Welcome to Moyobamba, Peru

The road to Moyobamba from a neighboring town, Segundo Jerusalem (where the largest Pentecostal congregation in San Martin--the region--meets).

A 'road' that leads across the river Mayo to Cordellera, La Flor de Primavera, and many other villages...and this is on a sunny day when it didn't just rain.

The morning after we arrived in La Flor de Primavera, it rained well into the envening with few interuptions.

The ducks seemed to enjoy the wet day...the children, also, enjoyed huddling together on front porches and balconies.

These sisters, when the rain lessened to a drizzle, were sent to fetch 6 gallons of water. Ivet, the comunity development director, and I followed up a challenging hill until they disappeared down a watter-covered path. They returned perhaps half an hour later, the elder sister running back and forth to transport two (of four) gallons at a time along the path while her little sister slowly advanced in front with the other two gallons. They were completely drenched as the rain progressed but emerged in a dry set of clothes within an hour.

Neighboring villages are seen from afar. Travelers here do not have GPS or maps. They simply follow paths a certain direction, know the way, or ask for advice while passing houses.

The purpose of our visit in La Flor de Primavera: to introduce the community development project and explain its necessity and functions.

Villagers from La Flor de Primavera gather to hear Ivet present the community development partnership and process. The scribe records minutes from the meeting in their ´book of actions.´

The village leaders promise to complete and exert effort in the community development process to better thair village.

One of the first friends to greet us when we arrived in Nueva York.

As I surveyed the surroundings and took a picture of the coffee fields, this boy asked, "what's that?" inquiring about my camera, I assumed. I told him it was a camera to take pictures. I wasn't sure how much this explanation meant to him so I said, "wait, I'll show you." By the time I got the shutter speed right to produce a satisfactory image, he got a little impatient and wasn't completely aware that he would stay imprinted on my strange machine. He and a friend left in a haste, semingly uninterested in my toy.

After a cool rain shower, these piglets huddled near their owner's home for a warm nap.

A butterfly in the coffee fields...they might be necessary for pollination.

I marveled at the diversity of the coffee fields. There were bannana, citrus, and many other fruit/vegetable trees making a canopy for the coffee plants. I suppose there is no worry about being able to run a tractor through the coffee fields as all is done by hand (machete in hand, that is).

Nueva York is a village spread out across a hill/mountain (some of its citizens living an hour's hike away). Walking (not to mention cycling or driving) becomes difficult on the clay roads during the rainy season (winter).

I didn't find the statue (or tree) of liberty but I bet I could find a couple of cuddling pups in the real New York.

Village treking: un gorditto y una gringita (Ivet described bringing a ´little fat man´ and a ´little white girl´ to the villages with her as we treked along)

I arrived in Moyobamba just before midnight on Monday, March 5th. The next morning, I was shown around the city and introduced to the clinic. Hearing about all the projects that the clinic runs and discussing what I hoped to be involved in, it was arranged by 10:30am that I would accompany Ivet, the community development director, on a 3.5 day trip to two villages. We met half past one at a car/truck station and found a car planning a trip to Cordellera, a village near La Flor de Primavera, where we were to begin the process of community development from the health sector. Almost at 4pm, when the Toyota pickup was loaded with goods and people, we left the station. The loading capacity of the small car impressed me but the journey through fresh two-feet deep mud gullies made me believe Toyota's jingle: "Toyota; nothing is impossible." We had to unload the car various times to shovel dry earth and plants under the tires and give the truck a push or tilt. A ferry, composed of two canoes and wooden planks, took the truck across the Mayo River and we continued bouncing around or disembarking at especially muddy spots. By 6:15pm, we reached Cordellera and found that no cars ventured into La Flor de Primavera with the current weather conditions and that it was about 2-3 hours walking distance. Consulting with the Puesto de Salud, a village health center, and leaving our heavy laptop, projector, and voltage stabalizer, we started the trek to La Flor de Primavera just as the sun began to set. The hike was pleasant as we were in the mountains, high from rural noises. I heard insects and small animlas from the forest making sounds that I thought only machines made. The road/path was torn up by vehicles and mules and it grew harder to discern the softness of  the mud as it grew darker. Although the moon's light sometimes aided our small flashlights, there was substantial slipping, sliding, and sloshing around the mud before we reached the village half past eight. After an aroz con pollo, a very comon Peruvian meal (a full bowl of rice with a fried chicken piece on top), we were shown to the mini clinic where we slept on some mats under our mosquitero (mosquito net). The next morning, we got to know the village and waited.....we waited for our equiptment to be shuttled from Cardellera, we waited to talk to various authorities to confirm a village meeting that evening, we waited for the rain to stop (and start up again)---there was a lot of waiting so that I had to remind myself where we were and what we were doing. This wasn't exactly what I imagined community development to be. I had the urge to do something--I felt like my presence needed this kind of validation. Once the village meeting finally occured, I understood my flawed perception of community development. The villagers were shown a powerpoint outlining common health problems in villages, their causes, and solutions (a change in habit or improvement in infrastructure). San Lucas, Ivet explained, was offering a two-year partnership, the first year of which would mainly be identifying problems, realizing their need to change, and setting goals. Health and community training and assistance with constructing ecological latrines and chimmnied kitchens would happen the following year. While I felt the urge to quickly fix the community to my standard, earnest community development involves active participation of each villager. They must be empowered to identify problems and seek and realize solutions. This system is independent of excessive outside support and is, partly due to this self-sufficiency, a viably sustainable practice for a village community. After the meeting, each villager and authority leader signed in a book in which the secretary took minutes of the meeting. We, from the clinic, were also asked to sign. I felt like I was signing the Declaration of Independence. I imagine that their meetings were much like ours that night...with rain and mud outside, boot-adorned folks traveling from around, a dimly lit room, conversation about alleviating problems for a hopeful future. This primative kind of brainstorming, where the community must be stimulated to take charge of their village's health, is harder work than arriving for a day or two to place advancements and disperse medication...but it is definitely worth it when you have left the village and are back in the city or in the States.

Hiking an hour or two into Nueva York to meet with the authorities the following day, we started our trek back to Moyobamba early Friday morning. I found rocky stream beds and ancient paths more enjoyable to navigate than car-torn clay roads, but the scenery was spendid all around. For the first 3 hours of our journey the rain accompanied us. We stopped in Cordellera for saltine crackers and juice in a bodega (warehouse/shop) and continued in the rain, so as not to feel miserably cold in our drenched clothes. Finally arriving at the river port, we didn't have to wait long for a community leader from Nueva York to appear with a mule, loaded with much of our belongings. Once across the river by ferry, we crossed the final stretch into the city (which felt more difficult with all our belongings and equiptment). After 5.5 hours of treking, we arrived at our homes just before lunch, drenched, muddy, but happy to be home. Thus occured my first village experience. I look forward to helping with consecutive meetings in the two communities, seeing and learning from the process.

On my first official day in Moyobamba, after returning from the villages, some of the San Lucas staff gathered at a school for a game of volleyball. Left to right: Laura (holding Boss), a nursing student from Holland spending her year abroad researching the cleft lip/palate project for her international public health degree, Francis, my German house sister spending a year in service under a scholarship to confirm that she will study international development, me, and a sister of Roberto, the volunteer technology specialist and owner of Boss.

The volleyball game on Sunday intensified with each set (I retired after 4 games). Laura completes her pass (if that's what you call it in volleyball) with full force.

The rapids of TioYacu (tio means stream, yacu means cold).

Water is taken from the origin of the river and purified for the local village.

For dinner, Francis treated us to 'maduro con mani o queso,' a grilled plantain--hot dog style--with crushed peanuts or cheese. I like the use of a leaf as green (literally) serving ware.

The touristic site marks the 'starting point' of the river Tio Yacu. Perhaps we will return to swim once the rains pass and sunny days are more predictable.