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More River Adventures
By Corrie Sample
Welcome to the village of Chimbote!
We arrived here on August 16 and will be here until September 9.
This village is quite a bit smaller than San Pablo and has a much
different vibe. The people are
extremely friendly and grateful for what we have to offer.
There is a military checkpoint stationed here, so all boats used
for public transportation have to stop here.
The military check to make sure that their papers are all in
order and that their passengers all have their papers in order as well.
The military also inspect the boat to make sure that the crew are
all following regulations and that the boat has all the required
equipment in the proper places.
The evangelistic meetings that we hold each night are well attended, with anywhere from 20 to 50 people, not counting children. However, the attendance has slacked off some as time passes and people lose interest. The ones that are really serious about learning are the ones that keep coming. I have been having fun because I get to help lead the singing each night. I have also been up helping Manuel and Christina with dental care. But I have more pictures to talk about, so, moving on. :)
This barge passed by us during one of our
first days in Chimbote. Wood is
one of the main industries along the Amazon and this is how they
transport it. As you can see,
some of the logs are quite large.
Manuel and me posing for a picture on a log crossing a small creek. It took some doing to get him to let us get a picture, but he finally consented. :)
This here is one of the many different
varieties of butterfly that we saw on a walk to a nearby village.
This one is not the prettiest type, but it was the only one that
would sit still long enough for me to get a good picture. :)
And now, back to work.
Thursday morning (24th)
I went to help in the dental area.
Christina happened to be the first patient of the day.
One of her wisdom teeth was coming in and bothering her, so she
asked Manuel to take it out. He
thought it would be easy because for all he could tell it was just a
fairly small molar. So he
inserted the anesthesia and went to work.
And he continued to work on her for the
next 2 ½ hours! The tooth just
would not come out. Manuel got
really nervous as time went by because he could not get the tooth out.
I could tell he was worried because he kept humming a little tune
and saying “Dios mío,
¡ayudame!” (my God, help me!).
Christina wasn’t having too much fun either.
It was quite painful for her, not just the tooth, but also the
inside of her cheek and her bottom lip.
The constant pressure of both his fingers and the instruments
trying the get at the tooth in the very back upper corner of her mouth
caused burns and cuts.
The tooth finally came out
at the 2 hour mark. The last ½
hour was spent fixing up the inside of her mouth.
The tooth was horrendous.
Once we saw it, we understood why it was so hard to get out.
The three roots were large and went in different directions.
Also, two of the three roots had double points making it almost
look like 5 roots instead of just 3.
I felt so sorry for both Manuel and Christina.
She has been sore for the last few days, but it is healing
nicely.
And now on to more fun stuff :) Today (27th) we went to the other side of the river to play ‘futbol’ (soccer). Aricho was the only one who played because they were have competitions between villages and one team needed an extra player. But on the way there, we had some fun. It was a fairly quite trip to start with. . .
. . .then I took this picture.
Jose Carlos just happened to have his mouth open wide (and as you
can see he has a fairly large one) :) and
this got everyone laughing. . . .
Especially Ruita (on the right).
But then, she laughs at just about anything :)
Then they wanted to take a picture of me. . .
. . .only they didn’t want a nice one,
noooo, they wanted a funny one.
Definitely not my favorite. Oh
well, at least my teeth we brushed. :)
And as the ultimate finale to our excursion there was a beautiful double rainbow that was absolutely brilliant. Both arcs could be seen in their entirety. And every time I see a rainbow, the promises of God come to mind. Because even though the rainbow was a specific sign to Noah that God would not destroy the earth again with a flood, I always think of all the other promises that are also sure to be upheld. What an amazing God! ~ Corrie ~
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