March 8, 2011

Hi!

I hope to put up some pictures next week, so check back again then.

While you all complain or rejoice, whichever the case may be, about the cold and snow, we wish we had a little down here. Matt said today he would love to just run and jump in some snow right now!! And with his t-shirt on, so he could feel the cold on his arms!! ha! Actually, we have been having the rainy season, so most days are cloudy and up to 85 instead of 90's for about 2 months, so it has been nicer. We hadn't been to the pool for probably 6 weeks and we finally went on Thursday this week .

Last week we went on a river trip to Arara, a ticuna village we had never been to before. You have to ask at this village before giving out anything. The chief's father, who we met along the way on the bank, said we would probably have to pay 20.000, or $10 US, but we didn't have to and got to go in. It was a big village and we didn't get it all done with passing out calendars. The kids were swimming and playing tag while Christina and I waited at the river and then they stood around us and listened to us talking english! We asked if they understood us, they said no, and we said, we don't understand your ticuna either! They understood some spanish. There was a medical team of 25 people, dentists, drs and nurses etc there for 4 days and one of the nurses came back with us, (Paul knew her), with a malnourished little girl to recouperate at the hospital. They have a special building for children with play equipment outside, when they are malnourished or sick. One of Fransesca's nieces had to go there for about 3 weeks as she had lost half her weight and was continuing to vomit and have diarrhea, so no wonder she couldn't gain. She was only 1 1/2 years old. I guess she was pencil thin and was told that she was almost dead. She is better now. The drs at Benjamin Constant hadn't done anything and sent her home.

We also went to Angie and Nora's village, San Jose, and there is a little group of Christians there and we had a meeting with them and left 10 songbooks there. Going in was absolutely MUD crazy and we were wandering back and forth in the tributary trying to find it and one guy who was fishing says, over there, then the next, over there. We finally got the right place and called them to meet us as it was sort of jungle paths!! They have electricity and cell phone service from Leticia there. The line goes through the jungle.

Menajen has been coming with us on river trips faithfully and is a big help and also Jose comes sometimes. River trips are every Thursday usually. Paul brings an electronic player that has the Bible in Ticuna spoken on it and he often asks if he can put it on the loud speaker and he hasn't been refused yet. They often want to buy it but we only have one so far. Daniel Brimlow brought it down when he came.

Yesterday Leticia was moving a BIG power plant machine down to the power plant. They had to ship the contraption AND the semi on a ship down the Amazon. (There are NO semi's here!) So I took Matt to see it, as it very slowly went down the street, as they had to chop or extend all the wires up over it all along the road. It took all day pretty much, as our electricity was out ALL day. Our icecream was melted at lunchtime, well soft like matt and I like it. Hopefully, it will help with reducing the power cut-offs that happen almost every day here. It is good to see the money going to the community instead of the politician's pockets!

That silly parrot of Don Jaime's (our neighbour) keeps squawking, but he actually sings songs, but not as often as it likes to yell "JuanPa!" (the neighbor kids name), squawk, or other junk and drive Bethany crazy while she is trying to concentrate on her schoolwork!

Last Tuesday was Paul's 60th birthday and we had some friends for lunch, then cookies and icecream. Mostly other missionaries we know that live here. I figured out there were 7 nationalities represented. Korean, British, (incidently, the Brits think that our US english is like english with marbles in our mouths! ha!), German, US, Canada, Brazilian, Argentinian. A fun time was had by all, even the 2 little boys who wanted to climb everything available!

Jaidro and Fransesca got to mtg on Sunday. They are able to make it about twice a month, depending on the kids and sicknesses etc. Baby David is growing, a solid boy of muscle and of course, adorable! He happily squealed for me for about 10 minutes!

There is a dengue scare right now on the river, because of the rainy season, and there is one lady in Santa Rosa with it. Mostly it is in Iquitos, upriver, but they expect it to come down here. We hope not.

Love to you all, in Him,
Martha