Plenty of crazy things have been a foot as of recently. Sadly I have not been able to inform any of my great experiences with my faithful followers. But alas, I have emerged from the depths of the jungle and have come out to battle the city of Pucallpa once more to bring you news from the chacra. To explain a little further, after finishing the campaign at km 8, my travel team and I took off to a new location - Tupac Amaru. A quaint little village way back in the jungle (the place where we had the medical clinic oh so long ago). Due to its semi-remoteness, we did not get to town very often (which is fine by me, I absolutely love the jungle). As I write to you now, we have just finished our campaign here in Tupac and are getting ready for Christmas break. (So it could be a good long while before you have from me again – but do not worry, I am thriving on my rice, beans and aguaje).
Almost 10 years ago, Tupac had a Adventist Church. Sadly the leaders all moved away and the church crumbled. There a man that has been keeping up the land of the church, even though there is no longer a standing church – just posts. This man has been praying for years that someone would come to revive the church. He was starting to get discouraged that God was not hearing his prayers, because nobody was coming to help. The crazy thing is that it is a law here in Peru that if nothing happens with a piece of land for 10 years, the land is up for grabs. When we came, the man was super excited because it was just 2 more weeks until the land would be up for grabs. God worked wonders and lead us here just in time to start building a church, before someone else stole the land. Over the past weeks we had our evangelistic campain (and tried hard to not get eaten alive by mosquitoes). Just last weekend we had many baptisms in the nearby river. My daily focus of this campaign was the same as last. To visit house to house teaching people about nutrition and the like. I have many great students here who are anxious to learn and now that my castellano is a bit better I can teach a little more and understand more.
I will have to admit that my experience here in Tupac has been way better than life in Km 8. Tupac is a little village deep in the jungle, meaning lots of trees, a river and lots of cool stuff. Km was the outskirts of Pucallpa, full of people, dust and motokars. Here in Tupac, my friends have taught me all kinds of things about the jungle (Jungle life is uber- duber exciting). There is one family that I have gotten to know especially well. Recently I have learned how to properly cut a coconut with a machete, without cutting of my fingers. Bloody coconut juice just is not the same. I have also learned a little better how use a machete in general. Machetes are the most practical tool in the world – my new years revolution will be to never be found without a machete.
And now for something completely different - I have learned how to fish with a net. This may sound easy, but is actually a little complicated - especially when all of the words used to describe this process are new to you. I did lots of nodding and pretending to understand, when in reality I did not really have a clue. When it came time to trough the net I practically lost my balance and almost fell in the river. But alas all was well and I did not fall in. It was a great fishing trip – I paddled the long dugout canoe up the muddy river. Upon returning back to dry land, we fried up the fish and my little stomach feasted for the first time on fishy goodness. That same day we also went out to the chakra (field) and feasted on all kinds of fruits – the best part of which was that I ate nearly 15 guabas – a true feast of fuzzy white goodness. Another day this same family invited me over and fed me rice, potatoes and …piranha. I was actually surprised how good this all was. Needless to say I have fallen in love with jungle life. Every day brings something new, exciting and unexpected. Each day there is something more to learn. It is great to wake up each morning, with the expectation of something great happening, but not know what.
