The Daniels Family: Jen's Jungle Adventure

Last week I had the privilege of joining a medical team in the jungle. We left Quito on Sunday and took a 6 hour bus drive to Sucua. After a short night we got up at 4am and rode 4 hours in a bus and then another 3.5 -4 hours in a canoe to arrive to Libertad a Shuar Indian village. With my backpack in tow, we hiked into the village along a very muddy path. At one point I sunk in the mud half way up my boots. My backpack being as heavy as it was pulled me backwards and I landed on my butt. Fortunately, some of my team members were behind me and they graciously helped me out of the pit! After arriving to the village we set up the clinic and began seeing patients. We saw lots of kids and their parents with complaints of belly pain, lice, headache, urinary tract infections, etc...
While we were seeing patients, Megaly and her kids were doing a vacation bible school with all the kids. There was lots of singing, games, crafts, and teaching on the 10 commandments.
Other adventures for me were the food and the bathroom or lack of bathroom facilities. The open air bathroom consisted of planks of wood over a hole in the ground. Starring down into the pit I could see a large pile of maggots and there were all sorts of insects crawling and flying around! I decided it was probably best to limit my intake of water and make less frequent trips to the bathroom. Our meals consisted mainly of yuca, plantain, and rice. For breakfast it was mashed up yuca and plantain mixed with a fried egg. Lunch was soup with yuca and a small piece of meat(chicken or turkey) and at times rice. At dinner time we had MRE's. Never had one of those before. After figuring out how to warm up the meal--it wasn't to bad. However, I think I enjoyed the desserts that came with it better.
Every night after the clinic we would have a church service with the community. They sang in spanish and their native language. It was a beautiful time of worshipping God together and seeing their response to message preached by my colleague, Joel Marbut. In the mornings before starting the clinic we would join with the members of the community who wanted to, in prayer. This was a special time to seek God for their family and community.
After two days in Libertad, we packed up everything and headed back down the river a few hours to the next community called, Nuevo Israel. Once again upon arriving we set up the clinic and started to see patients. We didn't have many to come out, so we took a break and went to the river for a dip. Mind you this was day number 3 without a shower! Oh, how good the river felt! Some of the kids sat on the banks watching and giggling at us as we bathed and swam in the river. The people of this village seemed to have less than the other village and not as warm and receiving as the first village. More kids here seemed to be unkept and they were more cases of lice. We had a rush of patients at the clinic our first night there so we stayed up till we saw them all. I will never forget the sky that night. It was amazing! There were so many stars and you could see the Milky Way with what looked like star dust. Also, I was able to see constellations I haven't see in the Northern Hemisphere like the Southern Cross.
Our last day in the jungle, we started off with a church service. I also helped with the kids vacation bible school that morning. The kids were shy and as we were singing and doing all the actions to the songs, the kids were just looking at us like we were crazy. However, after a few songs they began to warm up and join in. We made bead necklaces with them and played some duck, duck, goose. After that it was back to the clinic to finish seeing the patients before heading back to town. It seemed like the minimum amount to kids was at least 5 to every family. Keeping all their medicines organized was a task and a half! By noon we finished up and packed up and headed down the river. I was in a wooden dugout canoe with two other people from the team. Our driver was a young man who seemed like he was daydreaming a lot of the time. We ended up beached on some rocks a few times since the river was running low. However, thanks to the two men in the boat with me they with the driver were able to get us back in the flow. Four hours later we made it back to the launch site where the bus and the rest of the team were waiting for us. We arrived back to Sucua that night in time to go bed. The next morning we headed to Casa de Esperanza to see our final patients. This is a house for young girls from the Shuar indians communities who have been given a chance to leave difficult family situations. They live at this house, are taught about the hope that is Jesus Christ, are educated, and cared for. One young lady I had the opportunity to speak with, told me she was grateful to have lived in the home for 8 years. She said that the best thing about the home was the hope that she found in her personal relationship with Jesus. She is soon to graduate from high school and wants to go to the university to study psychology. She is still in contact with her family and just recently went back to visit with them.
Although, the trip was long and at times difficult it was also amazing. God never ceases to amaze me. From his beautiful creation seen the landscape of the jungle and sky to the amazing change he makes in people's lives, there is no doubt that He exists and that His love for us is so deep and so wide!
Unfortunately, my camera battery died after day one, so below are just a few pictures.