The Market:

We were told that we would be going into town and we were intrigued to explore. At 4 Kilometers away, Campo Verde was the closest town down the one main road from the base. Our little group of 5 walked to the side of the road and quickly an odd little vehicle puttered up. The front was half of a motorcycle, where the driver sat, and on the back was two wheels with a bench. This was a motorkar, and it was The main mode of transportation for getting into the town. It was an interesting conversion, the chain from the bike's transmission ran to the back left wheel while the brake cable went to the right wheel. The girls piled into to the bench while Chris and I jumped up on the back. The motorcycle up front revved up and the driver twisted the throttle, we began to roll. The air rushed into our faces as we clung onto the vinyl roof for dear life. On the sides of the road was mostly green trees and grass with huts, houses and random food stands scattered around. Fifteen minutes later we were in Campo Verde. It was nothing more than buildings in the dirt on either side of the road. There were many little store fronts selling little items from soap to bread. We walked into an open building which was the market. This consisted of nothing more than 20 vendors lining the room with fruits, vegetables, and produce. There wasn't much to be seen; we noticed a couple of slaughtered pigs hanging around, but the thing that there was the most of was the dogs. There were little mutts of every color running around everywhere. After finding potatoes, tomatoes, and dish soap, we were ready to head back. This really was a little town; the people lived behind the buildings up dirt roads and they seemed to come congregate in the buildings of the markets. It was simple but it was life here that we were to get used to. Aug. 30

The House:

It was the first morning since our arrival in Pucallpa the night before. The sun was bright, the sky was blue, everything was very green. Walking out side was actually very beautiful; it was nothing like I could have imagined from the little I was able to see in the dark of the night while unpacking our bags. Our house was quite large, completely made of wooden boards except for the concrete stilts it stood on about 4 feet off the ground. From our window, there was a little dirt road leading to the main road in the front. In the distance on either sides you could see the trees of the jungle, from which the house had been made. Out the back door a path led through the lemon trees, here were two smaller houses. One house was where the kitchen and dining area was, and the other identical house to the left belonged to the Doctor. We learned that the house that we were staying in was in fact  the oldest building in the area. It had been built by previous missionaries of the 1960's before they were chased out of the country. Here the building laid for years, until very recently when the land was purchased by Amor Projects. It was interesting living in a place with such a history, I felt like I was carrying on a legacy of the missionaries that ventured into the jungles of Peru, cleared some jungle and and built a residence to be able to live with the people. This of course meant that the house was old, but luckily the place had been renovated in 2008 and there was electricity. Still the creaky floorboards and the gaps in the aged, hard wood walls all added to the feeling of adventure. This old cabin of Kilometer 38 was now our new home. Aug. 29

The Unpacking:

The truck turned off of the paved road and down some dirt road. There was barking in the distance, and soon there was three large German Shepherds with two even larger Rottweilers  at the sides of the truck as we were stopped in front of a house. It was very dark, as we hauled the heavy luggage from the truck bed, up some stairs to the door. We followed the Doctor in as he led us to a room in one corner of the house. A small switch on the wall followed a wire up the wall and to the center of the ceiling where a single hanging bulb illuminated the room. There was two wooden bunks along the windows and the adjacent wall had a tall wooden shelf. Chris and I were excited to unpack the luggage that we were carrying around for the last 3 days. We arranged all our supplies and food on the shelves, then made our beds under our mosquito nets. We heard the sounds of the night through the windows which were merely mesh covered slats of wood. We were glad to finally reach our destination, although it was daunting that this place is where we were to live for the next nine months. Aug. 28