May 14, 2010
This morning at 0530 my roommates Brenda and Sue were up and ready to run along with about ½ the students. I on the other hand lay groggily in bed wondering why anyone needed to get up so darned early. Of course they were in bed soon after 9 and I turned out my light at 11:30. Clearly it was going to be really warm. Someone checked the weather and said the forecast was for 94 and already the air was heavy warm and humid. Breakfast was a gruel that looked too much like Cream of Wheat for me to try it, tiny sweet bananas, bread, fried yucca (it’s a starchy root without much flavor of its own but really good when fried and dipped in hot sauce or strawberry jam), and a mixed fruit juice. After breakfast we are off to Belen, the largest market in the city located in the biggest slum. The slum essentially is the market which goes off in several directions down miles of streets. We always start here because it allows the students to see where most people buy their goods and also to get a sense of the heart of the community. It is always a shock to them with its open sewers, huge variety of goods, and exotic offerings. Belen in the morning when most people shop is noisy crowded full of strange smells and endlessly interesting. There are tables of fruits from the jungle most of which won’t be seen anywhere else in the world, vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers and cucumbers as well as the tiny hot peppers whose local name (pene rojo) means little red penis. There is an entire street of herbalists selling all manner of potions most made from products of the jungle combined with 100% alcohol. Many of these are like rompe calzones (panty droppers) for women also known as is panty breakers when used by men. There are also concoctions designed to cure anything from cancer to arthritis – once again most contain significant quantities of alcohol. Since the Amazon jungle is the source of thousands of useful biologicals there is no discounting that some of these work. There is an entire street full of used shoes, some so well shined and repaired that they almost look new, another street of used clothes, one street they were calling Walmart because they have electronics – radios, phones, hardware, plastic goods, and etc. Down close to the water is the street of peluqueros (hairdressers and barbers) cutting hair in the open air. Belen is on the edge of the Amazon and right now the water is high so some parts are only accessible by canoe – high water also means you find people walking barefoot through thigh deep water full of sewage. One place we passed there was a packed dirt schoolyard right next to an open sewer (see photo). The streets are narrow and crowded and our team is protected from thieves by our translators and a group of uniformed security guards many of whom are former pickpockets. I carried my big SLR camera and kept hearing “cara, cara” which means dear or expensive so I was glad for our protectors. During the tour students taste some of the wares including the barbequed grubs they look and sound worse than they taste – sort of crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a slight bit of pungency. Some brave souls try jungle ice cream which is really just whipped egg whites with sugar and flavoring. They are introduced to largarto (alligator) and turtle as well as part of pigs, sheep and cows seldom seen in US markets.
When we came back from Belen we divided the students into groups with a translators and went out to assess the community of Santa Clara, a neighborhood behind the People of Peru compound. The houses my team visited were much more prosperous than places we have visited in the past. The first house was the home of a herbal/massage healer, his wife and sons and grandchildren. The home was large, concrete with electricity and a drilled well. He learned his art from his mother and from his dreams. He has a daughter who works as a healer in Argentina. His family seems to do well and they grow some of their own food and much of the medicine he uses. The next house had a large well kept yard with orange and other fruit trees, a large garden, pots containing several varieties of aloe vera, and a lot of chickens. In the back of the yard she had very fancy cages holding fighting cocks and hens used as breeding stock. She cared for the cocks and hens but her sons fought them on Sunday afternoons. Several appeared to be very expensive birds. Her house also was large and concrete with electricity, a drilled well, a pump and a large refrigerator. She also ran a sewing business from her living room so she had three sewing machines one of which was rather new. Her children had gone to university except the two youngest one of whom was still in primary school and one in a vocational school. Her husband owned and drove a motorcar. Both homes had indoor toilets but none had sewage – the waste drains into a pipe that goes out to the river. For me these families were a stark contrast to the families I have visited in other neighborhoods in Iquitos most of which were poor, lacked electricity, lived in wooden homes, and usually did not own a vehicle. Both these families owned motorcars (for business) and motorcycles for transport. Other students in our group visited less well to do homes in the neighborhood but overall the entire area seemed more prosperous than many. We will be doing our clinic in the neighborhood tomorrow in a new building that POPP has erected for use as a combination dental and medical facility.
Once we returned from the assessment and debriefed we packed vitamins and OTC medications for distribution in the clinic tomorrow.
More in the saga of the lost bag – After failing several attempts to convey to Continental in Peru our problem with the lost bag and inform them of the location of the bag that was not ours failed. We called the US 1-800 number with much better results. Within minutes they had located our student’s bag in Lima. We had located the owner of the bag in Left luggage and arranged for us to pay the bill so the owner could retrieve it. The student had to go to a notary to get a statement that the bag was hers and that she had the baggage receipt so it could be sent to Lima before the bag would be released to our student. Last we heard it was going to be flown to Iquitos on Saturday night so we should get it Sunday. Tomorrow is a clinic day so probably no posting until until Sunday night.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
May 14, 2010
This morning at 0530 my roommates Brenda and Sue were up and ready to run along with about ½ the students. I on the other hand lay groggily in bed wondering why anyone needed to get up so darned early. Of course they were in bed soon after 9 and I turned out my light at 11:30. Clearly it was going to be really warm. Someone checked the weather and said the forecast was for 94 and already the air was heavy warm and humid. Breakfast was a gruel that looked too much like Cream of Wheat for me to try it, tiny sweet bananas, bread, fried yucca (it’s a starchy root without much flavor of its own but really good when fried and dipped in hot sauce or strawberry jam), and a mixed fruit juice. After breakfast we are off to Belen, the largest market in the city located in the biggest slum. The slum essentially is the market which goes off in several directions down miles of streets. We always start here because it allows the students to see where most people buy their goods and also to get a sense of the heart of the community. It is always a shock to them with its open sewers, huge variety of goods, and exotic offerings. Belen in the morning when most people shop is noisy crowded full of strange smells and endlessly interesting. There are tables of fruits from the jungle most of which won’t be seen anywhere else in the world, vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers and cucumbers as well as the tiny hot peppers whose local name (pene rojo) means little red penis. There is an entire street of herbalists selling all manner of potions most made from products of the jungle combined with 100% alcohol. Many of these are like rompe calzones (panty droppers) for women also known as is panty breakers when used by men. There are also concoctions designed to cure anything from cancer to arthritis – once again most contain significant quantities of alcohol. Since the Amazon jungle is the source of thousands of useful biologicals there is no discounting that some of these work. There is an entire street full of used shoes, some so well shined and repaired that they almost look new, another street of used clothes, one street they were calling Walmart because they have electronics – radios, phones, hardware, plastic goods, and etc. Down close to the water is the street of peluqueros (hairdressers and barbers) cutting hair in the open air. Belen is on the edge of the Amazon and right now the water is high so some parts are only accessible by canoe – high water also means you find people walking barefoot through thigh deep water full of sewage. One place we passed there was a packed dirt schoolyard right next to an open sewer (see photo). The streets are narrow and crowded and our team is protected from thieves by our translators and a group of uniformed security guards many of whom are former pickpockets. I carried my big SLR camera and kept hearing “cara, cara” which means dear or expensive so I was glad for our protectors. During the tour students taste some of the wares including the barbequed grubs they look and sound worse than they taste – sort of crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a slight bit of pungency. Some brave souls try jungle ice cream which is really just whipped egg whites with sugar and flavoring. They are introduced to largarto (alligator) and turtle as well as part of pigs, sheep and cows seldom seen in US markets.
When we came back from Belen we divided the students into groups with a translators and went out to assess the community of Santa Clara, a neighborhood behind the People of Peru compound. The houses my team visited were much more prosperous than places we have visited in the past. The first house was the home of a herbal/massage healer, his wife and sons and grandchildren. The home was large, concrete with electricity and a drilled well. He learned his art from his mother and from his dreams. He has a daughter who works as a healer in Argentina. His family seems to do well and they grow some of their own food and much of the medicine he uses. The next house had a large well kept yard with orange and other fruit trees, a large garden, pots containing several varieties of aloe vera, and a lot of chickens. In the back of the yard she had very fancy cages holding fighting cocks and hens used as breeding stock. She cared for the cocks and hens but her sons fought them on Sunday afternoons. Several appeared to be very expensive birds. Her house also was large and concrete with electricity, a drilled well, a pump and a large refrigerator. She also ran a sewing business from her living room so she had three sewing machines one of which was rather new. Her children had gone to university except the two youngest one of whom was still in primary school and one in a vocational school. Her husband owned and drove a motorcar. Both homes had indoor toilets but none had sewage – the waste drains into a pipe that goes out to the river. For me these families were a stark contrast to the families I have visited in other neighborhoods in Iquitos most of which were poor, lacked electricity, lived in wooden homes, and usually did not own a vehicle. Both these families owned motorcars (for business) and motorcycles for transport. Other students in our group visited less well to do homes in the neighborhood but overall the entire area seemed more prosperous than many. We will be doing our clinic in the neighborhood tomorrow in a new building that POPP has erected for use as a combination dental and medical facility.
Once we returned from the assessment and debriefed we packed vitamins and OTC medications for distribution in the clinic tomorrow.
More in the saga of the lost bag – After failing several attempts to convey to Continental in Peru our problem with the lost bag and inform them of the location of the bag that was not ours failed. We called the US 1-800 number with much better results. Within minutes they had located our student’s bag in Lima. We had located the owner of the bag in Left luggage and arranged for us to pay the bill so the owner could retrieve it. The student had to go to a notary to get a statement that the bag was hers and that she had the baggage receipt so it could be sent to Lima before the bag would be released to our student. Last we heard it was going to be flown to Iquitos on Saturday night so we should get it Sunday. Tomorrow is a clinic day so probably no posting until until Sunday night.
This morning at 0530 my roommates Brenda and Sue were up and ready to run along with about ½ the students. I on the other hand lay groggily in bed wondering why anyone needed to get up so darned early. Of course they were in bed soon after 9 and I turned out my light at 11:30. Clearly it was going to be really warm. Someone checked the weather and said the forecast was for 94 and already the air was heavy warm and humid. Breakfast was a gruel that looked too much like Cream of Wheat for me to try it, tiny sweet bananas, bread, fried yucca (it’s a starchy root without much flavor of its own but really good when fried and dipped in hot sauce or strawberry jam), and a mixed fruit juice. After breakfast we are off to Belen, the largest market in the city located in the biggest slum. The slum essentially is the market which goes off in several directions down miles of streets. We always start here because it allows the students to see where most people buy their goods and also to get a sense of the heart of the community. It is always a shock to them with its open sewers, huge variety of goods, and exotic offerings. Belen in the morning when most people shop is noisy crowded full of strange smells and endlessly interesting. There are tables of fruits from the jungle most of which won’t be seen anywhere else in the world, vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers and cucumbers as well as the tiny hot peppers whose local name (pene rojo) means little red penis. There is an entire street of herbalists selling all manner of potions most made from products of the jungle combined with 100% alcohol. Many of these are like rompe calzones (panty droppers) for women also known as is panty breakers when used by men. There are also concoctions designed to cure anything from cancer to arthritis – once again most contain significant quantities of alcohol. Since the Amazon jungle is the source of thousands of useful biologicals there is no discounting that some of these work. There is an entire street full of used shoes, some so well shined and repaired that they almost look new, another street of used clothes, one street they were calling Walmart because they have electronics – radios, phones, hardware, plastic goods, and etc. Down close to the water is the street of peluqueros (hairdressers and barbers) cutting hair in the open air. Belen is on the edge of the Amazon and right now the water is high so some parts are only accessible by canoe – high water also means you find people walking barefoot through thigh deep water full of sewage. One place we passed there was a packed dirt schoolyard right next to an open sewer (see photo). The streets are narrow and crowded and our team is protected from thieves by our translators and a group of uniformed security guards many of whom are former pickpockets. I carried my big SLR camera and kept hearing “cara, cara” which means dear or expensive so I was glad for our protectors. During the tour students taste some of the wares including the barbequed grubs they look and sound worse than they taste – sort of crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a slight bit of pungency. Some brave souls try jungle ice cream which is really just whipped egg whites with sugar and flavoring. They are introduced to largarto (alligator) and turtle as well as part of pigs, sheep and cows seldom seen in US markets.
When we came back from Belen we divided the students into groups with a translators and went out to assess the community of Santa Clara, a neighborhood behind the People of Peru compound. The houses my team visited were much more prosperous than places we have visited in the past. The first house was the home of a herbal/massage healer, his wife and sons and grandchildren. The home was large, concrete with electricity and a drilled well. He learned his art from his mother and from his dreams. He has a daughter who works as a healer in Argentina. His family seems to do well and they grow some of their own food and much of the medicine he uses. The next house had a large well kept yard with orange and other fruit trees, a large garden, pots containing several varieties of aloe vera, and a lot of chickens. In the back of the yard she had very fancy cages holding fighting cocks and hens used as breeding stock. She cared for the cocks and hens but her sons fought them on Sunday afternoons. Several appeared to be very expensive birds. Her house also was large and concrete with electricity, a drilled well, a pump and a large refrigerator. She also ran a sewing business from her living room so she had three sewing machines one of which was rather new. Her children had gone to university except the two youngest one of whom was still in primary school and one in a vocational school. Her husband owned and drove a motorcar. Both homes had indoor toilets but none had sewage – the waste drains into a pipe that goes out to the river. For me these families were a stark contrast to the families I have visited in other neighborhoods in Iquitos most of which were poor, lacked electricity, lived in wooden homes, and usually did not own a vehicle. Both these families owned motorcars (for business) and motorcycles for transport. Other students in our group visited less well to do homes in the neighborhood but overall the entire area seemed more prosperous than many. We will be doing our clinic in the neighborhood tomorrow in a new building that POPP has erected for use as a combination dental and medical facility.
Once we returned from the assessment and debriefed we packed vitamins and OTC medications for distribution in the clinic tomorrow.
More in the saga of the lost bag – After failing several attempts to convey to Continental in Peru our problem with the lost bag and inform them of the location of the bag that was not ours failed. We called the US 1-800 number with much better results. Within minutes they had located our student’s bag in Lima. We had located the owner of the bag in Left luggage and arranged for us to pay the bill so the owner could retrieve it. The student had to go to a notary to get a statement that the bag was hers and that she had the baggage receipt so it could be sent to Lima before the bag would be released to our student. Last we heard it was going to be flown to Iquitos on Saturday night so we should get it Sunday. Tomorrow is a clinic day so probably no posting until until Sunday night.
May 14, 2010
This morning at 0530 my roommates Brenda and Sue were up and ready to run along with about ½ the students. I on the other hand lay groggily in bed wondering why anyone needed to get up so darned early. Of course they were in bed soon after 9 and I turned out my light at 11:30. Clearly it was going to be really warm. Someone checked the weather and said the forecast was for 94 and already the air was heavy warm and humid. Breakfast was a gruel that looked too much like Cream of Wheat for me to try it, tiny sweet bananas, bread, fried yucca (it’s a starchy root without much flavor of its own but really good when fried and dipped in hot sauce or strawberry jam), and a mixed fruit juice. After breakfast we are off to Belen, the largest market in the city located in the biggest slum. The slum essentially is the market which goes off in several directions down miles of streets. We always start here because it allows the students to see where most people buy their goods and also to get a sense of the heart of the community. It is always a shock to them with its open sewers, huge variety of goods, and exotic offerings. Belen in the morning when most people shop is noisy crowded full of strange smells and endlessly interesting. There are tables of fruits from the jungle most of which won’t be seen anywhere else in the world, vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers and cucumbers as well as the tiny hot peppers whose local name (pene rojo) means little red penis. There is an entire street of herbalists selling all manner of potions most made from products of the jungle combined with 100% alcohol. Many of these are like rompe calzones (panty droppers) for women also known as is panty breakers when used by men. There are also concoctions designed to cure anything from cancer to arthritis – once again most contain significant quantities of alcohol. Since the Amazon jungle is the source of thousands of useful biologicals there is no discounting that some of these work. There is an entire street full of used shoes, some so well shined and repaired that they almost look new, another street of used clothes, one street they were calling Walmart because they have electronics – radios, phones, hardware, plastic goods, and etc. Down close to the water is the street of peluqueros (hairdressers and barbers) cutting hair in the open air. Belen is on the edge of the Amazon and right now the water is high so some parts are only accessible by canoe – high water also means you find people walking barefoot through thigh deep water full of sewage. One place we passed there was a packed dirt schoolyard right next to an open sewer (see photo). The streets are narrow and crowded and our team is protected from thieves by our translators and a group of uniformed security guards many of whom are former pickpockets. I carried my big SLR camera and kept hearing “cara, cara” which means dear or expensive so I was glad for our protectors. During the tour students taste some of the wares including the barbequed grubs they look and sound worse than they taste – sort of crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a slight bit of pungency. Some brave souls try jungle ice cream which is really just whipped egg whites with sugar and flavoring. They are introduced to largarto (alligator) and turtle as well as part of pigs, sheep and cows seldom seen in US markets.
When we came back from Belen we divided the students into groups with a translators and went out to assess the community of Santa Clara, a neighborhood behind the People of Peru compound. The houses my team visited were much more prosperous than places we have visited in the past. The first house was the home of a herbal/massage healer, his wife and sons and grandchildren. The home was large, concrete with electricity and a drilled well. He learned his art from his mother and from his dreams. He has a daughter who works as a healer in Argentina. His family seems to do well and they grow some of their own food and much of the medicine he uses. The next house had a large well kept yard with orange and other fruit trees, a large garden, pots containing several varieties of aloe vera, and a lot of chickens. In the back of the yard she had very fancy cages holding fighting cocks and hens used as breeding stock. She cared for the cocks and hens but her sons fought them on Sunday afternoons. Several appeared to be very expensive birds. Her house also was large and concrete with electricity, a drilled well, a pump and a large refrigerator. She also ran a sewing business from her living room so she had three sewing machines one of which was rather new. Her children had gone to university except the two youngest one of whom was still in primary school and one in a vocational school. Her husband owned and drove a motorcar. Both homes had indoor toilets but none had sewage – the waste drains into a pipe that goes out to the river. For me these families were a stark contrast to the families I have visited in other neighborhoods in Iquitos most of which were poor, lacked electricity, lived in wooden homes, and usually did not own a vehicle. Both these families owned motorcars (for business) and motorcycles for transport. Other students in our group visited less well to do homes in the neighborhood but overall the entire area seemed more prosperous than many. We will be doing our clinic in the neighborhood tomorrow in a new building that POPP has erected for use as a combination dental and medical facility.
Once we returned from the assessment and debriefed we packed vitamins and OTC medications for distribution in the clinic tomorrow.
More in the saga of the lost bag – After failing several attempts to convey to Continental in Peru our problem with the lost bag and inform them of the location of the bag that was not ours failed. We called the US 1-800 number with much better results. Within minutes they had located our student’s bag in Lima. We had located the owner of the bag in Left luggage and arranged for us to pay the bill so the owner could retrieve it. The student had to go to a notary to get a statement that the bag was hers and that she had the baggage receipt so it could be sent to Lima before the bag would be released to our student. Last we heard it was going to be flown to Iquitos on Saturday night so we should get it Sunday. Tomorrow is a clinic day so probably no posting until until Sunday night.
This morning at 0530 my roommates Brenda and Sue were up and ready to run along with about ½ the students. I on the other hand lay groggily in bed wondering why anyone needed to get up so darned early. Of course they were in bed soon after 9 and I turned out my light at 11:30. Clearly it was going to be really warm. Someone checked the weather and said the forecast was for 94 and already the air was heavy warm and humid. Breakfast was a gruel that looked too much like Cream of Wheat for me to try it, tiny sweet bananas, bread, fried yucca (it’s a starchy root without much flavor of its own but really good when fried and dipped in hot sauce or strawberry jam), and a mixed fruit juice. After breakfast we are off to Belen, the largest market in the city located in the biggest slum. The slum essentially is the market which goes off in several directions down miles of streets. We always start here because it allows the students to see where most people buy their goods and also to get a sense of the heart of the community. It is always a shock to them with its open sewers, huge variety of goods, and exotic offerings. Belen in the morning when most people shop is noisy crowded full of strange smells and endlessly interesting. There are tables of fruits from the jungle most of which won’t be seen anywhere else in the world, vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers and cucumbers as well as the tiny hot peppers whose local name (pene rojo) means little red penis. There is an entire street of herbalists selling all manner of potions most made from products of the jungle combined with 100% alcohol. Many of these are like rompe calzones (panty droppers) for women also known as is panty breakers when used by men. There are also concoctions designed to cure anything from cancer to arthritis – once again most contain significant quantities of alcohol. Since the Amazon jungle is the source of thousands of useful biologicals there is no discounting that some of these work. There is an entire street full of used shoes, some so well shined and repaired that they almost look new, another street of used clothes, one street they were calling Walmart because they have electronics – radios, phones, hardware, plastic goods, and etc. Down close to the water is the street of peluqueros (hairdressers and barbers) cutting hair in the open air. Belen is on the edge of the Amazon and right now the water is high so some parts are only accessible by canoe – high water also means you find people walking barefoot through thigh deep water full of sewage. One place we passed there was a packed dirt schoolyard right next to an open sewer (see photo). The streets are narrow and crowded and our team is protected from thieves by our translators and a group of uniformed security guards many of whom are former pickpockets. I carried my big SLR camera and kept hearing “cara, cara” which means dear or expensive so I was glad for our protectors. During the tour students taste some of the wares including the barbequed grubs they look and sound worse than they taste – sort of crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a slight bit of pungency. Some brave souls try jungle ice cream which is really just whipped egg whites with sugar and flavoring. They are introduced to largarto (alligator) and turtle as well as part of pigs, sheep and cows seldom seen in US markets.
When we came back from Belen we divided the students into groups with a translators and went out to assess the community of Santa Clara, a neighborhood behind the People of Peru compound. The houses my team visited were much more prosperous than places we have visited in the past. The first house was the home of a herbal/massage healer, his wife and sons and grandchildren. The home was large, concrete with electricity and a drilled well. He learned his art from his mother and from his dreams. He has a daughter who works as a healer in Argentina. His family seems to do well and they grow some of their own food and much of the medicine he uses. The next house had a large well kept yard with orange and other fruit trees, a large garden, pots containing several varieties of aloe vera, and a lot of chickens. In the back of the yard she had very fancy cages holding fighting cocks and hens used as breeding stock. She cared for the cocks and hens but her sons fought them on Sunday afternoons. Several appeared to be very expensive birds. Her house also was large and concrete with electricity, a drilled well, a pump and a large refrigerator. She also ran a sewing business from her living room so she had three sewing machines one of which was rather new. Her children had gone to university except the two youngest one of whom was still in primary school and one in a vocational school. Her husband owned and drove a motorcar. Both homes had indoor toilets but none had sewage – the waste drains into a pipe that goes out to the river. For me these families were a stark contrast to the families I have visited in other neighborhoods in Iquitos most of which were poor, lacked electricity, lived in wooden homes, and usually did not own a vehicle. Both these families owned motorcars (for business) and motorcycles for transport. Other students in our group visited less well to do homes in the neighborhood but overall the entire area seemed more prosperous than many. We will be doing our clinic in the neighborhood tomorrow in a new building that POPP has erected for use as a combination dental and medical facility.
Once we returned from the assessment and debriefed we packed vitamins and OTC medications for distribution in the clinic tomorrow.
More in the saga of the lost bag – After failing several attempts to convey to Continental in Peru our problem with the lost bag and inform them of the location of the bag that was not ours failed. We called the US 1-800 number with much better results. Within minutes they had located our student’s bag in Lima. We had located the owner of the bag in Left luggage and arranged for us to pay the bill so the owner could retrieve it. The student had to go to a notary to get a statement that the bag was hers and that she had the baggage receipt so it could be sent to Lima before the bag would be released to our student. Last we heard it was going to be flown to Iquitos on Saturday night so we should get it Sunday. Tomorrow is a clinic day so probably no posting until until Sunday night.
Wednesday May 12 and Thursday May 13, 2010
We are on our way. Left Spokane at 6AM and Seattle at 8 AM. Quick walk through the airport in Houston to grab the next and longest flight to Lima. I nearly finished The Girl Who Played with Fire and was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me all the way into Lima. Lima airport has been expanded and upgraded again – but we were lucky and found a place to park our many suitcases and to lay our tired bodies down even though not many people slept and those who did were awake within an hour or two. The bing bong announcing flight arrivals and departures and the Attencion Pasejeros! Preceding each announcement certainly did not provide an environment for restful sleep. We were up at 3:45 AM to go and check our bags for the flight to Iquitos. Then one of the students discovered that the bag she had taken off the baggage belt was NOT hers. Continental’s desk is only open when they have flights and they only have two both of which arrive about 1030 PM so no one was available. The office in the airport opens at 9AM and our flight to Iquitos was scheduled to depart at 6AM. Finally after talking to many people all of whom concluded that the bag was Continental’s problem so they couldn’t help. We talked to a security guard who consulted the Vice Presidente of the airport (the night supervisor). This lovely gentleman suggested we put the bag in left luggage and then call Continental the next night to go and fetch it. So we did and we got rid of the wrong bag but we did not find our student’s bag. Luckily she had followed suggestions and put all her crucial things like meds and contacts etc in her carryon. We found her some clothes and we are still waiting for Continental to find her bag! Just another good story for our blog!
We were booked on a new airline – Air Peruano. The airline might be new but the plane was not – it was a rather elderly 737 with godawful seats and an amusing flight crew whose instructions could not be understood because of the terrible public address system that crackled and popped throughout the mostly Spanish announcements. We did come to understand that we should unbuckle our seat belts and wait until the crew showed us how to buckle them! And that we must not talk when the announcements we couldn’t understand were being made. After an interesting flight most of which I slept through we arrived in Iquitos. The weather was quite cool (about 70) so all the locals were wearing coats but of course it was muggy as always. The airport in Iquitos has seen some significant upgrades especially in the baggage area so it now looks like a “real airport”.
We were taken to the People of Peru compound where we were given water, fed breakfast, photographed, and sent to bed. I passed out and when I was awakened by someone softly saying Buenas Tardes I felt like I was returning from some faraway place. We were fed once again and loaded onto the bus to go to Poppy’s house. Usually we go to Belen market but there was a transportations strike today so we were cautioned to wait until tomorrow when it should be over. We came back to the compound and ate dinner – you can see a theme here: We will not starve! Then the faculty met with Paul (the director) about the schedule for the visit and we all went to our computers. I tried valiantly to post my blog but not such luck so tomorrow you will get two. Buenas noches. Duerme bien~!
We are on our way. Left Spokane at 6AM and Seattle at 8 AM. Quick walk through the airport in Houston to grab the next and longest flight to Lima. I nearly finished The Girl Who Played with Fire and was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me all the way into Lima. Lima airport has been expanded and upgraded again – but we were lucky and found a place to park our many suitcases and to lay our tired bodies down even though not many people slept and those who did were awake within an hour or two. The bing bong announcing flight arrivals and departures and the Attencion Pasejeros! Preceding each announcement certainly did not provide an environment for restful sleep. We were up at 3:45 AM to go and check our bags for the flight to Iquitos. Then one of the students discovered that the bag she had taken off the baggage belt was NOT hers. Continental’s desk is only open when they have flights and they only have two both of which arrive about 1030 PM so no one was available. The office in the airport opens at 9AM and our flight to Iquitos was scheduled to depart at 6AM. Finally after talking to many people all of whom concluded that the bag was Continental’s problem so they couldn’t help. We talked to a security guard who consulted the Vice Presidente of the airport (the night supervisor). This lovely gentleman suggested we put the bag in left luggage and then call Continental the next night to go and fetch it. So we did and we got rid of the wrong bag but we did not find our student’s bag. Luckily she had followed suggestions and put all her crucial things like meds and contacts etc in her carryon. We found her some clothes and we are still waiting for Continental to find her bag! Just another good story for our blog!
We were booked on a new airline – Air Peruano. The airline might be new but the plane was not – it was a rather elderly 737 with godawful seats and an amusing flight crew whose instructions could not be understood because of the terrible public address system that crackled and popped throughout the mostly Spanish announcements. We did come to understand that we should unbuckle our seat belts and wait until the crew showed us how to buckle them! And that we must not talk when the announcements we couldn’t understand were being made. After an interesting flight most of which I slept through we arrived in Iquitos. The weather was quite cool (about 70) so all the locals were wearing coats but of course it was muggy as always. The airport in Iquitos has seen some significant upgrades especially in the baggage area so it now looks like a “real airport”.
We were taken to the People of Peru compound where we were given water, fed breakfast, photographed, and sent to bed. I passed out and when I was awakened by someone softly saying Buenas Tardes I felt like I was returning from some faraway place. We were fed once again and loaded onto the bus to go to Poppy’s house. Usually we go to Belen market but there was a transportations strike today so we were cautioned to wait until tomorrow when it should be over. We came back to the compound and ate dinner – you can see a theme here: We will not starve! Then the faculty met with Paul (the director) about the schedule for the visit and we all went to our computers. I tried valiantly to post my blog but not such luck so tomorrow you will get two. Buenas noches. Duerme bien~!
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