Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Hunt for Supplies

Frances and I sat down the other day and contemplated the feat of buying supplies. It went something like this:

Me: Frances, Necessitamos buy supplies!
Frances: Yo sais!
Me: Where should we go?
Frances: No sais! But we need to get them! Nooow!
Me: Yo sais!

Iquitos is a small city, but it seems vast and without limit when you need to find something specific. Hardware stores can be found on nearly every corner, but that doesn´t mean they have what you want. For instance, they might have a machete and some handy tools, and then some buttons and stickers, or candy. So, you could potentially walk to 10 different stores and still not find everything that you need. Which basically leaves you wandering around like an idiot. Now, imagine this added to the fact that Frances and I have the vocabulary of a toddler. Interesting.

Yesterday, we had a stroke of good fortune, or
maybe we sought it out and in turn were taken pity on....

It came in the shape of this fellow.

Caesar Peña.


Or, as we secretly refer to him when he is doing something valorous: our night in shining armor, who´s help has been absolutely indespensible to our project. KUDOS CAESAR!

He has worked wtih Project Amazonas as a translator for about 10 years, and we got to know him durng the medical boat trip. He speaks English and a few other languages to boot.

Caesar´s office is across the street from our hotel (how convienent), and knowing this, Frances and I ambled over, doing our best at nonchalant.
¨Hola Ceasar, que pasa?¨¨we say. A raised eyebrow and a frown, ¨Nada, commo estas?¨

We are fine (imagine us rocking onto our heels and twiddling our thumbs)! Smiles all around and nodding. Then, to keep from bursting, we spill our predicament. Caesar, nodds in all the right places as we tell of our woes and shakes his head at us. Whilst chuckling he flags down a motocarro.

Despite the confusion between pvc pipe for wires and pvc pipe for AGUA, finding the correct sizes, and locating gasket material, etc, we managed to find everything in two hours! MUY BUENO!


Frances rode with the rotoplast tank all the way back to the hotel. YEEE HAWW!
When we arrived at the entrance,
we thought...wait a second...(hands on side of face, OH MY!) this is NOT going to
fit in our room (note: I say this for effect, really we knew it going in to the situation).
Frances and I share a glance, a
glance that says PLEASE LET THE HOTEL TAKE PITY ON OUR SITUATION! It is a good
tactic. We ask, their eyes buldge, we look downcast, and they heave some signs. Crazy gringas! Some awkward fumbles and stumbles
later, and the large black tank is nestled conspicuously amongst the shrubberies in the courtyard.
GRACIAS A LA PASCANA and Caesar, we couldn´t have done it with out you!
Tomorrow, LA SELVA!
Dear readers, please stay tuned as we are headed out to the jungle and will not be able to
update the blog for a good period of time. BUT NEVER FEAR, there will be more to come at some point. Don´t fall off the edge of your seat! Until, I am Brigitte Cronier, and this is WIIILD Peru!









Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Madre Selve : Mother Jungle

During the medical boat excursion, we got to check out Madre Selva, the place we will call home for the next month and a half. This field station is owned by Project Amazonas and is located 90 river miles east of Iquitos on the south bank of the Rio Orosa. It neighbors Yagua Indian community of Comandancia which is approximately 20 minute boat ride away. This village has our only access to the outside world: a satellite phone that was recently installed by the government. We will also be trading with these locals for their delicious crop of corn, yuca, and camu-camu (a new favorite fruit of mine!)

There are places to hang hammocks and also beds to sleep in. I imagine I will hang my hammock for chilling in the middle of the day, but retreat to a screened bedroom in the evening. We will have a large kitchen to ourselves which will be great to cook in! Brigitte and I will quickly become fast friends with Julio, the grounds keeper, since he's got all the know-how of the area that he can impart upon us.

We also got to check out the scene where we are going to install the digester. There is plenty of space around the kitchen to put a large tank which is good and there is already a fish pond established that can immediately benefit from the by products of the digester. One problem that we will need to figure out is that the land around the kitchen becomes flooded during the rainy season so we will need to make sure the system can tolerate these conditions.

We leave on Thursday, tomorrow will be tying up the loose ends before the next leg of our adventure!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Assessment of Need

While the doctors were attending to their patients, Brigitte and I worked on compiling information for a needs assessment for the area. How are these people living now? What do they eat? Where do they poo? What do they want to see change in their current lifestyle and has any outside help been beneficial to them before?

On average we visited two villages a day which is quite significant since there is sometimes a two hour ride between communities and it is seriously too hot to work in the middle of the day. We visited 14 different villages spending time learning about their daily life, agriculture, health issues, income sources, education, town layout, hierarchy, etc. We talked to many people and played with children.

Coordinates were taken at the significant landmarks of the village. Each had a very similar set up and layout with all the houses lined along the water for close water source, a school and generator house(for the larger villages) established by the Peruvian government and sometimes there was a secondary school. Many of our hand drawn maps looked very similar.

We found that some of their main crop is yuca, bananas, papaya, and sugar cane. To earn money for the family, men leave the home to work in lumber yards which is a two day boat ride away from the village. This is also frequently how disease is berought back to the villages. Women stay home to care for the children and tend of the house. All villages had a primary school but many of the small ones did not have secondary schools. As a resuly, many people do not matriculate past the 6th grade because students need to be sponsored to live in the larger villages to continue studies.

We quickly learned where their bathrooms were when one of the medics asked for el baño and a child directed him behind the school and said, "Anywhere behind there is fine." I belive the doctor held it for several hours before we got back to the boat. We were all relieved to relieve ourselves!

The aid that has been provided by their government has been limited in its utility. For example, the Peruvian government installed toilets in many of these villages and now most of them are now used as flower pots, chicken coops, or just left to decay. I asked on child what one of these 'contraptions' was and she had no idea...she just shrugged and giggled.

So now that we have a better idea of the people, communities, and lifestyles, we can focus our design so that we can get people interested!