Another World

The community of Wayuzentza

Last week I survived my first trip to the Amazon Jungle.  After traveling to the town of Shell, about a six hour bus ride from Quito, I met up with the team on Monday.  Alfredo, Wim, Eric, and I represented HCJB and Jonas, who has been working in the community already with Compassion International, came with us.  A one hour flight with an MAF pilot brought us to the community of Wayuzentza, near the border of Peru.  At that point we had entered a whole different world.

Wayuzentza is a small community of about 20 families located next to a winding river.  The village has a large airstrip, thatched roof houses, a dirt soccer field, and lots of chickens.  They are part of the Achuar people, who have their own language and culture apart from other indigenous groups.  The majority speak Spanish as a second language.  With no electricity, running water, or proper bathrooms there are many needs for improved water and sanitation.  Two springs provide water to the people for drinking, washing, and bathing.  The problem is they are unprotected from contamination and the people have to haul the water by buckets to their homes.  They requested help in developing a water system to provide clean water to the community.

The community leader talking with Jonas

Landing on the gravel airstrip

Obviously this village is somewhat isolated, so we had a curious crowd of people gathering to see the big gringos coming out of the plane.  To start out we needed to have a meeting with the community members.  Meetings in the jungle tend to be a bit unorganized and inefficient by Western standards.  But that's just how things work.  Alfredo first explained a little about the team and what our objective was.  He informed them that HCJB would complete the designs, but the community would be responsible for the manual labor for their water system.  In response there were some complaints about having to dig trenches, the people had to talk some more and decide among themselves, and it went on and on like this.  Eventually they decided to continue the meeting the next day.  After they came to the conclusion that they did indeed want to work on the project, we began doing our work.

Wim and I working on the survey

With the equipment we brought on the plane, we completed a survey of the land and mapped out the locations of houses and community areas.  A few of the leaders in the community helped clear out sight lines by hacking through the jungle with machetes.  Kids watched curiously to see what we were doing.  The whole process only took about a two days, but the extra time spent with the community was just as important to build trust and familiarity with the people.  A social survey was also completed to get some information on habits related to water usage.

Like I said, being in this community was like experiencing a different world.  Life is much simpler and slower.  It definitely made me appreciate having a faucet and a bathroom whenever I need them.  Carrying buckets of water up muddy slopes over long distances is hard work.  After four days of eating nothing but boiled chicken, yuca, and plantains three meals a day I was starting to lose my appetite.  One time I saw a little boy reach inside a hollowed out log, pull out a yellow grub as big as the palm of his hand, and chomp down as it wriggled around.  I sort of wanted one, just for the variety.

Some of the kids after a community futbol game

It wouldn't have been a proper trip to the jungle without a little bit of adventure.  On a particularly hot afternoon a few of us decided to cool off in the river.  We came across a hand carved canoe tied along the bank.  Wim wanted to take it for a spin, so I agreed to go with him.  How hard could it be?  Well the current ended up being a bit stronger than it looked, and our casual paddle along the river turned into a desperate attempt to get back to land.  That attempt resulted in swamping the canoe, being carried downstream, eventually getting caught in some tree branches, and pulling the canoe out of the water.  After that we decided canoeing was not our thing.

Those canoes are not meant for large, unbalanced people

The pilot put on a little show for the village after he dropped us off...




More pictures here!