Masisea

This last weekend was one huge adventure after another! This summer Ansley and Carly spent about six weeks in a small river town about 6hrs south of Pucallpa. Peruvian Bible workers had also been holding an evangelistic series there and by the end of the series, started a small body of church members. So this last weekend, the head Bible worker, Domingo, and Jenni, our on-side director, decided to visit Masisea for do some follow up. So all of us SM’s, five girls and one guy decided to tag along and see for ourselves what Masisea was like. In the short time we had been with Ansley and Carly, I had heard quite a number of stories and experiences, so I wanted to see for myself what Masisea was like.

We left Friday morning around 10:30 from the port in Pucallpa and traveled up river (actually south) to Masisea. The port of Pucallpa is the most dirty, disgusting, place I have ever seen in my life. The river is pretty low right now, because it is dry season and so in order to get to the boat, you have to walk through mud and muck, which seems to stick to your shoes and anything else it comes in contact with. Not only that, but the mud has so much trash, banana skins, paper, sewer, you name it, I’m sure it was there. There really is so much pollution in that area, it’s just really sad. The boat itself isn’t much better. It’s crowded with lots of people, carrying their produce, soda cans, and whatever else they can sell, with them to the next port. The boat is just a larger version of a peke peke, very old-fashioned by American standards. Platano, papaya, and other items are placed on top to be sold in other villages along the river. The stench of the whole area is really what got me. Everything smelled rotten and disgusting. No sanitation whatsoever. The trash from the shoreline of the river would get in the river and contaminate the river as well. Seeing people going to the bathroom in the river was a commen occurrence. The boat ride lasted for about 5hrs. These are the times you hope for no diahhrea, because there aren’t too many options for going to the bathroom except just using the river as the boat rides along and everyone watches you! Also, the boats aren’t the most comfortable things to sit in especially when your seat is made of wood. The whole experience was new for me, and despite it all, it was quite fun, though it was really sad for me to see how so many people live, even in the 21st century.

After arriving at our stop, we had about a 30minute motorcar ride to Masisea itself. While we were riding, we passed soo many papaya trees! I had never seen so many before. No wonder papaya was a very common gift to give visitors!! The church is made up of very new members and nobody really knows how to run things, so us SM’s helped out with the Friday evening worship and also church on Sabbath. Brent preached on Sabbath for church and us girls sang special music and told children story. Friday afternoon before the evening vespers, we were able to play some soccer with the local children. We all had so much fun and I think they were quite excited to be playing with some white kids from the United States. All the kids down in Peru are amazing soccer players; all soo naturally talented, it’s crazy! We were supposed to leave on Sabbath afternoon and head back to Pucallpa, but it decided to rain and man did it rain!! We all huddled in our tin house that we were sleeping in for the night and listened to the rain pour down. Whenever it rains, the boats don’t run and so we were stuck in Masisea until the next boat was scheduled to come, around 4am Sunday. So we were able to spend a few more hours in Masisea, though most were spent watching and listening the rain come down. Boy, was I glad I brought my raincoat. That was a lifesaver for sure!

The hostal where we were staying for Friday (and eventually Saturday night) was right by the center of town, across the street from the plaza. And since no Peruvian home has sound-proof walls, we got to hear lots of different sounds Friday night. A bar/party was right behind the hostal, so I got to fall asleep to techno music. Also Peruvians like to have chickens and so that means there needs to be at least one rooster around as well, and since these particular roosters can’t tell time, they decide to do their cakadoodledoing at all hours of the night. I think the rooster at the hostal also had problems of some time because his cakadoodledoing sounded like he was dying each time Through Ansley and Carly, I had also heard of rats and other questionable creatures scurring around at night and wreaking havoc. I had a hard time sleeping because I would always wake up to little noises that sounded like rats could be in the room. I’m not a big fan of rats at all and so needless to say, none of us got much sleep, though when I think about it now, the whole situation was quite amusing!!

After the Sabbath sundown program, we played games with the local children for a little while, which was really fun! We had quite a number of children playing, but we had lots of spectators watching as well, observing our attempts at duck-duck-goose and other fun kid games. The children really looked like they were having fun and it was so great to see the smiles on their faces and be able to bring a spark to their life even if it was only for a little bit.

Being gone from the States for only a couple of weeks and all of us are already craving American food! BBQ chips, nachos, ice cream, chocolate, and pizza, just to name a few. It is quite a hot topic of conversation! Saturday we all got horrible cravings for junk food and so we hunted down a Peruvian style Seven-Eleven/gas station and stocked up on the Peruvian versions of junk food. I will have to get used to their brands of chips and other junk-like foods, but it’s possible. With the knowledge we would be having to leave around 4am to catch our boat back we headed off to bed early.

In order to get to the port, we had to get two motos, but by 4am we only had one, so Kaitlin, Kristin, Marjie, and I piled into one of the motos and followed Domingo (the Bible worker) and Brent who were both on Domingo´s motorcycle to the port. Since it had rained so hard the roads were very muddy and slow to navigate. Not too long into our drive, Brent had to switch over to our moto because he was too heavy and the motorcycle was fishtailing all over the place. So Marji went on the cycle. So the four of us left headed off into the darkness of the Papaya tree jungle. Our moto stopped at one of the villages close to the port. Since none of us really knew Spanish and it was still quite dark outside, it was definitely a sketchy situation. Luckily in a few minutes the rest of our group showed up, but by then we had to run to the port, which we found out was about 1 mile farther down the road. So in the early morning dark with only our headlamps to guide us, we speed walked to the port. Thankfully the boat was waiting for us and we were able to catch up on our sleep. This boat was much smaller, and the seats were long narrow boards, needless to say, we were all very excited to get off the boat and go home and get some sleep.