Iquitos: Last post from Karen

The following is a post from Karen, who volunteered this summer in Iquitos with her husband Ben:

It’s time to say, “Goodbye” to Iquitos, Peru. It’s time to say, “Goodbye” to the city that has taught me so much, and the friends that have changed my life. There were extremely difficult moments that brought me to tears, there were deep soul searching moments, and there were long and exhausting moments. There were moments that made me laugh so hard I cried, moments of awe at the beauty around me, and moments where pride and joy filled my heart. I’m sure I have felt every emotion possible in these past 2 months, and through it all, I believe I am returning home a different person. I believe that I am stronger, wiser, and more compassionate.            

            It’s hard to choose a picture to go along with this post. No single image can sum up this experience. No single image can include all of the people and places that I love, nor all of the things that I’ve learned. I finally decided on a picture of me on the Boulevard in Iquitos, by myself.  I left Salt Lake City, Utah to go help people and maybe change their lives, but in the end it was me that changed.

Iquitos: Last post from Ben

The following is a post from Ben, who volunteered this summer in Iquitos with his wife Karen:

For my last blog post before it’s time to go home, I thought I would write about the overall changes I’ve both seen in others and experienced myself. Helping to teach the self-reliance classes here in Iquitos has been one of the most fulfilling things that I have ever done. It’s so wonderful to see people who are in the program progress to finally find the parts of their lives that have been missing and in some cases, not even know they were missing till they found them. The people that I’ve grown to know and love are amazing and inspiring people who only need an opportunity to change their lives. This program has been that opportunity and I’m very lucky to have been apart of it this summer.

            As for me I’ve learned that self-reliance isn’t a goal that can be achieved in a single moment in life, but is something that takes a lifetime to earn. I can always progress, my finances can always progress, and my community can always progress. I know I am going to take what I’ve learned here and apply to my life back home as I continue to grow in my personal self-reliance.

            The attached picture is of a handful of members of one of the self-reliance groups. They call themselves “The Eagles,” because they feel like the gap between the “eagle” and the “condor” is being bridged through the efforts of Eagle-Condor’s support as well as their own.

Iquitos: Peruvian pride

The following is a post from Ben, who is serving in Iquitos with his wife Karen:

August 4

Not long ago my wife and I had one of the most amazing experiences here in Iquitos. We were invited by a member of one of our Self-Reliance groups to see the village where she taught school. We arrived at this small village by boat, half an hour or so up the Amazon River. Upon arrival we thought we would just go to her school so she could leave an assignment for her students to work on and then she would show us around the village. When we got to the school, however, we were informed that they were having an assembly that morning and that we were invited to stand in the back and watch. From behind, we observed some two hundred students from kindergarten to high school walk out of their classrooms and line up in formation outside the school. Once all the children were in their lines they started the assembly with their usual morning announcements. After the announcements they proceeded to explain that they, like they always do, would choose someone to raise the Peruvian flag while the rest of the students sang the national hymn. To our surprise, they invited us to the front of the assembly to raise the flag while the students sang. It was an incredible experience for us to raise the flag and watch as all the students sang with pride, the song of their country.

            I walked away from that experience thinking how thoughtful that was for them to include us in their assembly. They didn’t know who we were or what we were doing there but they still blessed us with the honor of raising their country’s flag. I continue to be amazed by the love and friendliness of the Peruvian people. They allowed us to experience something that we will never forget.

Iquitos: Such kindness and love

The following is a post from Karen, who is serving with her husband Ben in Iquitos:

           I am always amazed by the kindness and care that the people of Iquitos show me. A little over a week ago, I got the worst sickness I’ve had since we’ve been here.  I woke up one morning with horrible stomach pains and I couldn’t stop throwing up. Of course it was the morning that we were supposed to go paint a school in a little village called Manati. I wanted to go so bad, so I talked myself into feeling better, and I went. 

Not long after I started working, I couldn’t pretend that I felt okay anymore. I found myself sitting on the ground with my head buried in my hands, just hoping and praying that I would make it through the day.  Finally I was lead over to a shady spot where a few other sick people were resting. I laid down on a mat and started to break out into a crazy fever. There were a few Peruvian ladies sitting close by, taking care of all the sick people. They kept feeling my head and fussing over me, and making me drink water and take medicine. My fever wasn’t going down so they brought over a big bucket full of water, lemons, and some kind of leaves. They washed my hair in this mixture and continued to lay cold wet leaves on my forehead until my fever finally broke.

It wasn’t until we returned home later that day that I realized I didn’t even know the names of the kind women who helped me. They showed such love and concern for me, a complete stranger. They made me feel like I was home in the U.S. with my own mother taking care of me, even though I am thousands of miles away.

Iquitos: Meet Solange

The following is a post from Ben, who is an intern with his wife Karen at Iquitos.

The woman on the left in the picture is Solange. She had taken a class through the government to learn how to make marmalades. The government promised funds to help start her business but never followed through. Additionally, the government didn’t teach her how to properly run a business. When she heard about Eagle Condor and the business classes being offered, she decided that this was a way for her to get the proper knowledge of business principles and finally start her marmalade business.

Last week we had the opportunity to document the process. With the help of her friend they took the juice from fresh pineapples and turned it into delicious marmalade. The process took several hours and included digging out all the juice and pulp from the pineapples, adding the sugar and pectin, cooking it over a charcoal fire, and then separating it into little containers to sell. They told us that if they leave at sunrise to sell the marmalade by walking up and down the street, by sunset the same day they should be able to sell it all. Splitting the profits between her and her friend they both will walk away with about 15 dollars.

I’ve learned a lot about dedication from Solange. Even though she has a little 2-year-old girl that requires a lot of attention, she attends every single class, does all the homework she is assigned, and even goes to other meetings with us to tell others about her experiences in the class. Besides all of this, she is one of the most dedicated people in church. When her family was assigned to clean the church building one week, they went and did it practically by themselves, even though others were supposed to come and help but didn’t. I feel lucky to know such an incredible woman and I know that with her dedication and the help of these classes she will be able to become very successful.

Iquitos: Karen and Ben

The following is a post from Karen, who, with her husband Ben, are the FIRST interns in Iquitos.

Our very first week in Iquitos, my husband and I were wandering around,  trying to familiarize ourselves with the area. We came across some little souvenir shops over the river, and as we were glancing around at all of the products for sale, our eyes fell on this painting at the exact same time. It drew us in immediately and we couldn’t look away. We decided we wouldn’t buy it right then, but maybe another day we’d come back.

Not even a week later, we were wandering around again, conducting interviews for our economic report. Our feet carried us right back to the little shops over the river and again, we found ourselves face to face with the painting we had fallen in love with. We finally agreed that we just needed to buy it, and while the artist/shop owner was wrapping it up for us, we decided to interview him.

His name was Bily, and his story amazed me.  He hand painted so many beautiful Amazon masterpieces, each one taking close to a week to complete, but by the time his profits were averaged out, he was only making roughly 10 soles a day. As we asked more questions about his business, we found out that he sleeps on the floor of his tiny shop each night, and that his family lives 4 hours away down the river. He would only return home every 2 or 3 months to see his family, and bring them any extra money he’d made.

It was humbling to me, to see how someone with such incredible talent, was living on basically nothing. It made me take a good long look at myself, at all of the things I have, at all of the things I don’t need. It opened up my eyes, and as I remember all of the things I used to complain about back home (the internet isn’t working! There’s nothing good on TV! Gas is so expensive! I don’t have any cute clothes! Etc. etc.) seem so silly.