Welcome to Camioco, the land of mosquitos, hard workers, and lots of animals.
We arrived in Camioco from our “one hour” drive…six hours after leaving Trinidad, Bolivia. We took an old truck that, as the pastor described, “Has everything wrong with it”. Carrying water, food, and our belongings, along with 2 mattresses and some other stuff to bless the missionary family, we had three of us ride in the truck and the other three on a wood plank placed over the bed of the truck. I got the second shift. I wore a hat and held on tight. It was bumpy and hot, but was more reminiscent of a Safari than a bad travel day.
It seemed every 3 minutes I saw hawks swooping across the sky. One held a furry ring-tailed creature in its beak that it dropped as we approached. There were magnificent birds: lime green, bright blues, long necks, long beaks. One looked like a backwards penguin met a regal crane. Its head was black, body white, and it had a pink collar around the neck. We saw capybaras, the world’s largest rodents, in families crossing the streets. Horses, cows, pigs. Five emus running through the swampy grasses. It was a wonder.
We had about an hour of light in Camiaco when we arrived. We greeted our contacts (a small 3-person family) and were greeted by happy boys running at our truck.
Mosquitos swarmed every ounce of open skin, and because they are of an especially cruel variety, managed to go through our clothes only moments after arriving. The field was beautiful, and we considered where to set up our tents. The contact told me it would be better to set up things inside the concrete church. They warned us of:
Serpientas (snakes), vampiros (bats), zorros (foxes) harmigas con una pica fuerta (ants with a strong bite), mosquitos (mosquitos)….All of these things considered, we decided the stars and the slight breeze was worth it, and most of us set up tents outside.
We had a dinner of tomato-mayo sandwiches while we discussed the plans for the next day.
Wake up at 6:15, devotional at 6:30. Pray together as we read a passage from the book of Joshua and discuss the promises of God. Breakfast then…. Work! Limpieza la tierra. Basically we spent 4 hours bush-hacking the Bolivian jungle with Machetes and sticks. It was HARD WORK. My momma trained me up right in the ways of doing tough work, but MAN!
Wearing jeans & long sleeve shirts to fight the mosquitos in 100 degree weather. Stepping in ant piles. Blisters on our hands from wielding machetes. No words will ever adequately describe it. Mosquitos, four at a time, landing on our faces as we chop down the plants that used to be their homes. Thorns into our hands, we can’t really do much about it.
Lunch: Rice, potatoes, chicken, carrot. I eat my entire (massive) plate, and am thankful for every bite.
We take a siesta because it’s blazing hot and the sun is brutal. First I try to sleep in my tent. I roll up the rain cover, but even then, I am *literally* dripping in sweat after 5 minutes. After 10 minutes, I give up and squish two plastic chairs together. I curl up in the fetal position with my face pressed against the back of the chair to get some rest. Works for 40ish minutes, wake up covered in mosquitos and cramps. Go into the church and sleep on the dirt-covered concrete floor. I use my dirty clothes as a pillow and try to rest for a while longer. When I’m conscious, I’m wondering how I’ll be able to do this for a month.
We get up to do evangelism. We walk down the road and talk to several people. I translate for my team because no one speaks English here. Most of the kids from the community go to church, but there are only 2 families that are part of the church. We share the gospel with one woman and pray for her.
For another woman, I share about the church being a family. I watch as her son picks up a dead duck from the dirt floor of their house, and we keep on talking. A red cross crew comes by giving vaccinations. They inject our contacts’ daughter and then ask me if everyone from our group has been immunized for yellow fever. I thank them and assure them that we will not be needing a jungle shot today.
The third family welcomes us into the back patio/back of their house. There’s one male present, a fifteen-year-old kid making some ahi sauce from spicy peppers. The rest of the family is sitting around a table coloring. The Bible is open and children are doing their homework, reading the crucifixion story. We are offered grapefruits by the family. The fruits are big and each of us is given one.
I stick my knife in one and they laugh. Our contact peels mine for me, cuts the top and tells me to ‘drink it like a soda’. I do, and it’s delicious. I’ve only ever eaten grapefruit before. We sit in their backyard/house for about half an hour, slurping on grapefruits and talking. We pray a blessing over their family before heading out to see the river.
The Mamoré river is a headwater of the Amazon. I ask kids at church that night and they tell me there are anacondas and piranas, but no crocodiles in it. Got it. We look at the river for a few minutes before heading back.
We buy some bread on the way back and eat bread, jam, and butter for dinner. We have a quick team meeting before heading into the church. The contact requests we play five songs. I grab my guitar and run through one quickly. Church starts with worship songs. I lead in Spanish with Erin, and am thankful for the practice I got back in Trinidad with these songs. Our group is introduced and then my teammate Josh gives his testimony. As he stands up, he asks me to translate. I try/do. Most of the adults understood, most of the children do not. Bummer.
Listen to a message in Spanish, church ends. Take a few minutes to clean up and climb in bed (read: sleeping pad). Creatures dive-bomb my tent for an hour while we make jokes. I’m sweating and stink as I lay on my inflatable mat in a tent in Camioco, Bolivia.
And that was our first day.
