DB PERU

Highlights from our Amazon jungle trips

Sept and Dec 2006

I would like to share with you some of the highlights from our last 2 trips to the jungle.  I will tell our stories, beginning with the donations.

Renzo had an occasion a few years ago to meet a tourist visiting Peru named Mari Villacicencio from Largo, FL.  She herself is Peruvian.  She was very interested about our work in the jungle, and I kept in touch with her by email.  Before you know it, she was gathering items for donation and hit upon an idea for a toothbrush program.  With a little publicity and creative work, she presented me with a huge decorated bag full of almost 1000 toothbrushes to take to Peru.

This gave us a great opportunity to use these toothbrushes for teaching.  Juvencio, the technician at Dr. Linnea Smith’s clinic on the Amazon River, went with us on both trips and did what I call his “magic dental show” for the children.  Meisa, my youngest daughter visiting me from Tennessee, was with us in December and assisted Juvencio with the programs.

In each village he would gather the children and do a little presentation about dental health, including options from nature to use instead of toothpaste.  Then he would take the children outside and line them up in the grass.  As they opened their new toothbrushes, we would put a little toothpaste on them and put clean water in their cups.  Then he and Meisa would proceed to brush their teeth, showing them the correct way to brush.  They followed their lead and were all brushing, suds everywhere.  Then he took a drink from his cup to rinse and spit on the grass.  Of course the children followed the lead and loved the spitting best of all.  The adults had trouble containing their laughter.  They then cleaned their brushes with the remaining water in their cup.  The school teachers were quite supportive, and all of them cooperatively stopped classes for this impromptu dental class.  The demonstration/return demonstration will probably reinforce their learning much more effectively than just handing out toothbrushes.

Dental health is a big problem in the jungle, and certainly caring for teeth has to be started young.  The only option at this time for dental care, even in the clinics, is to pull teeth.  So even though our teaching may seem like quite a simplistic program, it may be going a long way to help these children to keep their teeth much longer and in healthy condition.

One morning Meisa was expressing wonder about whether the villagers appreciated what we were doing.  As she and Juvencio were involved with their next dental class, I saw a little 3 year old boy standing in the line with his toothbrush and water, but not understanding what to do.  In the next moment, I saw her down on her knees, helping him to brush his teeth.  But this moment was not only seen by me.  When the class was finished, several young women presented Meisa with a handmade beaded purse as a village thank you for her efforts and kindness.  And I think this answered her question about their appreciation.

We were able to visit 14 villages with this program, including a native Yagua village.  Juvencio donated his time and Dr. Linnea permitted him to leave his duties to assist us.  Renzo patiently helped the children decorate the big toothbrush bag, signing their names and drawing pictures.  On my subsequent trip to USA, I proudly presented Mari with her now colorful empty bag.  Mari has since started her own charity called Wings of Inspiration – www.wingsofinspiration.org – where you will also find DB Peru listed as one of the charities that she supports.

The donation of reading glasses came from a man, Scott Dennis, who found our web site on the internet.  He apparently is in the business and wanted to help.  He donated 500 pair of reading glasses, different strengths as well as about 100 pair of sunglasses.

In September we had a delightful young man volunteer with us, Nima Ghomeshi, from the Canadian Embassy here in Lima.  He took this project on as his own, and in each village, he would “set up shop”, usually outside at a table.  The older folks would line up and wait their turn to have him help find the right strength of glasses (or decide they didn’t need them).  Obviously this was a worthy project, but we weren’t prepared for the comments.  People were saying things like “I can see again”, which almost brought tears to one’s eyes.

Nima also found that some of the women were doing better with different strengths of glasses for the task of sewing.  So quickly someone produced a needle and thread and the glasses were fitted to the task of sewing, and not reading.

Fortunately in December, we had another young man, Sean Tourtellotte from Oregon, volunteer with us.  He is a student who was in Peru for 3 months learning Spanish.  He picked up where Nima left off and fitted glasses in every village we visited.  Again we visited 14 villages with the glasses, including the Yaguas.

We had another radio donation from the charity, Miracles In Action – www.MiraclesInAction.org.  This included a radio, antenna, solar panel and battery.  John Waymire divides his time between Indiana and Iquitos, and frequently accompanies us when he is in Peru.   He went with us on both trips to help install the new radio and equipment, and check on the condition and status of the ones already installed.   His troubleshooting has really helped educate the people in the villages, as well as keeping the equipment in good condition and our costs down.  He found that in one village they were overusing the radio to the point of compromising the life of the battery.  Also with the abundance of sun in the jungle, the solar panel has the ability to overcharge the battery.  There are fancy pieces of equipment that cost as much as the solar panel to prevent this, but John rigged up a simple-looking (to me) gadget to put in the wiring between the solar panel and the radio.  This was a donation from him.  He is also working with one of the men in a village, Artema, to see if he would/could be the overseer of the radios in that part of the jungle.  Artema seems to have a real interest in this project, and of course that would help with troubleshooting before problems escalate.

Just a note about the installation of the antenna and solar panel:    In this particular village, San Alejandro, there were not properly-spaced trees, so we had to ask the men to install 2 tall posts for the antenna a certain distance apart, and another post for the solar panel.   They did all this within one day and when we returned, all was ready - except for how to get the antenna to the top of the poles.  They had a couple a ladders, but neither was tall enough, so they tied the ladders together and sent the lightest-weight man up the pole.  I was absolutely sure that this could not work and the man would fall with the ladders.  But being a woman, I stayed out of it.  Well, of course – or thankfully – it did work and the antenna got strung just fine.  But we take so much for granted when we go about our daily lives, that situations such as this always give me a keen appreciation for what we have available to us to make our lives easier and safer.

We also received a huge donation of more than 600 shoes from the charity, Share Your Soles – www.shareyoursoles.org.

We had been working on this donation for a couple of years and they were shipped in Oct.  Meisa sorted them by size, and in turn shipped them to Iquitos air cargo.  Sadly, this shipment didn’t go to Iquitos – or at least that was what we were told – repeatedly, 5 times.  We went on our Dec. jungle trip without our shipment of 16 boxes.  We returned to Lima only to be told, that yes indeed, everything had been shipped the same day we sent it, and now we can only assume that someone was just too lazy to check on the shipment when we called.  So the shipment is waiting in Iquitos until we return this month, and we can only hope all is fine.

But this did not only cause a problem with the shoes.  We also had 5 big boxes of beautiful fabric and sewing supplies from the delightful Harriett Hahn in Fort Myers, her friend Lyn Bolinger, and the wonderful women from her church sewing group, Fort Myers Congregational United Church of Christ Women.  And included in this shipment was our medicine from the charity, Heart to Heart International – www.hearttoheart.org.  This was the first trip in our 4 years of work that we did not take medicines or medical supplies.  It really hit home how significant that was when we visited the villages and saw that there was nothing in the village medicine cabinets.  We just had to shake our heads and say “next time”.

On an up note:  In December we did do the chocolatadas in 7 villages, and gave supplies to 2 more.  This is the traditional Christmas party for children with hot chocolate and panetones, like a fruit bread with butter on it.  This is our second year to do the parties, but I can’t say that this will be a tradition with us as there is some cost to it.  The entire villages love the parties, and of course we include everyone, not just children.

The women in the village help get a big pot of water on the wood fire and when it is very hot, we add evaporated milk, sugar and chocolate bars.  Then the panetones are cut into big pieces and spread with butter.  We make a big show of serving the children first, then the adults.  This is certainly one time when I can say “I respect you and value you” with my action of serving them. 

We also delivered 8 more wooden stretchers, handmade by a young man in Iquitos, Josue.  He does a beautiful job.  Materials and labor are about $35 a piece and we are giving one per village.  These were bought with monies equally given from Miracles In Action and DB Peru.

A few words about the Yaguas – these are native Indians that live in the jungles of Peru, and have their own language, Yagua.  There is a small isolated village about an hour’s walk from the little lodge that we stay at in San Pedro on the Napo River.  In Sept, we sent a runner ahead for permission to visit the village and then hiked through the jungle (with a guide of course).  Our reception was very cool and the chief’s son stood with his arms folded and wouldn’t speak to us or answer our questions.  We found a man who spoke Spanish and he did a bit of interpreting.  The best we could understand was that the chief’s son did not want to continue in his village and wanted to wear clothes as we did and know more about the world.

My first feeling was one of sadness, because anthropologically speaking, when tribes such as this one change or disband, they will be gone forever, including their culture and language.  However I know in my heart that they have as much right as I do to find out about the world and live it fully.  Not much more was accomplished that day, except to find out that the few children in the village were not going to school outside the village due to discrimination from the kids there.  Apparently they were making fun of the way they dressed and spoke.  I asked if there was a teacher in the Yagua village, and they said no.  So who was teaching the kids?  Well, one can’t find out much when the people aren’t talking, so we left.  But we did ask if we could return another time and they said yes.

In December, we sent the same runner to ask permission to visit the village.  Off we went again, but this time we came bearing gifts of reading glasses, toothbrushes and other items.  The reception was much brighter and they even gave a demonstration of their blow guns, which the Yagua are famous for.  Of course they wouldn’t sell the guns they personally used, but I did buy quite a nice one that was made by one of the men – again an art that will surely die away.  They also told us that since our visit, they had sent a man to the clinic in Mazan to work with the doctor there to learn to be a health promoter.  That was very encouraging to us since they are so isolated.  We will continue to visit this tribe as they permit. 

A big discouragement to us was our failed attempt on both trips to hold a 2-day health seminar for the health promoters and midwives in the villages.  We feel strongly that education is of utmost importance in the general health of all the people.  Here is some background on what happened – or didn’t happen.

There is a new doctor, Dr. Rivas, in charge at the clinic in Mazan – this clinic is the one that “oversees” through government channels the villages that we go to.  Dr. Ronald, who had been there several years and was one of our biggest supporters, had gone to the city of Iquitos for specialized education.

In June we had asked Dr. Rivas to hold certain dates in Sept open for the health seminar.  We put this in writing for him and for the health promoters.  When we returned in Sept, he had forgotten about it, so we set it up for the following week and paid for hotels, food, etc. for the people who would be arriving to Mazan from the jungle villages.  Then we went on our way to do our work in the jungle.  When we arrived back to Mazan, the seminar had not taken place, Dr. Rivas had gone to Iquitos, and the promotores were sitting around, wearing their best clothes, waiting for something to happen – having arrived the previous day.  The doctor on duty knew nothing of it and was leaving for Iquitos himself.  So I apologized profusely to the promoters (who by the way were not working in the fields or fishing during this time), gave them a little money for gasoline for their boats and said next time.  They ended up comforting me and saying it was OK.

So in December we were primed.  Upon arrival to Iquitos, we immediately took a public boat to Mazan to set up the seminar.  Dr. Rivas was not there, and it was ascertained from the staff that the seminar could not take place this time either.  We were very discouraged.  In our mission statement, we avow to work within the established system of health care in Peru, but I was starting to question whether or not this was going to work.  About that time, Jessica, the nurse midwife, said that she would be more than happy to help us arrange whatever we needed in the future and she would be the go-between for Dr. Rivas.  Now things were sounding better as we knew her well.

She also committed to sending a group of people from the clinic with us on our next trip – a doctor, a nurse, a nurse-midwife, and a lab tech.  We have a boat, motor, and gasoline, and they have expertise, vaccines and medicines.  So through this frustrating experience, good things are happening.  We will finally hold our seminar in March, and in turn, take a medical group on our trip.  This seminar was paid for by the Miracles In Action charity.

In Dec. we made donations at the two hospitals in Iquitos – Hospital Regional and Hospital Apoyo.  These donations consisted of supplies more appropriate for care in hospitals, than in clinics or the villages.   Hospital Apoyo relies mostly on donations, so they are happy to receive most anything.  Both hospitals reassure us that supplies are kept separate and are given free to the people who need them.  We feel our donations to them also show a gesture of goodwill and friendship.

On the last trip, we saw more animals than we had seen in a long time.  One of my favorites was a large rodent.  One of the lodges had a “tame” rodent, about 2 feet long and 18 inches high.  I forget the proper name of it, but I guess these rats in South America are the largest in the world.  This one was able to make little chuckling noises when you scratched his head or chin, all the while continuing to eat grass.  It walked around freely like a pet.  We decided that he was the “rodent of unusual size - R.O.U.S.”  from the Princess Bride movie.

The giant lily pads, Victoria Regia, were spectacular this time.  They are as big as a person with beautiful white lilies floating between them.

There were also spiders as big as a hand – one in Sean’s waste basket, which he quickly removed from his room. 

Aside from the jungle work, we also work in other areas of Peru.  In November, we received $5000 from the Miracles In Action charity, in which $2500 was earmarked for the children’s home, Ciudad de los Niños outside Lima, and $2500 for the Hogar Santa Martha, a home also for children outside Lima.  Peg Meyer is the contact person from that charity who oversees the programs at these 2 children’s homes.

Susan Quattrociocchi has placed DB Peru on her web site www.cfchildren.org.  Proceeds from the sale of beautiful rings will be given to the charity of choice.

As always, we have so many people to thank for their support – money, supplies, information and just spreading the word.  We couldn’t do it without you.  The numbers of those we are able to help is growing.   Muchas gracias.

Diane Bowie – President

Renzo Peña – Vice President