Another month down. It’s amazing how fast these months have flown by. On Tuesday we will be leaving our little town here in the middle of the Amazon and heading for the bright light, big city of Quito for debrief with everyone. I could have never imaginedthat I would have fallen in love with this town, but I did. Not just this town, but the little communities that we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to go to. .
Last week we went up to Nueva Esperanza to paint and give out some gifts that Molly Reel got for the kiddos. Getting to NE is quite a trek between the drive and the hike. So once there, Ivan (our host) realized he’d forgotten the paint brushes. Our church service wasn’t until 6 pm and we were finished with the children by 1:30pm so we had a lot of time to kill. One of the men popped off some oranges and we sat around eating them, and then Ivan asked if we wanted to go see his “hermano” (brother in Spanish). Everyone calls each other Hermano/Hermana. It’s definitely a step up from being called “Gringa” like in Peru, which means white girl). He told us it was about a thirty minute walk, so onwards we went. I wore my Tevas that day which was a massive mistake because there was so much sinking mud that my feet got caught in and then kept slipping out of my shoes, so note to future self, don’t wear Tevas on those kind of outings.
Having just ate a delicious orange, I was in the business of seeing what else may be out in the wild for us to try. I asked Ivan what kind of fruits/veggies this man farmed and the other community we were walking to. Apparently, about an hour down the road from NE, there is another community of farmers. This blew my mind because it was already hard enough to get to NE that I couldn’t imagine how people could live even farther away, with little access to anything at all. The only way these farmers can carry their crops to sell is by mules and horses, and it is such a long journey that I was trying to figure out what they could be selling to actually make some sort of profit for all the time and energy they put into it.
The house was up on top of the hill (I can’t reiterate enough how secluded this area is). The man has 10 children, ranging from about 2 to 20. I recognized two from school earlier that day, meaning every day they make that walk, rain or shine, in that mud. Also, Molly had given the little ones lollypops. This kid must have been eating it for 1.5 hours. I have never seen anyone eat one that slow but it was because he was truly savoring this little 5 cent treat he got. His little sister was sucking on the wrapper for just as long. His older brother, also from the school had already come home, had lunch, changed, and started working on their farm. He rode in on a horse (he was probably 10). The image was one that will stick with me forever. So our little group sat around and listened to Ivan and the man speak to each other for almost two hours. It’s especially around these times that I wish I had paid more attention in Spanish class. Afterward we prayed for the man and his family, Ivan told me to grab my camera, that we were taking a photo. I figured he meant with the family. We walked a little ways away from the house through the man’s backyard. Then downhill.Wayyy downhill. I thought, oh nooo this walk back up is going to be brutal, not realizing that what we were about to do would be one of the coolest things of my life. There is a fruit called cacoathat our team is crazy about,once we caught up, he offered it to us because he farms them. At this moment we realized that this walk/hike could be a result of me asking about the fruit in the area, so now we were being led on a fruit tour. When we got to the top of the next hill, we stood before this enormous, most beautiful field of peppers. Orange, red, green. Spicy peppers. Mountains were in the background, the sun was shining, and the beauty was unbelievable. He walked us over to where two of his older kids had been picking them, which was their daily job. Ivan told me the peppers weren’t spicy and to try one, so, without any water on me, I tried it. BIG MISTAKE. Then we walked over to another area of his farm, and he had coffee beans that he let us try. After that we were in the sugar cane area where each of us had a mighty helping of this sweet treat. He also had avocados and other fruits. After getting my foot stuck in more mud, we made it back to the house again. We gave him some money, even though he didn’t ask, and one of the girls had been carrying a water jug around all day and at this point it was empty, so she offered it to him because people use those jugs for everything. His face lit up, he was so grateful. After our goodbyes we headed back to the other area of NE for church, and that man carried on with his life with his family in the middle of nowhere in the amazon jungle.
On our walk there, all I could think is why do these people live here? How could they possibly make a profit? How could they be happy with nothing? So many negative questions running through my mind. By the time I left that man’s house, I understood. Even though he doesn’t have much money, his kids are working from a young age, life is routine and hard, they are still happy (or so I perceived so). He told us about how he sees God’s beauty in everything (and you should have seen his view!). How he truly must rely completely and with full faith on God to provide, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to do it. His kids had a massive playground, his family was full of life and love. I don’t know much about their struggles, but I do know the smiles I saw on each of their faces. God gave this man so much land for all these different types of crops and put him in an area where the climate truly allows for great farming. This is his life and he is perfectly happy with it. It really makes me stop to think about how much I can truly be grateful for and what actually matters in this life.
