Monday
We left Monday around 2PM on a Cessna 206 and flew about 45 min to a jungle strip in the Achuar village of Wayusentsa. When we landed the whole village swarmed to the edge of the runway, and they all helped us unload our luggage and supplies. After unloading and after the planes left, the people decided where we would be staying. They ended up putting us up in a house that was constructed in a much more modern fashion. It had 5 rooms so we split up and claimed our territory. After we set up our bug huts, we were called to the community concha to introduce ourselves. It turns out the women also wanted to introduce us to their Chicha. I won't say much about it, but let's just say I prefer Gatorade. After introductions they brought us dinner. We ate and then retired to our house as did the rest of the community. We spent a good amount of the remaining night (it gets dark around 6:30) sharing testimonies and discussing the Lord's work in our lives.
Tuesday
I woke up at 6 the next morning to a beautiful morning. After getting ready for the day, we were called for breakfast. We walked to the first family's house that was assigned to prepare us breakfast. It turns out that almost all of the meals contain Yucca, Plantains, and some sort of fish. If you have not had experience with these foods, there is nothing terribly bad about them, but they are very bland. Regardless of my opinion, the people were more than generous with the meals they provided and I definitely didn't starve. After breakfast, we waited for the community until about 8:30 at which point we all made our way down to the spring to begin work.
We split into two crews, one working on the spring and one working on the site for the tank. We had to dig back into the hill to find the actual source of the spring so we could protect it well, and the tank was to be placed in a small old fishing/mud pond area that had to be dug out. I got my first experience working around a spring, and so began my knowledge of how these incredible inventions of God work. Except for an hour break for Almuerzo, we worked steadily till about 3 at which point we stopped for the day.
After the long day we got in our swimming trunks and ventured into the river to get clean. It felt so nice to cool down after the day and we entertained ourselves pretty well for the rest of the night. Again we found ourselves chatting late into the night (about 10 or so) and we ended in a special time of prayer, asking God to give us discernment about our interactions with the community.
Wednesday
Wednesday began about the same as the day previous, but we found ourselves at a different hosts house for Desayuna. We again worked our way down to the spring and began working. The spring crew continued digging in to find a solid source point for our water, while the we started the forms for our tank. I quickly learned that construction with boards that are literally cut entirely with a chainsaw is a bit less detailed which can be a challenge. We pretty nearly finished the inner box by the end of the day, and the other team poured a concrete box around the spring, capturing the majority of the water. We all learned a lot about working together and had a good discussion of personalities and teamwork in the evening. I must say, I really appreciate the fact that we don't just deal with each other, we learn to love and work with one another.
Thursday
We again began the day the same way and started up work again. We had the goal of finishing the spring protection and the tank pour and so the spring team finished their protection before lunch time and we finished preparing to form for the tank as well. After lunch we began pouring the tank. As you may guess, things function a bit different in the jungle. Concrete mixing is no different. We built two boxes in which we put our cement, gravel, sand, and water and shovel full by shovel full we mixed our concrete. We formed a chain and filled the forms, creating our walls and roof for the pump tank. We were quite satisfied with our progress by the end of the day and we finished the day by getting quite drenched by a rain shower.
Friday
This was our final day in the jungle. We woke up, packed up all of our stuff, and carried the tools and other items back from the spring to the Bodega where they wouldn't be damaged. After taking inventory of everything we had there, the first plane arrived and took 5 of us back, leaving only Wim and myself to wait for the next plane. This turned out to be about a 2 hour wait so I got some great hammock time in and Wim tried to make a comfortable bed out of PVC. The plane arrived and we unloaded the materials it brought and then loaded up our remaining luggage and hopped aboard. It seemed like almost any other flight, but when it got to be past an hour of flying, and we started going in circles, I knew something was up. We flew for about an hour and fifteen minutes and then landed, but not in Shell. We touched down on a jungle strip about 40 miles outside of Shell. It turns out that the weather was too bad to land in Shell and we also were running low on fuel. So as soon as the weather was clear enough, another plane flew out to us in the jungle. This took about 30 min and we were quite pleased that we could stop shooing the cows off the runway. We filled up with gas and then took off yet again headed for Shell. We landed and unloaded and then got back home. I got a good shower and started a load of laundry (definitely the smelliest clothes I've washed) and then relaxed till 6:30 when we all met up to go out for Pizza. I can say I have never enjoyed a pizza quite so much!
I am so blessed to have such an experience. Each of you has played a small part in my arrival here, and I want to express my deepest gratitude. God is most certainly using this trip and I can't wait to take what I learn on this missions field back home to yet another field.
Thanks for reading and praying!
In Him,
Sam Hodges
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| Me and some of the ladies in the village (they sold me some pretty neat pottery) |
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| The finished pump tank |
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| Wim enjoying his PVC bed |
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| Hammock time! |
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| The kids helped unload the pipe and then found them to be good trumpets =) |
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| Here comes our gas! |
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| Jungle refueling! |
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| Our home for the week |
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| The crew! |
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| Working away |
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