Audios Huaticocha

Audios Huaticocha

Our month in Huaticocha has come to a close. We left Huaticocha last night and arrived in
Quito at 6 this morning to the Inca Link compound. At first I didn’t think I would be able to
make it through this month but we survived, and ended up thriving here. Seeing how this month originally started out
I never thought I would make it the first month let alone fall in love with
this place and the people here.  Life in Huaticocha isn’t easy. Every task is about ten times harder than in
America. It takes about two hours to
make a simple meal here and even what would seem easy construction projects
take days to complete. We left with the
huge pile of rocks moved about a football field further into the jungle, the
large boulder still sits where it originally was one month ago, we made some
incredible new friends, and we learned so much in just one month.

 Leaving this place is
was much harder than I thought it would be. I didn’t think it would be, but it was. Wednesday night Steven and Samantha left for Quito because Steven needed
to get an MRI on his knee after his fall down the waterfall a few weeks
ago. It was then that I saw how hard
leaving this place would be and how much of an impact we have made on the
people here and on our jungle boys. Before
they left we went to Juan’s house so they could say bye to him. His mom started telling us about how much of
a blessing we have been to Juan and his family. She thanked us for wanting to spend time with him and teaching him
English and just life. She also told us
that almost every night Juan would tell her how much he is going to miss us
when we leave. Juan came back to the
tree house with us so Steven and Samantha could get their stuff and get on the
bus to Quito. After they left we looked
at Juan and tears were pouring from his eyes. The only thing we could do was sit on the curb and just cry and pray
together. 

This past month while
in Huaticocha,

·         -We ate rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner all
in one day

·        
-I jumped off a 30 foot bridge more times than I
can count

·        
-We ate plantains, rice, and yucca in every form
possible

·        
-I craved salad and vegetables this month more than
ever

·        
-I wanted to go home a lot

·        
-We trekked 6 hours through thick jungle to a
waterfall that we never found. They told
us it would only take 45 minutes

·        
-By 8 pm we were dead and ready for bed

·        
-We all took a nap about every single day, and
looked forward to it each day

·        
-I never thought I would enjoy taking a cold
bucket shower, but its great especially after hauling rocks all morning

·        
-We had my hearts stolen by so many awesome
jungle boys

·        
-I spent my birthday jumping off a bridge into
some river in the middle of the Amazon jungle

·        
-We wore the same clothes day after day

·        
-I put hot sauce on everything, breakfast, lunch,
and dinner

·        
-I wanted
to do anything but haul rocks, machete grass, or dig holes

·        
-I beheaded a chicken with a machete

·        –
We probably unknowingly ate chicken organs in
our soup

·        
-We washed our clothes in a bucket

·        
-We squeezed lime juice on every cut, scrape, and
bug bite (lime replaces modern medicine in the jungle)

·        
-I ate more candy, cookies, ice cream, and
anything with sugar in a month than I usually eat in a year. 

·        
–We spent a lot of time waiting for the bus- the
buses always seemed to come early then we would have to wait another hour for
the next one

·        
-I learned so much in one month that only God can
teach you when you are miserable in the middle of the jungle

·        
-We learned to be very flexible with everything…plans
never go according to plan in the jungle

·        
-Jungle time is very different than American
time. When they say 30 minutes add
another hour

·        
-We made it an entire month in the jungle without
seeing a single snake

·         
-A trip to
the river or waterfall was never complete without a bottle of shampoo