Chanchamayo

We must have dropped several thousand feet in elevation on Tuesday to the town of La Merced, a town we’ve been in for the last five days, because it’s hot and humid and the scenery is nothing but lush green hills. There is a musty taste in the air that reminds me a lot of Paraguay too. I’ve even had a fan going on in my room at night. The first thing I did here was buy some detergent and a clothesline and wash all my garments by hand. It only took me a good hour and a half. It really makes me feel for all the member ladies in Paraguay who washed all my clothes by hand every week.


We’ve had a good week and got all the surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions that we needed. The drama for me this week was meeting a woman who lives out in the farm fields so far away. After driving for 1 ½ hours, we had to park the car and walk a couple of miles into her place because the road was so torn up. When we finally got there she told me that her husband was murdered a month ago. He was the sole provider for the family, so now she doesn’t know what she’s going to do. She works in her fields and sells the fruit in town; but it sells for basically nothing. Tears were streaming down her face as she told me all this. I felt so helpless and wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything would be ok. But I just sat there not knowing what to say cause everything is not ok. Her life sucks and it has eaten at me all day. Yeah I can send in my survey with her responses but she needs help right now. I just feel helpless thinking about her. Above is a photo of her and her son.

After we got our work done for the week, the others met us here. So yesterday afternoon we all went hiking up to waterfalls El Velo de la Novia (Bridal Veil Falls) outside the city. It was great to have a day off from work and do something fun for a change. And the Sabbath, today, has been such a relaxing day as well. Tomorrow we head back to Lima, and then on Tuesday night I head to Bolivia for a few days to check up on the other BYU students. Five of them were robbed at gunpoint yesterday of their backpacks which had money, cameras, passports, etc. inside. And it seems like the NGOs there aren’t giving them enough work to do. So I hope I can help out to some extent.