More children back at Estrella de Sauce

 Finally we have small as well as older children coming to morning classes at our 'Escuelita' as the locals call it.  It's been way too long that our facility has not been in use.

                                                                                       Ruth and friends learning how to weave

Estrella de Sauce opens again

 Having been required to close in March at the onset of the Covid pandemic we have now re-opened and I have been teaching English to a small group of teenagers who are keen to learn. It does feel good to have our educational project up and running again.

New mural

 

Artist son-in-law José Mattos Chahualla painted this combination feline/owl with Shipibo design elements on a balcony wall at our house over the the Christmas and New Years' holidays. 

Seasons Greetings

 Happy holidays and merry Christmas to family, friends and past volunteers from Lourdes and I here in the northern Amazon jungle of Peru!

 2020 has been a difficult year in which we had to completely shut down our educational outreach progams here in the small community of Sauce.  We did provide the service of delivery of essential food supplies during the pandemic to some of the more vulnerable families in our programs.  In addition we continued to support the Khuyay Waldorf school in the city of Tarapoto which remained in operation, but only on an online basis.

The lockdown situation did have some positive aspects:  Lourdes had plenty of time to learn Peruvian Sign Language to better communicate with some of our deaf children and adults and I got to mostly finish up our house on which I have been working for almost 10 years.  Also it was lovely having our lake very quiet with virtually no boat traffic for all those months.

We are optimistic that 2021 will be a better year.  This is still a beautiful world despite many challenges and we will continue forward inspired by love which remains at the heart of everything.

A different Christmas

In past years we have had three pre-Christmas celebrations with the young children, the older children and our group of grandmothers but this year because of Covid restrictions we have not been able to host our usual gatherings at Estrella del Sauce.  Instead this year we are delivering gifts to all the children and grandmothers who partipate in our programs.  We have permission to hold our summer camp called 'vacacciones utiles' which will start January 11 and our grandmothers group has been given the go-ahead to begin again on Jan 15.

Sauce is changing fast

 Lourdes and I moved to this small lakeside town almost a decade ago and over the years we have seen many changes especially in the hotel construction sector.  Now the main drag is getting lots of drain pipes put in in antipation of paving the entire length.  It has been a dirt road up until now - muddy during rain and dusty in dry, sunny conditions.

                                                          This is a new park being constructed a block away from our house.

Jetski boat smash

 We were sailing along yesterday minding our own business when a Jetski driven by a young inexperienced operator suddenly appeared right on our bow.  I thought he was going to veer away but he kept coming and smashed right into our bow.  He had lost control of the wetbike.

We picked him up quickly as fortunately the 'man overboard' drills I learned years ago were still there in my memory banks and fortunately we had a doctor on board who checked him for injuries and prounounced him uninjured, which seems quite a miracle as the impact was fairly hard.  We took the Jetski under tow and went back to where it had been rented.  There was splintered wood on our bow from the impact which will take me a few days to fix.

I know they are fast and fun but I don't think Jetskis belong on a small 3 mile long lake. Unfortunately every year there are more of them.  We regularly hear of various accidents with them but this is the first time we have been directly involved.