Return to Onzole

Last week Nikki and I went north to visit the jungle communities on the River Onzole, right up near the Colombian border. This involves an 11 hour night on a bus from Guayaquil, not even a little bit fun, followed by a few hours in a motorized canoe up the river, and that part is a lot of fun, for me anyway. I LOVE being on that river, even though it was 5 hours this time. There hasn't been much rain there in the last few months, so the river was very low in places, meaning a much longer time getting in. But I don't mind at all, there's so much to see along the way - little communities whose lives revolve around that river - it's their "road" in and out, with the canoe being the vehicle, how they transport their produce from the little farms to market, where they bathe, do laundry, get water. Dugout canoes going by, loaded with plantains, or coconuts. And then there's the birds and butterflies. So many brightly coloured birds, and I saw a kingfisher for the first time. And a beautiful bright blue butterfly. It never fails to enthrall me.
When we arrive, we stay in the village of Santo Domingo, a place where life hasn't changed very much over the years. Electricity only arrived in the last year or so, and it's often out. There's no running water anywhere, at this time of the year all water is carried up the steep bank from the river. In the rainy season rainwater is collected for drinking.

Heading out for a day at the office...
This was the first time I've been there when the kids are in class in the school. This school was crumbling badly and last spring 2 groups from Canada came and worked with the villagers to reconstruct much of it. It's a huge improvement.

This is how it used to look.
some of the kids from the primary class were glad of an excuse to escape to greet us and pose happily for photos!

What do you think, could these older kids use some better desks to work on??

I went one afternoon with Yadira, who works for Compassion, to a village further upriver to visit a couple of families. While we were there suddenly the heavens opened and I saw these little guys joyously having a shower under a waterfall pouring off a roof.

Then just as suddenly the rain stopped and the sun came out, giving me this photo. What a beautiful place!

There are some astonishing bugs in that part of the world, this guy showed up inside the house one morning. It was just a little smaller than my hand.

This trip was a nice break for me. I only had a couple of patients with minor issues come to see me, and there was no other work I had to do, so I took the chance that God gave me and let myself rest and enjoy the peace of that place. And take a few (okay, a lot, you're only seeing a few!) pictures, which really is the best way of showing you this different world.