How you know you are in the Amazon?

Q. If it takes 12 hours to go from Iquitos to Pevas, why does it take 24 hours to come back?
A. One way you are going with the flow of the mighty Amazon, and the way back you are fighting the current.

Q. If you get coffee and a roll for breakfast on the short trip, why do you get 3 meals on the 24 hour trip, for the same price?
A. I never figured that one out.

You share a “dorm” with 50 other people sleeping in hammocks on a river boat. You try to sleep on top of your baggage so it will still be there in the morning. Your neighbors are going to a wedding in Pevas, so you get to observe pedicures, fancy hairdos and makeup “a la hamaca”. Never mind that everybody has to walk through 100 feet of ankle deep mud to get in to solid ground.

You dump your leftovers over the side of the boat.
You don’t dump your big empty soda bottles overboard, they make good floats for your fishing net.

Clean is the feeling you have for 5 minutes after a shower, dry is what you remember being about 5 days ago.
You slather on sun screen about 10 minutes before it rains for 5 hours and your poncho is packed under the tarp.

You have to wait for 500 mototaxis to pass before you can cross the street. There are about 50 for each car you see. You hold on for dear life when you ride, and pray that the 50 taxis waiting at your corner for the green light don’t get all tangled up when they take off. Driving in Iquitos means you don’t have to worry about lanes or rules.

The river water is a nice shade of tan, same for the shower water and your coffee water and all the water you are going to see in a long time.
You hang your mosquito net too high and are buzzed all night.
The day after you eat monkey, you are given a BIG rodent to munch on ... mmmm, yummy. You eat your chunk of bush meat carefully so you don’t break a tooth on the beebees they shot the animal with.
You don’t ask what animal the little bits of meat floating in your watery rice came from.

On the way down to the spring (brown water with soap) you slide about 8 feet in your dirty jeans, but get your towel and clean clothes all muddy too, leading to great laughter among the onlookers.
You also have an audience when you use the other facilities, which cannot be described in polite company.

You climb in an out of a small boat covered with mud, with 2 foot sides, onto a muddy bank, about 10 times a day. The rest of the time you sit on an old plank trying not to tip the boat over until it is time to climb in and out again.
This boat is powered by 50 mosquitos tied in a jar - not really; it is a 5 horsepower put-put outboard that is backed up with a paddle.
Strange and exotic birds fly around you on the river banks. You see pink dolphins cavorting just around the next bend of the river. Really.

You drink mate (Argentine tea) with your team mates and play Bible trivia by the hour in the pouring rain. You win sometimes because the names are spelled differently in Spanish and they can’t guess your names.

You get hugs from toothless old ladies who smile and clap when they hear their language spoken from a tape player. You pray for people suffering from rare and interesting diseases. Your blue eyes are the most wonderful thing to come to the far corner of the jungle in many moons.

You thank God for the recordists and linguists who came to these jungles when you were a child, to bring the light and hope of Christ to those who were in darkness but are now in the light. You wish that you could stay and tell them more about Christ, but there is another village to visit, another boat to ride, and another plane to catch.

Gerry, from the Amazon

What I did on my spring break – by Gerry Gutierrez

Distance traveled:
about 12,000 miles on 11 different flights.
2000 miles driven in the van with stops every hour to add water to the radiator or to fix something else.
300 kms on the big river boat at 8.3 k/h, 12 hrs on the put-put at 3 m/h
60 kms on windy mountain dirt roads in Oaxaca.

Countries visited: the US, Mexico, Costa Rica twice, Peru, Venezuela, plus several Indian nations (also known as ethnic groups)

Languages heard: Mostly Spanish, but also Zapotec, English, Bora, Yaguas, Ocaína, Resigaro, and Huitoto: Muinane

Food I ate: monkey, jungle rodent, cassava, manioc, bananas, nameless bush meat, fermented manioc drinks, mate from Argentina, rice and chicken wrapped up in banana leaves, lots of papaya juice and Mexican tacos!

People I met:
Hernan, a Bora speaker who guided us upriver to his village. We saw a Moloca, or round house complete with tree trunk drums, the shaman’s pipes, herbs, and masks.
Julia, Hernan’s aunt who helped with the NT translation as a teenager, 40 years ago. Julia and Hernan have a burden for their Bora clansmen in Colombia, just over the river. Perhaps they can take the gospel to them when our recordists make new tapes in Bora. Julia and Hernan’s grandmother is 110 years old and still alert in her hammock.
Clever, a Resígaro speaker who was named by a missionary wife about 40 years ago. He is very clever, and has won international competition painting jungle scenes on tree bark.
Gloria, Clever’s niece, who was abandoned by her parents and is being raised by her older sister. Gloria is a deaf mute, beautiful little girl of 5 years. She immediately came to me, and commenced hugging and playing with me, as if we were old friends. When I showed her a picture of my family, she picked me out and was very excited. When I gestured to her “my daughter Panchis” she immediately pointed to Panchis’ brown hair and then her own brown curls. She understood that I have a daughter just like her, and from then she wouldn’t let me out of her sight until we left. The team prayed for Gloria, and for several other people in the villages we visited, knowing that God sent us to bless them.
Many homeless street people, homosexuals and pedophiles in Iquitos, preying and being preyed upon. How God’s heart must break for each of them, lost in their misery. How much he wants to bring light, and life and healing for each of them.
A couple dozen pastors, missionaries and their wives, all doing their part to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in Spanish and tribal languages up and down the Amazon and its tributaries. What a tremendous challenge to get to where the people live, then evangelize and disciple them effectively.

What I remember: trying to explain civilization to those living in bamboo huts with palm roofs at the end of the dirt road or beside the river. Trying to explain why I can’t take them with me to live in civilization. How blessed I am to walk the jungle trails, ride the rivers, climb the mountains, and share that world with you, so that you can pray for the work of Gospel Recordings in the Amazon, the Andes, and Mexico.

Gerry, back at home