Welcome to the Jungle

A deep blue river snaked it's way through verdant jungle claiming huge swaths of land around the small clumps of houses, storefronts, and restaurants that make up civilization. The jungle gave way to a small black tar runway for our plane to land. The tiny airport in Tarapoto was losing a war with vegetation. I had never seen the jungle until that day.

The drive to Moyobamba wound through the mountains. We drove down a tiny two-lane highway built into the side of a cliff. The truck bounced up and down while I stared up at the night sky transfixed.

Different stars. Different language. Different family. 
Different Life.

Bring it on.


My first full day in Moyobamba I had a conversation with a deaf person in Spanish sign language. I played soccer with a bunch of Peruvians. I got lost for two hours, and somehow managed to find my way back. I haven't spoken english out loud in well over forty eight hours. I've mixed up countless nouns and verbs. I made like ten new friends. I rode a motorcycle! (Sorry mom.) Everyone drives like small Honda bikes here get around. They're more like dirt bikes really, but they're very common.

First: My Home.

The View from my Room.

 









In Moyobamba I live in what's more like a complex than a single house. Everything wraps around and connects with a center courtyard. The kitchen, dining room, living room are all open-air. There is no air conditioning here, just the wind. Multiple closed rooms house my new host family. A second floor houses more rooms plus an indent for a bathroom and washing machine. Clothes dry the old fashioned way.*

Second: My Work - Paz y Esperanza

It's a normal-sized office. Single story. The front has desks for all the people. In the back where a large garden rests a large auditorium can be found. This auditorium is used for presentations and large meetings. In a separate, second building are more offices. One floor is occupied by an environmental engineer and a human rights lawyer whose work focuses on the native tribes.

I found the video editing workstation. A few omni-directional microphones hooked up to a basic 8-input mixer fed into the computer to record through Sound Forge. Very similar to what I worked with at Southwest Airlines. I almost got lost in the editing programs, sound recordings, and various film appliances I studied in college. I think I'm going to enjoy the work I do here.

This is Joel. A coworker at Paz y Esperanza.

Third: The City.

Moyobamba is a small city! It's probably the size of one suburb in New Orleans. I could walk from one side of the city to the other if I decided to. The city hosts close to 45,000 people here. It's a dusty city with well-constructed roads. The town square is surrounded by a Catholic church, Municipal Building, and school. Tall palm trees line the square offering shade to the bench-dwellers underneath. It's a common stopping place for people after work or during their lunch break to visit. The humidity can be fearsome at times.

Once you see past the buildings you recognize those same green mountains I mentioned before. Only these mountains surround the town on all sides. You travel outside the city and immediately you're greeted with green fields that go on forever. There's a few thermal baths just outside the city. The weather: high of 87 low of 77. Rain is on-and-off. Civilization just sort of drops off. You see the occasional shack or two. There are plenty of street vendors driving wheelbarrows with fresh picked platanos, yucca, o aguacate.

I keep thinking to myself: This is my life now. I live here now.

Riding the back of a dirt bike down the dusty streets of a small town in northern Peru waiting for a call from your boss sounds like something out of a spy movie. Except, of course, I'm probably the furthest thing from a spy. I'm a volunteer working for Paz y Esperanza.

Sometimes it doesn't sink in. This is just another one of my trips. It doesn't seem real.

The hard part is when I think about home. I won't lie, I get bad homesickness. I left behind a lot. If I spend time thinking about what life could have been like my homesickness gets worse. I get a little nervous at times cause it's just me out here. Jenny, Jed, and Shaina are all back in Lima. I won't see any of them for a full month and a half. It's easy to feel stranded and to let that feeling encourage my homesickness, but I don't have to feel that way. Truthfully I'm not alone.

As cheesy as it is to say I'm walking with God. It's hard to understand the conversation we're having. I say one thing, He does another. I do one thing, he says another. Plus, what I'm feeling right now is completely normal. Other volunteers have gone before me and had the exact same experience. My fellow YAVs around the world and in the States are having these feelings. I'm not alone in these thoughts.

So I focus on the positive. I take it one day at a time. Tomorrow I get to wake up and be a part of this brand new world. It's the dream I've always wanted to live. I can't think of a better blessing than living your dream.

Gracias y vaya con dios

 - Daniel Pappas -

Welcome to the Jungle!

*More about my host family in a later post, pending their approval.