjoying some down and dirty play with the local boys. They were thrilled to be out of the city, and we were in awe of God's creative power reflected in the natural beauty of this place.

Our kids enjoyed all of the neighborhood dogs. It was really kind of gross...all the licking, yuk.

We were generously given the bottom floor of a house which normally serves as a living room and kitchen. Sleeping in one room worked for me because I could go to bed at 8:00 with the kids and not feel guilty.

The street in which all of the neighborhood kids gathered and endlessly played.

Walking up to the market, approximately a five minute walk.

The front door of our house for the week.

Our first purchase was three slingshots for the kids for less than a dollar a piece. All of the neighborhood kids had one. It was humbling to be taught by a four year old how to operate a slingshot. By the way, the river in this picture was just outside our front door and offered us a melodic salutation each time we opened the door.

Making Friends in the Neighborhood

It didn't take much time for us to be noticed in our neighborhood. As the new white people with four kids, we didn't exactly "blend in." The neighborhood kids have been very welcoming and our kids enjoy having friends to play with. The adults have been friendly as well, but there is one family in particular that has befriended us.

Through this relationship, we have learned to appreciate Peruvians' commitment to follow through. For example, when you say, "We should do dinner sometime," they ask, "When?" and establish a time and date before parting ways. They are great at asking for what they want and accepting whatever answer may come. We love this about our friends.

One example is when our friend asked us to cut her son's hair. She had asked if we cut our boys' hair. She was apparently pleased with how it looked, because she immediately asked if Geoff would do the same for her son. Geoff, of course, said yes and an appointment was made with the new neighborhood barber (i.e., Geoff).

Now it is one thing to cut your own child's hair, but quite another to try to avoid butchering the hair of a one-year-old Peruvian. Our little amigo didn't appreciate my effort to clean up his overgrown mop and let us all know that we should not count on his cooperation. If you've never cut anyone's hair, you may not understand how difficult it can be to shave straight lines while the tiny head you're working on is imitating a bobble-head doll on the dash board of a Winnebago cruising the dilapidated streets of Brena (a poorer district in Lima - lots of pot holes and road construction).

One of the other things we have grown to appreciate about Peruvians is their commitment to breast feeding whenever and wherever their baby is hungry. They have no inhibitions when it comes to nursing in public and would never think to attempt to conceal the act to avoid offending the sensitivities of their American friends. We have grown to love this about our friends as well.

So...our friend restrained her son the best way she knows how. She pulled up her shirt and began nursing the boy while Geoff continued to chop away at his hair. While Geoff and I have grown accustomed to seeing mothers nursing in public, this was a first. Geoff kept his composure and finished the haircut to our friend's satisfaction. But, needless to say, Geoff was a little shocked, feeling slightly uncomfortable with using sharp, electric clippers so close to such a sensitive part of the body.

And this is how life goes in Lima...our friends are constantly challenging our presuppositions about what is normal. We thank God for the doors that He has opened in the neighborhood and we pray that these relationships will continue to challenge us and our friends to trust and follow Jesus.

Jungle Fever

Three weeks ago I traveled to Iquitos with four friends where we participated in the Great Amazon River Raft Race. Iquitos is the largest city in the Jungle, and it can only be accessed by boat or plane. We arrived to Iquitos on September, 23rd, a Wednesday evening, and spent the first night taking in the sights, smells, and sounds of the downtown area.

On the morning of the 24th, we awoke early, ate, and left our hostal around 7:30am. We then met the rest of the competitors and organizors at a park in central Iquitos, and, from there, traveled to Nauta via bus, lying approximately 120 miles upstream from Iquitos. As we entered Nauta, a crowd of people with banners and instruments welcomed us with flare. After exiting the bus, the procession, including a band, people carrying banners, and dancing children, escorted us over a mile into the heart of the town. It was an unexpected treat, and we were all humbled by their gracious hospitality. After an hour of music and speeches given by various towns people and organizors of the race, lunch was served at a local restaurant.

The real fun began after lunch when we took a boat across the river to begin constructing our rafts. We were given eight Balsa logs, rope, and several really long nails, the bare neccessities. We had brought a saw and additional rope and were able to borrow a machete. After much discussion, a design was decided on (see below) and construction was initiated. It was difficult work that took us around five hours to complete. The sun in the jungle felt like it was being focused through a magnifying glass, and we soon felt dehydrated and throroughly exhausted...and this was before the race began.

The morning of Friday the 25th, around 8am, in a boat we had built with our own hands, we commenced rowing 120 miles down the Amazon River. The river was amazing, reminding me more of the Lake of the Ozarks than the Mississippi. At many points it seemed to stretch in every direction, with no end in sight.

We had the unfortunate privilage of being on the river when it was extremely low, decreasing the current to a agonizing crawl. We were forced to paddle constantly to make it to our rest point each day, leaving little time for soaking in the sights and sounds of the gigantic river. We completed the first leg in just under seven hours, and spent the night in a village on the river. Picture a jungle scene from National Geogriphic and you're not too far off.

On day two, the route was extended because the normal shortcut had dried up, forcing us to paddle several miles out of our way. We began at 7:00am and completed the second leg just after the sun went down. The light of day was reflecting off the clouds on the horizon as we dragged our weary bodies off the boat and into a small town where we stayed the night.

I had developed a cough towards the end of the day on Thursday, and it had gotten progressively worse as the race went on. By Saturday night, after the second leg of the race, I began feeling really rundown. I contributed it to the days events and tried to ignore the little voice in my head telling me that what I was feeling was more than fatigue. I showered, ate, and headed to bed as quick as possible, fearing that I was starting to run a fever.

By God's grace, I awoke on Sunday feeling fair. I was hopeful that it was merely the exertion from the day before that had caused me to feel so ill the previous night. We set out early Sunday morning and committed to a much slower pace for the first half of the day. It was a beautiful day and the noises pouring from the jungle reminded us that we weren't in Kansas anymore. We saw several Amazon porpoises and enjoyed waving to the local children that sat on the banks towering above us. By noon the sun was bearing down on us, an oppressive task master, taunting our attempt to enjoy the last leg of the race. We picked up the pace and soon neared the end of the race.

The last 200 meters was against the current, up a tributary boarding Iquitos. We gave it everything we had because anything less than that resulted in us idling in the middle of the river, unable to cut through the water pushing us back out towards the Amazon. The locals came to our aid by revealing the route that would eventually allow us to traverse the final leg. We made our way close to the shore, and the slight decrease in the current made progress possible. We finally crossed the finish line, hoping to burn our boat as part of the celebration.

As soon as I got off the boat, I felt weird, beyond exhausted, almost numb. I managed to get back to our hotel room where I collapsed on the floor until it was my turn to take a shower. By the time I went to take a shower, I was shivering uncontrollably and felt like death warmed over. The rest of the team went to dinner while I laid in bed praying for Jesus to return.

Our plane left Iquitos at 9:20pm, and I was back home before midnight on Sunday. While I was racing down the amazon, Raechel had an even bigger adventure. She had to take care of our four young children in Lima, Peru all by herself. And what was her reward for all of her hard work, a fifth child on the fifth day of her adventure. I only got off the couch twice all day on Monday, running a fever and feeling like I had Malaria or Dengue fever.

By God's grace, we both survived and have fully recovered. Looking back, the Great Amazon River Raft Race was a lot of fun. It was challenging and amazing, and I have a lot of fond memories of the trip. I'm glad I did it...and I'm glad I never have to do it again.

My friend, David, and I working on our raft.

Our raft at the end of the race.

Our team, plus a judge and other bystanders, on our raft shortly after crossing the finish line.

Look closely at my eyes...I am feeling rough...Look at my smile...I am wasting energy I didn't have to waste.

A fishing barge with it's huge net stretched out to the left.