Day 11: "An Experience in Culture"

Day 11: Friday, July 9, 2010
“An experience in culture” this morning as we traveled to Belen, Iquitos’s poor district. The open air market was unbelievable. Tarps hung low over the streets, which were filled with tables of various goods – everything from raw chicken to fresh cut watermelon, or bootleg DVDs to toothpaste. Becky (YWAM staffer over the women’s ministry) called it the “people’s market” unlike the souvenir shops we’d visited on the Boulevard (which is more like “the place to be on Friday night” kind of happening place). I called it “somersault stomach market” because of the atrocious smells (including piles of garbage in the middle of the walkway).

Dan and Jolene both became ill during the night and seemed quite sick when they left the base at 5:30pm (they couldn’t even keep water down).

The team from Chicago is actually staying in hotels but they came to the base for a meeting about the same time the New York team had to leave for the airport. It was very bittersweet. The six members of the New York team along with Nate, Lea, Rob, Daniel, and John have been nearly all I’ve really know of YWAM, it’s hard to imagine what it will be like without them. Saying goodbye left me feeling quite emotional and slightly homesick. As a surefire cheering up tactic, Lea, Becky, and I went out for ice cream after the Chicago meeting.

The three of us went to the ice cream place along “the Plaza” (Plaza de Armos). As is usual, while we were sitting in the ice cream parlor, people came to beg from the “gringos”. I bought one kid an ice cream bar (which was not much of a sacrifice since it cost 50 centimos- half a soles, or 30 cents USD) but then a lady came up with a baby on her shoulder asking Becky for some money for medicine for her baby. I was blessed to watch Becky’s response. She told us that she wasn’t sure if the lady was telling the truth or not but that she was kinda give her some money anyway. I assumed it would be an obligatory pass off of spare change but instead Becky looks intently at the woman and starts making conversation with her. After a short time, she concluded her conversation and gave her the money. I don’t have even the slightest clue what she shared but her personal contact looked a lot like love.