December 28, 2008 Peru Amazon Medical Trip Day 2

After a 6-1/2-hour sleepless flight, we landed in Jorge Chávez International Airport, Lima at 2:18am. Hugo, our contact person in Lima, was nowhere to be found. After some aggravating and fruitless trials of trying to reach him via satellite phone, we decided to proceed to the checked-in counter with only the confirmation number; otherwise, we would have missed the connecting flight to Iquitos at 5:15am. There are only two daily flights to Iquitos from Lima, one at 5:15am, another late at night, to avoid the numerous flying birds during the day sucking into the plane engine which could cause plane crash.

Most teammates were sleep deficit, by this time.

The high humidity and temperature in Iquitos made me feel right at home in Malaysia. Lois collected our boarding pass with checked-in luggage tag on it and gave them the airport personnel for our luggage retrieval.

Mike Dempsey was there to greet us with big smile. His workers helped loading all our big luggages to the top of the big unair-conditioned van. Then, we headed to Nina Rumi, the base of his mission organization in Iquitos. The streets were filled with "tuk-tuks", the taxi equivalent in the States.

It took 25 minutes to reach Nina Rumi. Half of the journey was on a bumpy dirt road. We embarked onto the Chosen Vessel, our home for the next five days, and Annie was my cabin roommie. She was sick - couging.

As we had our first delicious breakfast at 8am, the boat was moving to farthest point of our journey, which was 8 hours from Nina Rumi. There was NO hot shower on the boat. Taking cold shower in an air-conditioned cabin was indeed challenging.

While the rest of the teammates were napping, I chose to sit at the bow of the boat to enjoy the Amazon breeze and enjoyed the scenery lined up along this mysterious Amazon River. Nonetheless, fatigue did catch up with me. I managed to nap for an hour.

After lunch, we met at the deck to go over our programs, preventions, job assignments, and drama for the next four days at various villages. My assignment was to dispense reading eyeglasses to the villagers with Bryan.

Steve and Lois shared some of their wonderful trips in the States and how they helped some of the accident victims and got blood all over them when enroute to their vacation destinations.

Instead of joining some younger people to play board games, I decided to have some quiet time in my cabin.

After dinner, we sang hymns and practiced our spanish songs in the dining room. Around 9 pm, we went up to the deck and Jessica called TeHua via satellite phone for the update of the day.

The sky was especially clear in the pitch dark of the Amazon river and a perfect place for star gazing. We tried but hardly identify any stars.

Steve, Paul and Bryan did some fishing, but I chose to retire early.

(Additional updates from TeHua and Eudora)
This morning we heard from Paul Poy who called at 7:05 to let us know the team had arrived safely in Peru. After a 3 hour delay, they departed around noon on Saturday from O'Hare Airport. Since the flight from Atlanta was also delayed, they were able to make their connecting flight to Peru. They landed in Lima at 2:20 am, and took a
connecting domestic flight to Iquitos. Everyone made the journey intact, albeit understandably were tired. The luggage also all arrived without being stolen or confiscated.

This evening, we heard from Jessica Suen, who told us that the team spent the day reviewing their schedule and practicing their drama. The team has been joined by another doctor and a dentist, bringing the total number of health professionals on the team to four. The food is "great" and they are "being well fed." Bryan Woosley successfully went fishing and was able to catch a small fish. Presumably he is not
their only source of food! The team (perhaps only certain members?) are hoping to spot (any) anacondas in the water. They've been told they can grow to 30 meters long (??) When asked if I should pass this along in an emailing list that includes anxious parents, Jessica laughed and said, "Sure!"

Thanks be to God for:
1. safe arrival of team members and supplies
2. resolving nausea in those team members who experienced this side effect of the preventive anti-malarial drug they are all daily taking

Specific prayers requested by Jessica:
1. be praying for their program, including their drama, which will debut tomorrow when they go to their first village. They anticipate around 250 patients, so along with family members or neighbors who may accompany the patients, the total number they could be presenting the Gospel to might be quite large.
2. please also pray for the distribution of the goodwill gifts

Please also pray for:
1. physical rest for the team, as they spent many hours in transit, and sleeping on a plane (not to mention needing to change planes at 2 or 3 in the morning) has resulted in a sleep deficit
2. unity and harmony amongst team members. This is really the first time the whole team has been together
3. receptive hearts and minds of those who will be hearing the Gospel
4. clear communication of Christ's love, despite language and cultural barriers
5. safety and health of team members