Today was amazing... Ben and I were up at 5:30am this morning because we had to head out to the airport at 6am to pick up the first mission team of the summer an amazing group of people from Charleston South Carolina, there are 11 members of this team including: the pastor and his wife, the church's missionary works coordinator, and several other couples... Including a set of newlyweds who are doing this work as part of their honeymoon!!!
After we get back to El Jardin and had breakfast the group had a little time to settle in and rest :) then around 9am the pastor of their partner church here in Peru turned up to go over the plans for this week, these plans including building a new bathroom area for the church and surrounding area, a children's bible study school, distribution of medical relief supplies and victims. It seems like it's going to be an amazing week of service.
After the planning was done and everyone was rested we had some lunch and then me and Ben lead our first tour of the city of Iquitos we began by heading up Napo street which is the street El Jardin is on and then it was a straight shot to the Plaza de Armas we walked down by the Itaya river which is one of the three rivers that encircle Iquitos. The other two are the Amazon to e northeast and the Nayay River to the south! We walked down through the Belen markets in which you can find anything from fruit, to meat, to jewelry, to spices!!! It's the coolest places all the colors and sounds and smells overwhelm you :) but it's also kind of crazy because we walked out through it at around one in the afternoon and there was raw meat sitting out everywhere without refrigeration in the Peruvian heat of around 86 degrees...I don't think I could begin to describe the smell... But despite the smelly meat it was probably the coolest thing we've done in Iquitos thus far :) it's so cool to think these people grocery shop like that everyday
After our tour we had to hurry everyone into 'Motokars' ,which only seat two people, and give the drivers directions to the port so we could go to Butterfly Island, Ben and I are counting today as a success because we got everyone to the port! Not a single missionary was lost, which not gonna lie was my biggest fear for today! Ben said he would have settled for 8 out of 11 arriving safely because a 'C' on our first day was acceptable but I'm happy to report we made an A.
Once on Butterfly island we meet the craziest woman I have ever had the pleasure of meeting to date in my life thus far owner of Pilpintuwasi Butterfly farm and Amazon Animal orphanage, she's a nutty Austria woman, total nature nut, who owns forty something archers of land out on the Nayay river and she breads butterflies, keep in mind she comes strolling up to us through the jungle walking barefoot 6" inches deep in mud it was quite a sight !!!
The place was beautiful :)
We're going have dinner and head to bed early love you
Location:Iquitos Peru
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