Saturday, June 27, 2009

Ola Y'all,

We finally made it, 20 hours and 3 flights after we drove to Columbus, we are in Iquitos, Peru. My knee is healing up and getting stronger. Thursday, I stepped off the third step of a ladder and jammed my right knee. I put a brace on it and it is gaining strength. Today, we landed at about 7am and went to the hotel to rest up for a couple of hours. At noon we went over to the office, el Jardin, and had lunch as we went over our plans and obligations. About 4pm, after siesta when the stores close down, Steve, Sarah Beth, Villa (a local worker) and I went out shopping for 2 electric drills and 60 plastic buckets with lids. We will use them to make water filters to be used in 30 homes in the village of Gallito. We really looked good riding back in two motocars (3-wheeled motorcycle rckshaws) with 2 stacks of buckets 15 high tied on the back. We´ll start work on the 30 water filters tomorrow, and start distributing them in the village on Tuesday. The Pastor told me that the one I gave them back in November is doing great. Even here in Iquitos, a city of 350-400,000 people, the public water is not safe to drink. We brush our teeth with bottled water!
The team is in pretty good spirits, just tired and in need of a good night's rest.

Monty

Sunday, June 28, 2009

We had a really good day in the village, seeing a large number in the clinic, walking part of the village, and renewing old friendships. We are pretty much sticking to plan and getting things done. We got the buckets
& 2 drills yesterday and will do the buckets tomorrow (Monday).

Thanks for the prayers, my knee is holding up and getting stronger. I did the entire walk through the downstream end of the village and it come out over a mile each way. I am pretty tired tonight and ready for bed. We drank Amazon River water today from Pastor
Edwar's filter today, it was great!!!!
You'll have to try some!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Good morning,

It's about 6:30am and we're about to get started with breakfast. We spent the day in the village yesterday. After the Pastor's sermon, we set up the clinic for the Church members and families only. We'll be back later in the week for the whole village. Steve, Marcy, and I walked most of the village yesterday (over 2 miles w/my bad knee getting stronger), getting GPS points, so we can start generating a map of Iquitos. Bill Miller, with the Corps of Engineers, will plot it for us. The real highlight for me came when the Pastor brought out the water filter we gave him in November and he had been using. He drew a cup of water for us and we passed it around and took drinks from it. It was Amazon River water and it was crystal clear and safe to drink!!! There was sediment in the top bucket and the filters were covered in fine sediment. It was the best water I've ever tasted!!!

Last night, we had a great dinner back at el Jardin. It was piache, one of the huge fish native to the river, grilled with veg kabob, fresh pineapple, yucca, and several other local fresh fruits, with pink lemonade. It was wonderful!!!

Today, the med team is going to do 2ea 1/2 day clinics at a couple of the smaller villages up the river. Steve, Marcy and I are going to stay at el Jardin and get the buckets ready for filters and do some work around the area.

I'll keep you updated as I can. Thank you for your prayers.

Monty

Good morning,

It's almost 6:30am here and the streets are very busy
with motorcycles, moto-carros (motorized rickshaws) and foot traffic getting ready for the day. Monday, Steve, Marcy and me stayed in Iquitos and bought
the buckets & materials we needed. You should have seen us speeding around thru town on moto-carros with plastic buckets piled up on the back! But it´s the kind of thing you see here all the time. Due to some technical difficulties with the bucket bottoms, we were only able to put 2 filters in only 5 units. This was "good news/bad news". Since we already plenty of filters, we decided to make the rest single filter units and put them in morehomes. There were several people at the Church yesterday when we got them put together and Pastor Edwar wanted me to tell them about them. I read the statement we had prepared for each one, then Pastor took over...it was just as it should be.

He has taken ownership of the filter project, he told all of the recipients that if there were any problemas or questions to come see him and he would take care of it. We put 2 double units in the school. Last night we went and got more buckets to take to Gallito to work on and distribute today. Sometime when you have more time, let me tell you about the bucket-buying expedition.

The filter group also saw our first patient yesterday. Pastor brought in one of his chickens with a cut on her head and wanted some help. We had no alcohol or meds, so we sprayed her head with hand sanitizer, he rubbed it in and she walked
away, no worse for the wear.

The med team went to 2 villages upriver from us, Nuevo Valentin and Santo Tomas yesterday. They saw quite a few patients in each with all the usual ailments and stuff. Today, they will be in Gallito with us all day.

Things are really going great for all of us and I walked ALL through Gallito yesterday without the brace. The strength is coming back.

Living the Call,

Monty

Good morning,
Well, let's see if I can catch you up from Wednesday morning. We started out trying to do 30 double-filter sets, yet due to the inability to locate flat-bottomed buckets, we ended up building 40 single-filter units and 5 double-filter units. We got them placed in about 25 homes, 2 schools, a clinic and............... Every time we placed one, we took a photo of the recipients. The two we placed at one of the schools was very well-received. Their water source was 2 tanks collecting the rain run-off from the two buildings. The gutters leaked, the tanks weren't good none of the piping worked, and the whole system needed to be thrown in the river. Also, there was NO type of water treatment! If it came off the roof, they tried to use it. The principal and his assistant were very pleased with the two double filters we gave them.

As usual, we did get a couple of units returned that were leaking. The Pastor and a couple of the men of the Church, Jairo and Harrison, went right to work on them. They took the filter out, removed the silicone, put it back together with new silicone and sealed it up. Te Pastor made sure the owner knew to wait 24 hours for the silicone to dry before putting water in. THEY did it, we didn't have to. They had officially taken ownership of the project. This is one of the most important steps in a program like this: Locals need to correct and maintain the materials, not wait for the gringos to do it next year when they come back!!! It was great!

The Med Team stayed in Gallito with us all day and saw quite a few patients. We came back down the river to Iquitos about 3:30 or 4. Both teams had a wonderful day in Gallito. We gathered at the el Jardin compound for another wonderful dinner of grilled beef kabobs with vegetables and 2 or 3 different fresh fruits and camo camo juice. After dinner, we had our devotion and returned to the Maranon Hotel for a good night's rest.

Thursday (our final work-day), the Med Team stayed in Iquitos and did a clinic in the Church there. It was lightly attended and they did some sight-seeing in the afternoon. We went back to Gallito to make sure everything was going well with the filters we had put out. We also checked all the ones we had not put out yet. Sarah Beth and I used one of the test kits I took on the water pre-/post-filter. We didn't find much of anything in it either way, except the filter did reduce the iron from about 5ppm to <1ppm. We did the bacteria test, but had to wait 48 hours for the result. She was staying an extra day and is going to send me the results. We didn't do any water tests from any of the other sources (probably will next year!). Laurie Fox did get a photo of one of the units in a home and the water in the top is very silty and brown, while the water in the bottom is crystal clear! The filter is starting to turn brown also, which means it is working and collecting the solids in suspension. It may not be perfect, but it's a whole lot better.

Thursday night, we went back to el Jardin for pizza from Chez Maggie's!!! It is a really good pizza with a very thin crust. The night before, an eye doctor group from Logan, Ohio that was staying at our hotel took all their youth and adult workers there and really bragged on it.

Friday morning, we were up about 4am and at the airport before 6am. Everything went smoothly this time. When we arrived in Lima, Carlos, our guide, met us and showed us many of the sites of this huge city. Though it sits right on the Pacific Ocean (Eastern Time Zone, same as us), it is a desert. All the beautiful flowers and trees have to be watered, either with sprinklers or from a municipal truck. We got back to the airport about 7:30pm and waited for the gate to open about 9ish. Sometime around 10, our second team came in. They were in a different part of the airport and we didn't get to see each other. Our flight got out at midnight, landing in Atlanta about 8am. We left Atlanta about 10 and got in Columbus about noon. We got home about 4:30 yesterday 36 hours after we started!). Now it's time to get ready for Church. By the way, the knee is doing much better and I will probably be seeing a doctor this week.

Thank you for your prayers!
Monty

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy 4th of July from Iquitos,

We made it to Iquitos this morning, landing at 6:30am. All flights were on time and went well; all of our bags made it: and nobody got searched going thru customs in Lima.

Today we unpacked the stuff that we brought and organized it for the week. We meet Pastor Edwar for lunch at EL Jarden and after lunch we discussed our game plan for the week. Materials have been purchased and we will be putting a tin roof on the Education Building. Tomorrow we will be worshipping in Gallito with our sister church.

God Bless, Bill

Monday, July 6, 2009

Hola,

Today was a good and productive day. First of all Cal went to the Doctor for a follow up exam. His blood pressure was normal and it was a good report. Cal and Nita Sue will be leaving Iquitos early on Thursday, arriving in the US on Friday.

The children's education building is well on its way. The pole barn structure is up. Today we sanded
and painted tin sheets that will become the roof. We hope to finish them tomorrow. Our plan is to put the roofing on starting tomorrow and then give it another coat of paint.

After lunch Zach, Stephen, and Josh went to the field and played the boys a game of soccer. They got spanked. It also started raining after lunch. We had a monsoon downpour for over an hour. During the rain we had a bible school. Amy lead the bible school with Jennifer, Ashley, Josh, Meagan, Stephen, and Josh helping. There was so much energy. I do not know who was more excited, the kids or us. We did songs, a bible story, and games.

The churches chicken and hen operation is flourishing. The hens are located under the church. The hen house sustained a little damage during the flood last month. They are working to fix it. The chickens are also doing great. The have 50 chickens are growing. They already have them sold. The two operations are sustaining themselves. After they sell the chickens, they are able to buy more, buy feed, and make some profit for the church.

Thanks for your prayers, Bill

Hola. We had another good day today. We finished painting the tin for the roof of the Church. We had alot of rain today so we had to paint them inside of the Church. We also had a great day of Bible School. The kids made sheep out of paper and cotton balls and then they went outside for games. During the games it started
to pour. The games went on and everybody was soaked. The boys, including our Stephen and John washed off with a swim in the Amazon River. Tomorrow we will put a preservative
on the pole barn structure and have our last Bible School.

Today I also learned something. The pastor bought a 20 foot piece of tubing. I could not figure out what he was going to do with it. He made a level out of it. It is Fluid Mechanics 101. You put water in the tube and the water pressure equalizes and you have a 20 foot level.

Thanks for the prayers, Bill

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Hola. I now know why they call this the rainforest. It has rained multiple times, everyday. Today as we headed up the Amazon River you could see some real dark clouds rolling in. When we got to Gallito, the heavens opened and it poured for almost 2 hours. The work that we had planned had to be scrubbed. The kids in the village did not go to school today because there was a teachers strike, so we played games with the kids all morning. After lunch the
church members started putting the tin on the roof until they had to leave to go fishing and catch the evening meal. Then, I was able to paint a preservative onto the pole barn structure (diesel fuel mixed with tar). John also painted some and Zach helped with the roofing and he and Stephen sanded the metal gutters. We concluded the last day of Bible School. The kids really enjoyed this weeks Bible School. Amy, Josh, Jennifer, Stephen, Ashley, John, and Meagan did a tremendous job this week with the kids. Tomorrow will be our last day in the village. Please pray for us.

God Bless, Bill

Well today was our last day in the village. We had a very good and sunny day. This morning I painted the ridge caps and gutters; Amy, Megan, Jennifer, and Ashley painted the preservative under the Church on the floor beams; and Josh, Stephen, John, and Zach moved some huge logs and tree branches from behind the Church. Zach had the saw, John had the axe, and Stephen and Josh had the machetes. After lunch we challenged the Church to a friendly game of Soccer. Let me tell you Megan, Josh, and Stephen can play a good game of soccer. Did I mention that the Gringos won?

We closed our trip with some songs with the
Children, a prayer by Pastor Edwar, and hugs
by all. We leave Iquitos tomorrow morning and
we will arrive in Columbus around noon on
Saturday. Cal and nita Sue left Iquitos tonight
and thay will be in Columbus by noon tomorrow.

Bill