LA BIBLIOTECA
At the library we
started the year with a complete inventory at both branches, closing the
libraries for the first couple of weeks.
Once we finished we opened for full days until the school year started
in March. (Normally we are only open in
the afternoons since the kids have school in the morning). It was a lot of fun, mostly we played games
and had special activities in the mornings and our usual reading activities in
the afternoons. I think my favorite
activity was cooking with the kids. We read the book “Stone Soup” together and
then made our own soup. All of the kids
brought something to add, and I brought carrots, celery, and chicken. Most of the kids had never tried celery
before, and some didn’t believe me that you could eat carrots without cooking
them! (Neither of them grow locally). We
even had stones for the soup, which were brought by friends from the Seattle area since we do
not have rocks in this part of the Amazon!
It was so much fun cooking with the kids, I think they really enjoyed it
too. I found alphabet pasta in Iquitos so the kids all
spelled their names in the soup! I’ll
post my latest library newsletter for other library updates.
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| Sopa de Piedra |
HIGH WATER
School started in
mid March but in many communities the schools had to close by April because of
seasonal flooding. This is very unusual
for this time of year. Typically the
river rises in April, peaks in May, and starts to go back down again, with
schools closing for a week or two in May. This year the river was way above
average in January, and approaching record highs by March. By the end of March the river passed all
recorded levels. It has been amazing to
watch the river rise. At first it was
exciting to see how far it would go, but once it broke the records it started
to get scary. The people here know it is
going to flood every year, so they have built their houses up high, using the
last record as a guide as to how high.
But this year the flooding was more than anyone prepared for. In the villages people have been continuously
raising their floors or moving to higher ground. Many people have lost all of their crops and
all of their farm animals. It is not
uncommon to see a house with a floor raised so high there is no room to stand,
with a balsa raft tied to the house full of chickens! I still pick up the kids to go to the library
in the afternoon, one boy we pick up from his 2nd story window! We had to close our smaller branch for the time being because it is underwater.
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| On our way to the library! |
In the city families
have had to relocate, some moving in with other relatives, but many with no
place to go. The government declared a
state of emergency and closed public schools so that people could seek refuge
there, and they have set up tents for temporary housing. They estimate that over 80,000 people have
been displaced because of the flooding. Some
houses aren’t flooded but they are still in trouble because the sewer systems
are maxed out, you can’t put anything down the drain, no showering, no toilet,
nothing. Fortunately the house where I
stay in Iquitos
has not been affected. The bar at the
Lodge is underwater, and the dining room was too for about a week, however the
staff hasn’t missed a beat and has been adjusting and adapting each day to keep
the Lodge fully functioning and to keep the guests comfortable and happy! It appears that the river has started to drop
a little, but with the early start and the record breaking levels, it is hard
to predict when things will go back to normal.
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| The library with 22 cm from the floor to the water. |
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| Flooding in Iquitos |
ADOPT A SCHOOL
I just finished a little over week of Adopt A School deliveries. Conapac’s main program is Adopt A School, we provide school supplies for interested communities near Explorama’s lodges, and in return the communities make a commitment to their children’s education and quality of life by making sure their kids go to school everyday (no staying home to harvest rice!) and by participating in community projects like fish farms and community gardens that benefit everyone. Once a year we have a group of volunteers come for a week to deliver the supplies to all of the schools. This year was my first year participating, and a new challenge due to the high water. Many communities that are totally flooded had to travel to other communities on high ground to receive their supplies. Some had to meet us in the water to pick up their supplies on the Amazon Queen, Explorama’s big river boat. It was a great experience, I got to visit some communities I had never been to as well as get to know some great volunteers (many from Michigan!). Despite the flooding and the very difficult circumstances in most communities, we had a great turn out which really demonstrated how much the people value this program. This week is the second week of the program, more volunteers have arrived to build a water plant in one of our communities, and we will also have a service project at the library this weekend.
Like I said, things are going extremely well here, I am very happy. I have been working at the library for a year
now and enjoying every minute of it.
Cliver and I have been together for over eight months, we are having a great
time together. I recently had the chance
to meet his family, they are very warm and friendly and extremely welcoming. Cliver is coming to Michigan with me for a couple of weeks in
October, he has been to the States many times, but never to MI. I will be there the entire month. I am getting anxious to go since it has
almost been a year since I last visited.
When ever I Skype with Faye, Owen, and Ryann, they never fail to make me
feel like a terrible aunt for living so far away! (They also make me feel very
loved and missed). My mom will be here
in just over a month with her students, unfortunately only for about a
week. I will be working with her group
with Global Explorers and one or two other Global Explorers groups this summer. I will try to be a better blogger but it
doesn’t look like things are going to slow down any time soon!
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| Cliver and I |
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| Tree climbing (before the flood) |
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| Andres didn't have a paddle so he hitched a ride with us! |
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| My sweet boys! |
