Back to civilization...sorta

Well, at least we feel like we are back to civilization just having clear (notice I didn't say clean, but at this point, clear is a step up in the right direction) water.
First, my apologies to Bo for leaving him out on the last post. I realized during the night after I had posted last that I had left him out of what everyone was doing and I apologized to him the next morning. Bo has been a big help in several places. We've had him working in the pharmacy counting pills as well as keeping labels printed for us. David (my brother) said he took one look at him and knew he could do what we needed on the computer (he's young). Several have moved around and worked in different spots, some have kept in their same station the whole time. I can't tell you now who was doing what on a particular day, but I can tell you, every day went smooth and everything that needed to get done, was done...without one single complaint!

We are back in Iquitos where the water coming out of the shower may not be clean en ough to let it go in your mouth, but at least it looks clear. Everyone was ready to get back to the hotel and take a clean shower, especially those on the party barge. The air conditioning went out on The Good on Monday, however, we couldn’t complain considering those on the party barge have not had air. As it turned out, it wasn’t that bad without air because we were all out working during the hot part of the day and then we moved during the night to another place to work and as long as the boat were moving there was enough breeze to keep us comfortable. The trip has been great! The conditions have not been less than desirable, but several people (including some of the boat crew) have been saved and we’ve treated many sick folks…it’s all been worth it! Our clinic days have vairied from calm and smooth to absolutely crazy! One day we saw 904 patients…that’s ridiculous…and a new high for Villa Milagro. Total patients seen for the trip was 3,200. I was expecting we would end up with somewhere around 4,000, but with all the change in plans, we stopped at several villages that were not expecting us. Not a problem…once a couple of big boats loaded with gringos docked pulled up, most of the villagers would come see what was going on and it wasn’t long before they were lined up to be treated. One village we stopped at doesn’t have a church and the leader of the village was saved that morning and now is wanted a church built there!
All had parasites and were treated, along with everyone in their household. Of course, it’s only going to help for a short period of time since most dring water out of the river. Jennifer was upset when after pulling a tooth out of a little girl, she saw her a few minutes later down on the bank scooping water out of the river to rinse her mouth out.
The river is really wide and very muddy. There is a book written by Jacque Cousteau that says there is enough water coming out of this river to fill Lake Ontario in 3 hours. It’s pretty impressive…but yet, we have grown tired of taking showers and washing? our hands in muddy water…directly out of the river.
We haven’t seen many animals, a couple of monkeys, pink dolphins, and only one snake. The village we were at a day or 2 ago (our days have started to run together), a very poisonous snake was killed up the path in front of the huts and the captain of the boat came across it, killed it and brought it back on the boat,…for a little while…and some people were not getting close to it, even though it was dead. Also yesterday, January 19, we worked in a village named 20 de Enero—January 20th. The town was founded on the 20th of January back in the 70’s and they were having a big celebration with soccer tournaments (‘real football’) and some loud music above where we were docked. We had planned to spend the night there, but went to plan P (we’ve long gone through plan A, plan B…) and left so we didn’t have to listen to the party all night long.
We have eaten well, but after eating rice 2 times a day EVERY day on the boat, no one is expected to order it for supper tonight. We have eaten a lot of fish that was de-wish-ous (our my nephew Carter use to say) and pollo (chicken). Oh, and we must not forget the bananas. We feel like Bubba Gump and his shrimp…we’ve had fresh big bananas, little plantains (sweet bananas), fried bananas, fried bananas in sugar, fried banana strips with salt, steamed bananas…. We’ve had other good fruits as well. The avocadoes and mangoes and very good here.
That is all for now. Hear there is snow back home in Arkansas…can’t imagine that with all the heat here! If this is all gumbled, forgive me. My brain feels fried right now!