Arrival

Day 2: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
11:30pm

Exhaustion hit me hard around 8 or 9 am. Once I boarded my final flight, it was all I could do to keep my eyes open…actually I didn’t keep my eyes open. The lady beside me had to nudge me when the flight attendant came by.

Lima’s airport gave it a modern feeling with wifi available, clean floors, and flat screens. When I landed in Iquitos, I thought Oh wow! I’m really here. It was everything a remote jungle airport should be - old airplanes that were left to rust in the field, small aircraft all around, and best yet, disembarking passengers (like me) walking across the runway into an open air (just a roof) “airport”.

Iquitos Airport Runway
Once inside the noise level reaches an incredible height, as men yell out their bargains for hotels or taxis and people shuffle around looking for their luggage. Slightly overwhelmed by the atmosphere but trying to blend in with the crowd, I take my bags to the door. The exit walkway is surrounded by a large yellow fence lined with mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, daughters, sons, cousins, coworkers, and (thankfully) missionaries waiting to transport friends or family members. I’m anxiously searching the crowd for a YWAM or “BRANDI WILKINS” sign or maybe a white person. One glance over=nothing. Another glance over=nothing. Am I in the right place? I decided to wait just inside the exit doors in case they didn’t show, then I wouldn’t have to go through security again to reach phone. Third glance over= there’s a white man with glasses that catches my eye and mouths, “Are you Brandi?” I’ve never been so glad to say yes in all my life.

Clark and Beth Barnard greeted me with warm hugs and a big, “Welcome to Iquitos!” Clark returns to his motorcycle while Beth and I scurry to a motorcar. What an awesome introduction to Iquitos. The motorcar is not even close to an American car. It’s basically a tricycle. Kinda looks like a motorcycle with half a carriage hanging on the back. It feels about that stable, too. Haha. No really it was perfectly safe and that’s the primary mode of transportation here in the city. Almost all the cars you find will be police or ambulances, everyone else is in a motorcar or motorcycle. Beth and I fell into comfortable conversation that was easy even in silence. I could definitely tell this isn’t their first rodeo. The Lord has gifted them with incredible hospitality and sensitivity.

We arrive at a yellow cement house with red doors. Beth takes me to the girls’ dorm where I met Leah. Leah is a tall, blond girl from Switzerland. She’s amazing at languages. She’s fluent in German, English, Spanish, French, and understands Portuguese. And she learned them all at school. She showed me around the base, which is quite massive. Then we talked with Clark and Beth for a little bit for heading further into the city for lunch.

I was surprised to find myself eating my first “Peruvian” lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The best part about it was that it was air conditioned! Haha! By the way, it actually is more humid here. I think it gets just as humid at home, but I doubt it stays as consistently humid as Peru. The Chinese food was good, but I always like fried rice. Beth and Clark are great, it’s obvious that they love to share their stories and entertain guests. They also have a very natural, easy air about them. As lunch is ending, so I am I. My body decides that I need some sleep and I didn’t even have to say anything. Everyone quickly noticed that I was tired, so we came back to the base and I took a good little siesta.

I want to tell you about the rest of the day while it’s all fresh, but I think I’m just too tired. Hopefully I’ll come back and revise before we leave for the river tomorrow.