Jungle Trip #2--Kiim
Sun. July 21 - 6:00 PM The plan for last week was to go to Kiim, another Shuar community in the jungle. Kiim, unlike Washintsa, is now recently accessible by road. The road to Makuma, the neighboring town, was just finished in January, so you can drive until just before the entrance to Makuma, park, and hike the last hour into the community. The plan for the week was to set the four wooden columns for the water tower under construction. But, plans never seem to go exactly as you were hoping. Monday morning, just as we were about to leave, we got a call from Alfredo. (Alfredo is an Ecuadorian engineer who has worked with HCJB for 7 years. He married a British woman, Alex, who also works in Community Development with HCJB. Next year I’ll be their neighbors. They and their two kids are coming to Wheaton for a year as they both work on their Masters in Intercultural Studies.) Alfredo had been down to MAF half an hour before to see if there were any messages for him on the radio. For over 50 years radio has been the backbone of rapid communication in the remote jungle communities. Every morning at 7:00 pilots, missionaries, and others send messages and report weather conditions. This morning, a leader from Kiim had walked an hour to Makuma and asked the pastor to leave a message for Alfredo not to come. “We’re not ready,” he said. We later found out they had been unable to cut the four massive legs of the water tower because their chainsaw’s chain had broken and was being repaired. So there was nothing for us to do in Kiim. But Alfredo, after talking with Alex, decided to go ahead and take us to the area anyway, since we were all packed and the arrangements had already been made. So we left Shell, drove 2 hours on the highway, and then turned off to drive on the new road to Makuma. If you’re ever looking for a book to read in your spare time, read Mission to the Headhunters by Frank and Marie Drown. The Drowns were long-time missionaries with GMU (now Avant, my family’s mission). In this book they tell the remarkable story of setting up a mission base in Makuma among the Shuar. Alex and Alfredo lent it to me earlier in the trip and I devoured it, eager to learn about this work among the Shuar done through GMU that I had never really heard about in detail. Here I was in Makuma for the first time, even though my mission has owned property there for over 60 years. We saw the church and met the pastor, who let us sleep in the guest house. The airstrip still runs right down the edge of town, but the grass has been allowed to grow tall and it seems as if it has probably not been used for the past 6 months since the road made it to the town and buses depart regularly for the city. Alfredo showed us the spring that supplied the water to the missionary houses. It was originally built by GMU but HCJB has since made two recent fixes to it. That evening we sat around in the living room and talked. You know you’re among missionaries when between 8 of you you’ve visited around 40 countries. The next morning, after a hearty breakfast of eggs, spaghetti, and sardines, we headed down 2 miles to the river. There, on the Makuma river, is the hydroelectric plant which generates electricity for Makuma and several neighboring villages. The story of the hydro plant is in Mission to the Headhunters and is well worth reading if you read nothing else in the book. The 13 year story of how the twin generators were purchased for $1 each in Iowa, refurbished, shipped to Guayaquil, trucked to Latacunga, flown in to Makuma on a massive airplane that sunk into the soft ground, caught fire and burned to bits, and then laboriously installed on the river is a magnificent testimony to God’s provision every step of the way. As an engineer, it was really cool to see the finished product firsthand. That afternoon, then, we went to Amazonas, a neighboring community that recently completed a water project with the help of HCJB. It was encouraging to see a completed project, but discouraging to see that leaks had developed and only about half of the taps in the community still had water pressure. There was an incident from Amazonas that sticks out in my mind. The government had recently built a new childcare facility in the town complete with concrete walls and tile floors. But as we walked behind the structure we saw two open access holes to what were evidently pipes coming from the building. We asked one of the ladies who told us that one of them came from the kitchen and the other from the bathroom. Kids had stuffed a bunch of toys down the hole from the bathroom and had clogged the drain, so now it was overflowing into a field behind the house and likely eventually into the river 50 m away. A small girl plucked with her bare toes at the head of a dead chicken stuck in the hole. When we looked a little closer we could see floating fecal matter and two swimming parasites in the water. This was possibly the most revolting thing I’ve ever seen in my life. The designers of the childcare facility had built a beautiful building, and yet they had marginalized sanitation needs. All they would have needed was a lid for the access holes that would stop children from clogging them up. And yet even the neglect of such a simple thing was enough to create the perfect breeding ground for diseases and parasites right behind the town daycare! I guess the event emphasized for me the importance of proper sanitation in addition to clean water and how even small inadequacies can ruin an otherwise perfect system. Even though the trip to Kiim didn’t go quite as expected (in fact, we never made it to Kiim) I came away from the two days quite glad at what I had seen. I saw both the wonderful success these projects have made in the area, bringing water and electricity, and the frustrating realism of how these projects don’t always work exactly as they could. For instance, most residents of Makuma and Amazonas don’t pay their water or electrical bills. As they say, “Water is a gift from God. Why should we have to pay for it?" All in a Typical Day's Work
Mon. July 8 - 11:00 PM An explanation of what I've been up to in Shell is long overdue. There are three of us engineering interns as you'll recall--Mark, Kevin, and I. All of us are studying civil/environmental engineering. Our work has been centered around the community development office here in Shell. The primary goal of community development is to provide clean water projects for rural communities. This may include hygiene education and many other things. There are several missionaries working in community development from many different countries. Alex Griffen is from England and her husband Alfredo Leon is from Ecuador. Stephen and Ruth Pike are from England. Eric Fogg is American. Another Alex is from New Zealand, Martin is from Germany, Viim is from some other country in Europe I can't recall right now. It's great because only in community development will you see an Autocad drawing with English and Spanish labels on the same drawing! I've really enjoyed getting to know all these missionaries and getting to see their work. I look up to them in many different ways. Some are very wise, some are ingenious engineers, others understand the culture very well, and others are very committed to spreading the Gospel. I could tell so much more about them, but I would probably bore anyone reading. Perhaps I'll tell some more stories about them when I get the chance. During the time here in Shell there has been no lack of projects for us interns to work on. One big one has been surveying all the HCJB property to make an up-to-date map and establish how much land they own in case they want to sell a lot or two in the next couple years. (If you don't know what surveying is, it's just measuring stuff. It's essentially the same thing as using a ruler to measure the distance between points on a piece of paper, but because the things you're measuring are so big you have to be more creative in the way you go about it.) We've also gotten some hands-on experience doing some maintenance for the hospital. They're in the process of installing a new gas distribution system to replace the old gas tanks that were being used. We've gotten the chance to learn a lot about plumbing and not-plumbing. (The former being the way plumbing should be done and the latter the way it should not be done; it's hard to say which I've learned more about.) ......... If I don't end this post with a story instead of more facts I'm going to bore everyone who's still reading. This past Friday we got to see the dedication of a recently finished water project. The community is up in the mountains at about 12000 feet instead of in the jungle. The town's name is Yanacocha. This name should sound immediately familiar to at least my dad. It only took me a few questions the day we were leaving to recognize the name of the larger group of communities as "Colta." It's only a few minutes walk away from the seminary my dad has taught at multiple times and the house we used to go on vacation to for a few years. Kevin, Mark, Alfredo, Martin, and I set out Friday morning for Colta. It's about a 2 1/2 hour car ride, which translates to something like an average of 1 foot per second vertical ascent. When we arrived we drove to the pump house, shook hands with the people (dad--one of the pastors sends his greetings but unfortunately I forget his name. I think it might have been Manuel Chuqui, but I'm not sure), and got to see the spring and the pumps. We headed up the hill to see the water "tower," then headed back down to the church for the celebration. I feel much more at home in the cool climate of the "Sierra" then down in the jungle. It's not that I dislike the jungle, it's just that the mountains feel kind of like home to me and I'm slightly more familiar with Quichua culture than Shuar. The celebration was a great typical Quichua celebration. There was special music, booming loudspeakers, formal addresses from community leaders, thanks to all involved (and to gringos like me who really weren't involved.) There were also gifts. All of us (probably 20 including other HCJB missionaries and a team from the States) went and stood at the front. The girls got bags and the guys got scarves. But then they ran out of gifts at the very end. Mark and one other guy got bags. But I could see them scrounging in the bag for a gift for me and realized they didn't have anything. At this point I was more concerned for their sake than for mine. I didn't really care if I got a gift or not, but I knew that they couldn't very well give everyone else a gift but not me. At this point, one of the men stepped toward me and took off his red poncho. He proceeded to put it over my head. This was the kindest gift he could have given me. I didn't deserve it. I did nothing more than show up to the celebration. And yet this man was thankful enough to HCJB to give me his very own red striped poncho. I was honored by the kindness he showed. It was a simple gesture and even though I really did nothing to deserve it I don't know if I'll ever forget it. After the ceremony, lunch was served. There are very few times in my life that I have been served a meal I've been unable to finish. Actually, I can't think of a time off the top of my head. But my plate was so loaded down with food there was no way I could finish it all. There was soup, potatoes, habas (lima beans), choclo (corn), salad, fritada (fried pork), and the delicacy--cuy (guinea pig). Guinea pigs in Ecuador aren't pets. They're food. And mighty good food I might add. There are a lot of ribs on a guinea pig, but the meat around them is rich and fatty, something like pork. After the meal and some goodbyes, we headed back to Shell, happy to be able to share in the dedication of a water project that will hopefully serve the community well for many years to come. Reflections on the Jungle
Sun. July 7 - 10:45 PM I've been meaning to write more this last week but one thing after another came up. Perhaps you can empathize--when you're working all day, then go out for dinner in the evening and wake up the next morning with little time to finish the things you were meaning to. The past Friday afternoon we arrived safely back to Shell. We were out in the jungle for a little over 3 days in total, but it felt like much longer, though not necessarily in a bad way. Earlier this summer I was living in luxury; this week in the jungle was the opposite of that. Washintsa is still well-removed from civilization. Access is primarily by airplane (the only alternative would be a long hike from the nearest road.) All the cement, water tanks, steel rebar, etc. had to be brought in with us on the flights. There is a small generator that someone owns that powers the church and one of the houses sometimes and there is a solar panel on the pastor's house, but otherwise there is no electrical power. Water has to be carried from the river, which is where baths are taken. The food consists almost entirely of boiled yuca (manioc root), green bananas, and potatoes, all without salt. Occasionally someone will go hunting and come back with squirrel, monkey, sardines, or some other wild animal. And yet, there is something appealing about all this. The people live simply and without many of the concerns we have. They lack a lot and yet they make do with what they have. Most aren't well educated, but they make up for it in hospitality. I don't want to set up Washintsa as a paradise, but contrary to the assumptions we tend to make about underdeveloped areas, it's not all bad. Perhaps the most important thing I gained from the week in Washintsa was a better understanding of poverty and development. HCJB focuses on development; not on aid. Aid is meant to temporarily relieve someone from a disaster that has occurred. If it is used for more than this--to better someone's circumstances by offering them free stuff--it causes dependency. Development has to work with the person to better their situation. You can no longer give free stuff but you can offer them help in bettering their situation themselves. Development is harder than aid, but instead of dependency it results in more self-sufficiency. Poverty is not what someone has, but what they want. By this definition, if you walk into a village and give something to someone, you could even be making them poorer! For these reasons, HCJB doesn't initiate projects, but they wait for the community to ask for help. HCJB then raises the money for the equipment (pipes, solar panels, tanks, faucets, water meters, cement, rebar, etc.) They volunteer their time and expertise and pay for the transportation into the village. But the community agrees to provide food for the HCJB missionaries. They have to collect and provide local materials for the project (sand and gravel for the concrete). And perhaps most significantly, they are the ones who put in the labor for the project. This can be quite significant. The next step in Washintsa is digging the trenches for laying out the pipe. There's probably 400 m of trench that needs to be dug 1 m deep by shovel and pickaxe. This will probably take them 2 months to do if they work hard on it. In this way, for the community to finish a water project they have to actually want it. 2 months of digging in the hot sun is no joking business. They have to take ownership of the project for themselves, and in this way they will be sure to take care of it in years to come. I've included a few pictures of Washintsa, courtesy of my fellow interns. |