AUGUST 3, 2009. MONDAY
The Munichis Crowd and the Heat.
Isn’t This the Dry Season?
We Need Guidance.
The time has come; our first real work day after all those thousands of miles of travel.
Breakfast was in the side room at our hotel at 0700…a fried egg sandwich and some juice from one of those
Peruvian fruits (can’t remember the word for this one right now…). We gathered our supplies out of the storage
room and met Susan with her Hyundai pick-up and a friend with his at the front doors. There was room for 8 people
inside the trucks, so some of our team of 9 and our new friends and interpreters sat in the beds of the trucks for the
half-hour ride. It was probably only 8 or 10 miles outside of Yurimaguas, but the lumpy clay roads don’t allow much
speed.
When we entered the village of Munichis (named after the German city of Munich), it was like a step back in time.
Most of the buildings and homes had thatch roofs, the streets were all clay, and some goats were grazing on the
vegetation alongside the road ruts. We were headed to this community’s “Health Post” to work. In the past few
years, the Peruvian government has established a series of Health Posts, staffed by “health technicians” who can
reach a doctor by radio if needed. We were being allowed to use their building for the day. Most of the locals don’t
trust the technicians, who have rather limited training and abilities, and, of course, they don’t do any dental work.
The word about our visit had definitely arrived in this community earlier than us, as there was quite a crowd waiting at
the front door. We walked through the facility, which included 6 “consultation” rooms, and selected areas for the
medical and dental exam rooms, the triage area, and the pharmacy. The local health tech had already started
triaging patients, and there was a stack of paperwork with their names and vital signs all ready for us. We saw the
first patient a little after 9 AM. Over the next several hours, the patient numbers on the top corners of the paperwork
sheets climbed up above 150.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In this part of the world, there is a rainy season and a dry season, and August down here is in the middle of the
official dry season. Last August, it didn’t rain at all, and the river levels got pretty low. The clay turns to dust. It is
really hot.
Our first questions about the validity of calling this the dry season arose during our bus trip from Tarapoto yesterday
as we drove through some pretty hard rains. But it had cleared up by the time we got here to Yurimaguas. It was
clear and sticky last night, and was warming quickly as we traveled to Munichis this morning.
Some dark clouds were building as we climbed in Susan’s pick-up and 3 “moto-kars” (the 3-wheel “taxis” that are the
main method of transportation here, and seem to be powered by something like a little lawn mower motor) early in the
afternoon, after working for a few hours. We headed up a narrow rutted road to Susan’s farm, and ate lunch.
It is very hot here in August; we haven’t had this kind of heat and humidity combination since the Honduras trip back
in ’99. Lots of sweat today…
It stared raining again while we were at the farm, but stopped after about 20 minutes, just before we needed to go
back. When it rains, the clay becomes really sticky and slippery, so the return trip to the Health Post was interesting.
The patients kept coming, and we found ourselves trying to catch up as it was getting dark. They did have a
generator that was powered up to provide some lighting.
But then it began to rain. It rained hard…lightning and thunder….water dripping through the roof and into the center
of the entranceway floor. The road out front of the Health Post became almost impassable….deep sticky clay. To
complicate things, that second pick-up truck apparently broke down back in Yurimaguas.
So, this was why Susan told us all to bring “hiking boots”. She had managed to get some moto-kar taxis to come out
to pick us up, but they wouldn’t come down the road to the Health Post. Some of the hiking boots had some pretty
thick clay mud on them by the time everyone got up to the higher road. So, it was Susan’s pick-up and 3 open moto-
car trikes that made the 30-minute trip in the dark back to Yurimaguas. (Please read the story “The Moto-Kar Night
Trip” about what we didn’t know while the moto-kars were headed off into the night.)
Dry season? Not today.
We didn’t finish dinner until after 9 PM at the hotel.
- - - - - - -
All the unexpected rain has now complicated the plans for Tuesday’s work. Susan had planned this day in San
Antonio, a small Chayahuita Indian village that gets no real health care in their area. But, to get there, we’d need to
walk for nearly 3 miles on a clay/dirt trail after a 45-minute drive from the hotel, and after crossing the river on a
“barge”, and the trail apparently turns to deep mud when it rains.
One of Susan’s long-time assistants, Jenor, doesn’t feel that our group would be able to make that hike, so we have
asked God tonight to let us know what we’re supposed to do tomorrow. We really want to get to that village, as it is
one of the poorest areas in this part of the jungle. But, we’re human, and some of us are not teenagers, so the heat,
humidity, and deep, slippery mud might take us down.
Let’s see what morning brings…
The Munichis Crowd and the Heat.
Isn’t This the Dry Season?
We Need Guidance.
The time has come; our first real work day after all those thousands of miles of travel.
Breakfast was in the side room at our hotel at 0700…a fried egg sandwich and some juice from one of those
Peruvian fruits (can’t remember the word for this one right now…). We gathered our supplies out of the storage
room and met Susan with her Hyundai pick-up and a friend with his at the front doors. There was room for 8 people
inside the trucks, so some of our team of 9 and our new friends and interpreters sat in the beds of the trucks for the
half-hour ride. It was probably only 8 or 10 miles outside of Yurimaguas, but the lumpy clay roads don’t allow much
speed.
When we entered the village of Munichis (named after the German city of Munich), it was like a step back in time.
Most of the buildings and homes had thatch roofs, the streets were all clay, and some goats were grazing on the
vegetation alongside the road ruts. We were headed to this community’s “Health Post” to work. In the past few
years, the Peruvian government has established a series of Health Posts, staffed by “health technicians” who can
reach a doctor by radio if needed. We were being allowed to use their building for the day. Most of the locals don’t
trust the technicians, who have rather limited training and abilities, and, of course, they don’t do any dental work.
The word about our visit had definitely arrived in this community earlier than us, as there was quite a crowd waiting at
the front door. We walked through the facility, which included 6 “consultation” rooms, and selected areas for the
medical and dental exam rooms, the triage area, and the pharmacy. The local health tech had already started
triaging patients, and there was a stack of paperwork with their names and vital signs all ready for us. We saw the
first patient a little after 9 AM. Over the next several hours, the patient numbers on the top corners of the paperwork
sheets climbed up above 150.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In this part of the world, there is a rainy season and a dry season, and August down here is in the middle of the
official dry season. Last August, it didn’t rain at all, and the river levels got pretty low. The clay turns to dust. It is
really hot.
Our first questions about the validity of calling this the dry season arose during our bus trip from Tarapoto yesterday
as we drove through some pretty hard rains. But it had cleared up by the time we got here to Yurimaguas. It was
clear and sticky last night, and was warming quickly as we traveled to Munichis this morning.
Some dark clouds were building as we climbed in Susan’s pick-up and 3 “moto-kars” (the 3-wheel “taxis” that are the
main method of transportation here, and seem to be powered by something like a little lawn mower motor) early in the
afternoon, after working for a few hours. We headed up a narrow rutted road to Susan’s farm, and ate lunch.
It is very hot here in August; we haven’t had this kind of heat and humidity combination since the Honduras trip back
in ’99. Lots of sweat today…
It stared raining again while we were at the farm, but stopped after about 20 minutes, just before we needed to go
back. When it rains, the clay becomes really sticky and slippery, so the return trip to the Health Post was interesting.
The patients kept coming, and we found ourselves trying to catch up as it was getting dark. They did have a
generator that was powered up to provide some lighting.
But then it began to rain. It rained hard…lightning and thunder….water dripping through the roof and into the center
of the entranceway floor. The road out front of the Health Post became almost impassable….deep sticky clay. To
complicate things, that second pick-up truck apparently broke down back in Yurimaguas.
So, this was why Susan told us all to bring “hiking boots”. She had managed to get some moto-kar taxis to come out
to pick us up, but they wouldn’t come down the road to the Health Post. Some of the hiking boots had some pretty
thick clay mud on them by the time everyone got up to the higher road. So, it was Susan’s pick-up and 3 open moto-
car trikes that made the 30-minute trip in the dark back to Yurimaguas. (Please read the story “The Moto-Kar Night
Trip” about what we didn’t know while the moto-kars were headed off into the night.)
Dry season? Not today.
We didn’t finish dinner until after 9 PM at the hotel.
- - - - - - -
All the unexpected rain has now complicated the plans for Tuesday’s work. Susan had planned this day in San
Antonio, a small Chayahuita Indian village that gets no real health care in their area. But, to get there, we’d need to
walk for nearly 3 miles on a clay/dirt trail after a 45-minute drive from the hotel, and after crossing the river on a
“barge”, and the trail apparently turns to deep mud when it rains.
One of Susan’s long-time assistants, Jenor, doesn’t feel that our group would be able to make that hike, so we have
asked God tonight to let us know what we’re supposed to do tomorrow. We really want to get to that village, as it is
one of the poorest areas in this part of the jungle. But, we’re human, and some of us are not teenagers, so the heat,
humidity, and deep, slippery mud might take us down.
Let’s see what morning brings…
Bob is ready for the
pick-up ride from our
hotel Akemi to Munichis.
pick-up ride from our
hotel Akemi to Munichis.
| Our first look at the village of Munichis. |
Our first glimpse of the
Munichis Health Post.
Munichis Health Post.
| One of our first patients had a third degree burn that threatened to render his hand non-functional when the scarring progresses in the next couple weeks.. |
| Lunch time at Susan's farm didn't arrive until 2 PM. The cows, chickens, Cuye (the food delicacy Guinea Pigs), and dogs were all nearby. |
| In Peru, very few people have cars or trucks, and the "Moto-Kar" is a main mode of transportation. In Yurimaguas, it costs one Nuevo Sole (the equivalent of about 30 cents in the USA) to go anywhere in a moto-kar around the town. There are hundreds of them in Yurimaguas, and several in every small village within miles of the town... Their buzzing sound is everywhere. |