Amazon Adventure: Kapirna

Welcome to Kapirna. 20+ families, about 120 people, near the Ecuador/Peru border. The river bends wide to narrow on the right side of the picture. The thin tan strip that runs horizontally across the picture is the air strip. The white dots are huts. The village is one hour away by plane, eight hours by canoe and 3-4 days walk on foot.
 
Jay, Compassion International missionary Jonas Lopez, and medical resident Evelyn Herrera flew from Shell to provide physicals for the Compassion International children there.

Villagers did most of the manual labor to build the airstrip. First the trees were cleared by ax then the roots and rocks were removed with pic axes. It took three years to build. Each family is responsible for keeping their part of the strip clear of vegetation. The common lawn mower is a machete. Jay said at night several people would be hacking away. When they finished they just stabbed the machete into the grown to leave it for tomorrow. An odd sight - machete handles standing here and there along the edges of the runway.

Arriving planes are big news! No TV or commercial radio here. In fact there isn't any electricity except for a small gas generator for a few lights at night. Jay says it's incredibly quiet except at night. Subsequently the children have incredible hearing. They will be waiting on the runway for an incoming plane five minutes before Jay can hear it coming. At night the calls and cries of jungle creatures are LOUD. Jay used ear plugs.

Jonas, on the left, grew up in a village much like this one. He was a Compassion child sponsored by a family from America. Now he works for Compassion International visiting villages each week to monitor the children to be sure they experience God's love through adequate nutrition, health care, an education and an opportunity to learn about Jesus and the freedom from sin's consequences that He bought by dying on the cross. As the Compassion mantra says "Freeing children from poverty in Jesus' name." 

Evelyn, on the right, is one of the medical residents Jay teaches here. She has been in Quito for years so the jungle was intimidating to her but she did just fine. As with medical schools in the states, residents are required to spend part of their training in rural areas. Shell, where we live, is considered rural. The jungle is several steps beyond rural.

Surveying the village's version of a community center... it would be the clinic for the next two days. The government helped build this structure which, the sign states, cost $4000. Signs like the one below are abundant in Ecuador. The government keeps these up for years reminding residents of the assistance provided.

This building also serves as the village school. The teacher stands on this raised platform. Note the school work on the far wall.

Jay by a desk. There were a couple of these, a table and many benches.

A village leader blows a tribal horn, made of clay, to call the people to the clinic.

Jay gives it a try.

Clinic starts with Jonas, on the left, checking in the kids and Evelyn, on the right, and Jay, below, doing the physicals.

Jay said the people were very content in their simple surroundings.

Evelyn checking a little girl on a make-shift "exam table."

 

Above: parasite meds and a water bottle. Every child received parasite medicine but because the village does not have a water system, the water they drank to take the pills came from the river. The medicine will work, but parasites are a daily part of life in a community like this. HCJB, the ministry we work with, has a community development ministry that helps villagers build their own water systems. Last week the community developement team split up to build systems in two jungle villages similar to this one.

School supplies, above. Artwork, below.

 

Boys wait their turn and pass the time with a card game. The blue shirts are school uniforms provided by Compassion. 

A mother brings her children.

One family brought these guava pods to share as a snack. They grow on trees.  The seeds inside are not eaten but the white fluffy tissue around the seeds is quite sweet. Jay calls it God's cotton candy.

Here are a few views of village homes. They are spaced apart, most with thatch roofs.

The homes are on stilts because the river floods and to help keep out bugs and animals.

This structure serves as a kitchen.

 

 

Villagers going out to catch lunch with nets.

The village cooked for the medical team.

Fish, platino (cooking banana)

This is the radio building. A solar panel powers a two-way radio. Jungle villages check in each morning and evening with a government office to report medical or other critical needs. Jay and the team slept there in tents to keep the bugs at bay.

Jonas by the river with canoes made of tree trunks. You can see a pekipeki, a small boat motor, sticking out the far boat. It skims the surface of the water and can run when the river is just a few inches deep.

Volleyball is a favorite pastime. Notice the man in back with one leg. Jay says he was a pretty good player.

Supper... members of the village brought the cooked food and sat silently and watched the medical team eat... that's good jungle manners. They usually go to bed at sunset so they yawned often as they waited for their guests to finish their meal. Jay said the fish was terrific.

Fish and platinos baked in banana leaves.

Day 2 - More faces... The team saw about 90 children and many adults. Many of the children walked 45 minutes from a second village.

While each child has a medical record kept by Compassion International, there aren't insurance or other forms to do here.

 

Jay teaching a village medical worker about the medicines provided by Compassion International.

The village health care worker is holding snake bite kits.

Snack time... Jonas and Evelyn eating the boiled seeds of a type of palm tree. Jay described it as almost flavorless but it's a source of carbs.

Jungle rations!

Lunch: soup. Notice the bone in the lower-left bowl.

 

Several older boys hung out to watch Jay. Jungle tribes have very little body hair. They marveled over the dark hair on Jay's arms. They would touch his arms and pull the hair. : )   Here they play with his stethoscope.
To give them something to do while he worked Jay showed one boy how to take pictures and then sent them off to take pictures of the village. Several of the pictures below were taken by the boys.

Pet parrots.

Cooking fire with fish wrapped in banana leaves.

Supper... something with a hoof perhaps a wild pig.

Washing the dishes in the community bathing stream.

To save the work of chopping firewood, tree trunks are left whole and pushed into the fire little by little as more heat is needed.

 

The village garden. Notice the corn. It is white with short ears of chunky white kernels. It is cooked over the fire. It is not sweet corn but more like field corn. Just yesterday Dane asked if we could plant some sweet corn. He's missing it. The family who lived in our home last year tried without success: 3 ears of corn from two dozen plants. It's not Nebraska!

A pineapple plant. Just lop off the top of a pineapple and put it in the ground here. It's so wet, it will often grow and reproduce.

A trumpe bird.

The red pods on this bush are used for face paint for tribal celebrations. It lasts for weeks. Dane and Luke found a bush near our house and have tried dying a few things.

The village boys pose for a picture.

This sign welcomes visitors who come via canoe. It hangs on the wall of the village "hotel." That's the hut below.

This hut is a stone's throw from the river and the cayman that swim there. Jay says he'd have a hard time sleeping peacefully there.

 

The jungle... still wild, still beautiful.

 

The team made it safely home on Thanksgiving Day. Thanks for your prayers for us and the people we serve. We are thankful for everyone back home who supports us. Have a great holiday season.