Day 26: Saturday, July 24, 2010
Sleep last night was minimal and quite elusive. As planned, the team got up about 5:45 am in order to pray as Julio, PR, and Cesar went to negotiate our passage across the barrier. We were just beginning to gather outside the school when they return, giving us the signal to pack up. So everyone begins to speedily get their things together, not knowing the brevity of the situation. As we load the Logos, I discovered that we had not yet gotten permission to pass the blockade. Instead of just sending our leaders, all of us went across to Paradiso to negotiate (they had told us yesterday that if we brought our boat back over that they wouldn’t let us leave and would confiscate the boat), help plead our cause, as well as prevent the boat from being overtaken while our leaders talking to their leaders.
By 7 a.m., we have packed the remainder of our stuff onto the Logos and docked at the village across the river. Already the climate of the village seemed volatile. Our leaders went to discuss matters. We could see the small group talking things over for awhile, but before long the entire mass of over 200 people gathered round them and the crowd continually grew louder. Several different people were allowed a turn on the mega speaker including some crazy woman, who so adamantly insisted that we not pass that she started chanting, “Take their boat!” in a terrifyingly unnatural Spanish voice. Julio continued to plead passage reminding them that the only reason we were there was to help them.
After significantly more arguments, shouts, and rallying, our leaders returned defeated. They simply would not allow us to pass the barricade. So Julio spent the next hour or more arranging boats for us to take from the nearest village down river from the blockade. Our plan was to carry our luggage off the logos into the next village, about a 15-20 minute walk.
So the pastor, PR, gets back to the boat saying rapidly, “Ok, we’re gonna attempt to walk through the blockade but they may stop us. So, we’re gonna go in teams of five. If people start talking or shouting at you, just ignore them and keep walking. Keep the same pace as the person leading you, don’t fall behind.” I waited to leave with the third team of five with my bags, keeping my eyes down as we pass through the crowd. We pass through the throng of people without major complications to continue our jungle excursion over rotting bridges and sidewalks (yes, a sidewalk trail through the jungle, I know, it doesn’t fit, but we were grateful to be able to roll our luggage). Alas, we board a small launcha and depart at 10:45 a.m. Thankfully, as we left the village, there were not guns or machetes pointed our direction.
I felt like a fugitive stowed in the underneath of the “two-story” boat. Because we were running out of food and water, we had an orange, a small package of crackers, and a slice of bread for lunch.
We arrived in Mira Flores at 6ish and as I write I’m still in the same place, sitting on my luggage amidst a pile bags. It’s 9 p.m. The Baltimore team left on the YWAM speedboat that met us here about 2 hours ago but it only holds a limited weight. So they left their luggage here for us to bring back, hopefully tonight, but probably tomorrow.
What an unbelievable day!
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