Upon arrival to our first ministry site in Apolo, we were informed we would be getting up at 4am to begin a journey to a remote village. The remote village was called Mojos and was comprised of 17 families living in a small village on a mountainside. The people spoke Quichwa, which was a tribal language, but many of the younger residents also spoke Spanish. The village was founded in 1615 and was part of a trade route through the Andes Mountains. The main form of income from this community is gold from their mines.
This journey took me farther out in to the wilderness than I have ever been before. To get to the village we had a 4 hour truck ride on gravel and dirt/mud roads through the Andes Mountains. We got stuck a few times in mud and had to get out and push the vehicles. Once we got to the end of the road, which was at the Tuichi River, we still had a long ways to go. The river was too deep for the trucks to go through, so we used a raft to float all of our luggage and some of the people to the other side. To speed things up a few of us waded across waist deep rapids. The water was so cold it took your breath away.
Once we got to the other side, we loaded up a bunch of our luggage onto mules. There were 15 mules and each could carry around 75 pounds. We had way more luggage, food, and equipment with us, so many of us had to carry 2 packs as we began our 31 mile hike to the village. Due to the steep elevation change from the river to the village of Mojos, we split the hike into 3 days and spent around 20 total hours hiking. We camped on beaches along the way which gave us time to meet everyone that was on the trip. We went alongside another ministry called A Cup of Cold Water ministries out of Illinois.
We finally arrived at the village halfway through our third day of hiking. When we got there we were amazed at how clean the village was. There was not a single piece of trash anywhere. We later learned that the village had strict rules about garbage and that it all had to be buried.
The people in this village were very shy, so we had to start playing various soccer games to get the kids and young adults to come to us. We quickly were able to bond with many of the people from the village and have a lot of fun playing different games and growing in community.
On our second day in the village we went door to door asking all of the people to meet up near the school house because we had gifts for them. The ministry that we were partnering with had tooth brushes, toys, coloring books, bibles, and stuffed animals to give to each of the families. On top of this we had a doctor, a dentist, and a glasses specialist with us. These people were able to treat injuries, give antibiotics, give fluoride treatments, pull teeth, and give glasses.
Each of the two nights we were in the village, the Mojo pastor had a gathering. In this gathering some of the Americans gave a message while it was translated into Spanish and some of the people of Mojos would give a message as well. The people in this village were incredibly grateful that we would make the effort to go out to their village and share all of these things with them. It was a blessing to be able to meet with these people, see their way of life, and encourage them in their faith.
After being in the village for only a day and a half we began our trip back to civilization. This was a two day hike back down the mountain which took 14 hours total. From there we went back to our ministry site in Apolo and would be there for the rest of the month.
The internet was too slow to upload pictures. If you want to see them, please check out my facebook under the album journey to Mojos.
