The Jail without a door

In Santa Maria de Fatima, Richelle and Kizzy told me they had seen the village jail. When I asked where, they pointed to this little shack without a door and in disrepair. "Nobody's in it", they said.

The whole time we were visiting these villages I was seeing these tight nit families, who despite disease and sub par hygiene, seemed quite at ease with themselves and the world. No doubt whatsoever that they work their fingers to the bone for what they have, and they have worries. But they can teach me more about life than I can teach them. They had spirit about them that I just love.

I think it is exactly right, the African saying, that it takes a village to raise a child. In the Amazon, because the village raises a child, you can have a jail without a door.

Can I go back to Peru now? How about NOW?

All I can think about is going back to the Amazon villages, to help them more. We have a trip set up for April 17th and we are working hard to get everything together.

We need to get corn for the village of Santa Maria de Fatima to plant time there this month. For each home in the village, that amounts to $30,000 dollars for the village. For all the things we are doing for the villages the clock is always running. We are organizing volunteers we need to help us, w also coordinating with the villages, working to design hydro electric, meeting with charity groups, creating a web page, negotiating with companies in Peru for better prices, completing the application processes with the government of Peru, and dozens of other things. Most of this is being handled by Kizzy and David who also have to work at their day jobs and being good fathers and husbands.

But once you get these people in your heart, no matter how much you do, you want to do more. The only way you can make the people around you understand is for them to see it and be there. There are worse things in this world than to have an immense desire to help people. So we'll keep working.

Won't you come with us?

Casey

The simple things

I was just thinking about when we brought the solar powered lights to Santa Maria de Fatima and the Mayor stood up to speak. He said that they would now be able to peel their corn after dark so that they could increase their productiveness. Think about all the things you do after the sun goes down, these people stop their lives at night. A 45$ light donated to the foundation will make such a big difference to these people.

We are so blessed to live in the USA. Even if you don't have a cell phone, cable tv, or internet, you can have a room lit up to work, clean, read, or just spend time with the ones you love. My children drink clean water from the tap everyday, are vaccinated from disease, and they are educated to their maximum abilities. In our villages every child has parasites from the water and education is really only for the very young.

I hope that everyone can look around them and be thankful for their many comforts and opportunities.

Light and the end of the tunnel for LIGHT

There are new possibilities are coming to the surface to use the Amazon river and not just tributaries for hydroelectric. The Amazon moves too slow for most Hydro electric applications, but my brother and his engineering colleagues have come up with sound engineering applications to use the Big Slow and we still think we will get 1 Kilowatt. From everything I have seen it sounds like it will work just the way we want it to. The nozzle effect is a very basic thermodynamic solution, and I don't know why no one has thought of it yet.

Shipping for the hydroelectric generators looks quite reasonable too. This makes it more likely that we will be able to make them work because affordability is a main factor. That and the Peruvian government not taxing our imports is a big deal.

I am finding it extremely difficult to get my brain focused on things in the US. Pretty much everything I've done since I have been home has been shadowed by my thoughts for my villagers.

EVERYBODY LISTEN!

I didn't have a dime to spend to go to Peru or to bring them anything. Our PRESENCE was enough to give these people great hope. Nobody cares about these people and they are forgotten by everyone.

It was only by talking to anyone who would listen and using the resources of a lot of people that we were able to bring a LOT of help to these people. Shoes for those who have none, light for people in the darkness, medicine for the sick.

1 little plastic army man or a bow for their hair makes these kids more happy than a Wii for my kids.

The loose coins in your house can do amazing things in this part of the world. Global Village Hope could take that and the coins in your coin jar and permanently change the lives of these people. If you would like to come with us we could we can show you how to make it happen without expense to you.

Change for HOPE! Give us your loose change and we will give these people hope.

My body is in Colorado, my heart is still in Peru

Adjusting to the USA
When we landed in Atlanta for our connecting flight, I was thinking I could never leave the US again. Everything here is so clean and security is so good. Then as we were waiting for our connecting flight to Denver we started to look at the pictures we had taken and the faces of the villagers made me want so badly to get back to the Amazon.

The VAST difference in our wealth in the US and the abject poverty of the villagers in the Amazon is so stark that it almost makes me hate money, as Kizzy said it would. I saw some young lady with a fake tan, tons of jewelry and expensive designer clothes walking through the Atlanta airport with her nose in the air. That would normally be a turn off for me anyway, but seeing it so soon after my villages just made me depressed. Soon we were boarding the plane to Denver and I had to pass through the 1st class seating to get to coach. Again, snooty people with too much money. It was all I could do not to lean over and tell this man that I could give electricity to a whole village just with the money he paid for his 1st class seat.

I lost my cell phone in Peru and so went to get a new one. For the feature that I wanted everything was going to cost 79$ so I got a 'Droid' phone. It has all kinds of neat features but the whole time I am thinking that it would be worthless in the Amazon.

I have been so tired since I have been home. Being at 6000 feet altitude rather than 0 feet in the amazon is really kicking my butt. Spending time with me kids and wife has been so nice because I missed them so much. I could only talk to them once while I was gone which made the separation a little more difficult.

More help from the Peruvian Govt
The day we flew out we met with another Peruvian government department that handles all charity groups. They will get each of us AND our family members Visa's for more than 1 year so that we can more easily get in and out of Peru and do work there. Also we will be able to bring in supplies without having to deal with customs, all this is a gigantic deal!

Monkey´s, Anaconda´s, and Naked Villagers

Today we were tourists only. It is very easy to be a tourist in Peru, no exersion to speak of and didn´t really break a sweat. We started out at the monkey preserve, probably one of the few places on the planet that monkeys come and climb on you while you feed them. When you see the pictures you will be green with envy. The wolf monkeys were very sociable and were all over us while we fed them, but a red howler monkey wouldn´t come down to see us. I was able to coax him down because he didn´t like the cookies, only bananas. He sat nicely on my back for a good 10 minutes before I took him back to his tree. We saw several breeds of monkeys, the smaller monkeys will not go down past a certain height on a tree so they wouln´t actually climb on us.

Then it was time to leave the monkey preserve. As we were getting onto the boat, 2 other boats showed up with a bunch of white people speaking english. I about fell over, we had not seen westerners ANYWHERE because we had been at these remote villages and all the sudden we do tourist stuff and we are surrounded by them. It was wierd to hear people speaking english too. NONE of these people ever go to the real jungle or see real villages. If there are wood steps instead of mud or dirt coming up from the river, you are not in the jungle.

The next place we visited had sloths, snakes and prehistoric turtles. I´ve always thought that sloths would smell nasty and for some reason the thought of even petting one didn´t sound apealing. But they hung a baby sloth on me at first and it was really neat, he smelled better that I did for sure. Really cute. Then they hung his dad on me. Their fur is really course but up close they have these neat little faces. It appears to me that they move so slow because it is almost like their muscles are taught all the time. To reposition their arm is like big steel cable. They need to hang on to you, just you holding them is not comforting to them at all.

Then they took us to the snake cage. I HATE SNAKES!!! Something with the power to kill me and a brain smaller than my thumb is not a perfect package to me. They had 2 Anaconda´s in there. The first one was about 6´long and 5¨in diameter, he had been under water so he was all wet while I held him. No big deal.

The other Anaconda was GIGANTIC. The guy told us that they had just caught him this week so we he could not let us touch him becuase he could crush our hand or break other bones. That sounded like a reasonable company policy to me. Richelle, who was freaked out by ducklings and monkeys, totally lit up around the snakes. If she hadn´t taken pictures with them I wouldn´t have even considered it. Their company policy is at their whim apparentyl because soon Richelle had it around her shoulders with a guy at each end of the snake holding it up. I am gussing it was over 12 feet long and at least 12 inches in diameter. I went ahead and got it over my shoulders and took some pictures so I´ll never have to do that again in my life. They weren´t stinky and nasty at all like garter snakes up north. The monkey´s got dirt all over me, these didn´t really at all. But I had to wash the creepy off me =)

Then we went to visit the Bolo tribe, they refuse to take on western dress or any western culture. So they are buck naked most of the time. Bolo means ´men without earings´. Thier land is actually in Columbia. But another trible that wore earings, nose rings, and many other decorations thought the Bolo´s were more of a monkey so they tried to kill them at every chance. The old man speaking to us, said his father took his and 6 other family´s to where they currently live about 50 years ago to get away from the murdering tribes.

All of these places were gotten to by boats on the Amazon.

We flew into Lima today and tomorrow we will meet with the relief coordinator for Peru to discuss how to ship our things into Peru and get around some tarriffs. Then the Governor of the state we will be working in want´s too meet with us. He had been in an accident but insists that we go to the hospital to have our meeting there.

I´ll be home Friday morning and can´t wait to see my wife and beautiful daughters. I have a lot of work to do for hydro power in these villages and hopefully my brother Michael and his friend (also both engineers) can help me find a solution that works for all the villages. They have been doing a lot of work while I have been playing games in the jungle. Thanks guys!

I have meet some wonderful people in Peru and it is really hard to leave them. These are people you meet one time and it is like they are family. I can´t wait to bring a solution to my villagers and I hope they know I will be thinking about them every day until I come back.

Considering I am the saddest physical specimen and dearly enjoy being indoors with technology and Mt. Dew, I really hope everyone reading this will realize they can do it and easier than I can. There really isn´t anything else you can do that will give you more life perspective than this. Us americans have it SOOOOOOOOO easy. A small investment of our time and resources can make a giant difference in this part of the world.


Casey

baby ducks, monkeys, and another jungle hike

I´m sensing a pattern. Our group is full of energy and ready to put our backs into it during the cool morning while in the afternoon we really run out of steam, ironic in the steamy Amazon.

I woke up with all these little respots on the top of my feet from some invisible bugs. They weren´t painful and were only on my feet. This is better than Kizzy who apparently had them all over his body. I was sure to put DEET on my shoes today.

SANTA VALENTINO (I think)
When we landed there was a gentleman holding a big sign welcoming us and as we climbed up to the village a girl had 2 very tame ducklings so I had to stop and hold them. The same girl had a Hannah Montanna tshirt so I took a picture so my daughter could see it. Our first village had a good medical clinic (for the Amazon). That is, it is clean and run by a doctor who is trying his best. The baby deliver process starts with the woman having labor pains, so she lays on a wood bed/table. When she starts to dialate she is moved to another room to an identical wood table, when the mother is fully dialated she is moved to a padded bed where the baby is delivered.
There was a very nice solar powered battery system there in the clinic, except the batteries have been dead for years and the people who ´dontated´the equipment was no where to be found in helping find replacement batteries. Since these people make 200$ a year it´s not likely they´ll buy it themselves. Someone even built a nice bathroom with a tile shower, toilet and sink. But there is no water to the bathroom so it is wasted money and wasted space.

The people were very excited, it sounds so repitive but how can I tell you 5 different times in a way you can understand. We are offering a way so that we can create an economic cycle that conitines for the rest of their lives and that of their children, when they have otherwise lived the same as their ancestors had 3000 plus years previous?

This village had an excellent candidate for the lowhead hydro generator I am wanting to use. No gigantic changes during the flood stage, it is easily accessible, fast moving river, and a VERY industrious village around it.

The village condition changes drastically from one to another village. Only one of the 5 villages was what I consider poorly organized and maintained. The other four vary from good to excellent.

There was just the cutest little 2 yr old girl in the meeting with the village leaders, I got some good pictures I´ll upload when I get a real internet connection.

I was taking pictures of THEIR construction of their buildings because it is a perfect example of Keep it Simple Stupid. Only a geek could appreciate my interest. But just FYI, I could now build you a very excellent hut with a waterproof(ish) roof using palm leaves and logs should you get stuck with me on a tropical island. I hope this raises my stock on the aspect of being the only other person you wouldn´t kill for their meat, were we stranded together.

As we were leaving the village, the ducks were still in their box by the river. Richelle had the perfect idea of taking a picture of our Navy escort in uniform with his assault rifle and the fuzzy baby duck cupped in his hand. I can´t WAIT to see that picture. We all love our Peruvian Navy 1st officer who escorted us these last 2 days. He was very easy going and friendly once he realized that he could relax around us. I truly hope to see him in future visits. He even went with us on our last hike in the Jungle. Turns out that there were some pirates on the Amazon recently, so it was not inconvenient to have the Navy escort us. The Navy clamped down and there actually hasn´t been any pirating since August.


Espanosia

Here we went to this village that has STREET LIGHTS. Oh, except the generator runs on gas and gas is more that 8 dollars a gallon in IQUITOS (2 hours away in a boat). They only buy gasoline for festivals and then the generator is silent the rest of the year.

Some silly europeans must have told them to build 2 stories here. It is the only place in the villages I have seen it and going up to a second floor in the jungle let´s you know why it is a stupid idea (you´ll be begging to go downstairs).

We were having a discussion with the leaders when one of the hair scrunchies, that my wife handmade, fell out of the suitcase. Richelle was in the next building giving gifts to the children as is usually the case, but I grabbed this one so I could give it out myself when we were done. When we were done with the leaders I went into the school house where the children were still sitting on the floor listening to Richelle and Edgar. I looked for a girl who had not got much or anything in the giveaway and there was one without a thing. She was sitting on the floor amongst all the other kids when I walked up to her, bent down, and showed the scrunchie to here with my fingers opening and closing the scrunchie. I say that as if I were able to complete such a process. But as soon as she saw the scrunchie on my fingers her eyes grew to the size of teacups and she snatched it out of my hand like a starving man would a piece of meat. I was at the same time happy and sad. Happy because I could give this to her, and sad that there was such need that this barefoot girl in rags would feel the need to react in such a way.

We took a BIG picture with the villagers and then I was told we were going to the fish farm. The first thing Kizzy taught me this week was to NEVER trust what they say when they say the walk will be as long/short as the villagers say. They don´t live based on time as we do and it doesn´t have the same meaning. 10 minutes could be an hour etc. Not a big deal unless your a sweaty white guy from Colorado hiking in the Amazon forest. So as we are heading to the jungle to see the fish farm I take a pull from my camelbak for water and get nothing. I stopped to fix what I think is a kink in the hose only to find and empty camelbak. First time in the whole week that this happened. Everyone had traveled ahead on the trail so I ran after them so as not to be left behind, everyone always carried extra water so I was sure this would be no problem.

By the time I caught up with Kizzy to ask him to give me an extra bottle of water, he had found a monkey....

Solar Lights, clean water, and Isreali Assault rifles

So...the Peru Navy escorted us to two villages today. Their boat had 3 times more power and cut through the water much better, so they had to keep it at half throttle so that we could keep up. In addition to the boat crew they sent a Navy 1st officer as an armed escort.

I didn´t immedieately recognize the type of assault rifle he was carrying, so in pidgin spanish english and hand signs I asked who made it. It was a Galil, an Isreali assault rifle which has a very good reputation. I asked him if I could hold it just to feel how balanced it would be in my hands. I expected him to remove the magazine, but he handed it to me with the 30 plus round magazine. I got a real cool picture of it too! He was a big hearted guy and I made sure to tell his commander what a great job he had done in hopes that the kudos would make it worth sweating in the jungle with us.

Our first village was Gran Peru, and the mayor is an ex Navy officer. His village was in such GREAT order and his people really respected him. They were very excited about the solar lights and he told us and his people that we were a gift to them from God. All his councelors were very smart as well. They were very happy to get the solar lights and the water filters that we brought that last for 7 years. No possibility for hydro from fast moving water. That makes me think I need to do a paddle wheel with very large diameter windings and let the thing raise up and down with the Amazon as seaons change, on pontoons. I don´t know else to make it happen.

The next village was something like Saguna Pima zona, lots of other things were not right, but about a half mile away was a fast moving river. I got all excited because I could HEAR the rapids before I saw it. I knew ,from that sound alone, that I would likely get electricity from it. Upon seeing it, I verified that hunch. Because I only had a hand level and tape measure I wasn´t equipped to get the accuracy I need to measure the elevation change. We were also well into the jungle and you were either in the water or in the jungle, so getting a complete visual was not easy. But I do know it was very likely what I need. The only PROBLEM is that during 2 months a year the water is TWELVE feet higher than normal. I cannot explain how difficult it will be to manage that. But Kizzy put forth a good possible fix. The thick jungle will make it extremely difficult to do a decent survey, so I´ll come back with a transit and elevation rod along with some hip waders.

The people in this village really loved the solar lamps and decided on the project of creating a pig farm out of the 7 options we gave them. When they heard about us overseeing the development their eyes opened wide because nobody had ever given them the guidance they needed with any donations or gift projects. That would always end in failure becuase they didn´t have the knowledge or management abilities to have success.

Tomorrow we will go to more villages and also a monkey reserve and a butterfly reserve. Then Wednesday we fly back to Lima and Thursday night fly home to Denver.

I´m a little (or a lot) sad to leave these people, the are so loving and so honest it is so refreshing. I want to fix their electric generation problems before I leave, not leave and bring their problems with me. Plus I am going to have a million questions that will be much more difficult to get answers for when I am 10,000 miles away from here.

I could spend another 3 days surveying that stream in Saguna Prima Zona, by itself. In each village I was looking for a guru to train up to be able to repair and maintain whatever power generation I bring there. Once the villagers tell me who their fix it guy is (henry), I ask him to explain what he knows about hooking up batteries and how current works. These people aren´t dumb, I just need to know what I´m working with. He explains about hooking up positive and negative side and not allowing the wires to touch so that they don´t arc. I will have more questions for him later, but he´s my guy for now.

I could work every day but Sunday for the next 10 years and still have more people to help. It bums me out to leave this problem open ended.

But I KNOW this is what I am supposed to be doing, too many miraculous things have happened that allow our foundations to work in Peru. Too many times we have met the exact right person who has the information we need, who gets us more help and more opportunity. I think that the Peruvian military in Iquitos bending over backwards to help us speaks volumes to that.

More to follow.

Casey

Clinica Santa Maria, Navy Commanders and more 1-24-10

Last night after a LONG day in the jungle we went to visit a medical clinic, Clinica Santa Maria of Iquitos, that we hoped would partner with us. Around the table was the MD who was the director of the clinic, another doctor and two ladies who are administors there.

Kizzy started to explain all the things going on there and we brought up the idea that my wife, Raechelle, had of training midwives from the villages to reduce infections for the mothers and infant mortality. He informed us that he is also a professor at the local university and that he could do the actual training there and he would also certify the midwives. He also owns a hotel and he said the midives could stay there for free while they are going to school. All the clinic personell listened as Kizzy spoke in spanish telling them why our group was different, we were about SUSTAINABILITY and ´teaching the people to fish´instead of giving them fish like every other charity has done for decades. They were so happy to hear that we were going to work WITH the clinic. American charities are donating MRI machines but they have holes in their ceilings and are short on basic supplies. These charities never ask what they want, they just ask if they have an MRI machine and go looking to get donations to ship one. One of the female administrators started to cry on the clinic tour, asking if we could come to her home country of Columbia. They all saw how our plans would really work.

He showed us through his clinic, including a delivery room. The above the table was what looked like a chinup bar. In a difficult labor the mother lifts herself up with the bar to aid the birth and pain. We plan to have volunteers come down and help fix up their clinic, as it is in need of repair.

We also were contacted by today the local military base here, they had been looking all over Iquitos for 2 days for us. After our meeting with the Peruvian government in Lima, they called the commander of the base and told him to give us whatever support we need. So in addition to our staff, 2 very large river gunboats and their personell will accompany us to see how they can help for the rest of the villages we visit!!

The Navy commander of the military (equivelant to a US colnel) came to dine with us tonight to discuss the plans for the rest of the week. A doctor from another clinic, the pastor of a church, and the coordinator for Centura health charities were attending as well as the entire group of 7 people that currently represent the whole of our foundation. Tomorrow we need to be at the navy base at 7.40 am to board the ships.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an aside, for the first time we tried a different boat company to take us to the Santa Maria de Fatima yesterday because the better company wouldn´t negotiate with our local guy Fernando. On the way back to Iquitos the boat engine wouldn´t run right which caused the rear of the boat to ride low in the water and we were taking on water. I QUICKLY passed out everyones life jackets that we had forgot to put on for the return trip.

Thinking that maybe the actual Pirhana risk had been overblown, I asked what the chances of us being able to swim to the shore about 300 yards away. The boat driver looked at me like I was crazy and told me the Pirhana actually would kill us before we reached shore. The second crewman of the boat bailed out the water with as much urgancy as you could expect.

I felt this was as much as an appropriate time for us to say a prayer as any in recent memory. While the crewman worked to keep the boat above water, Richelle said a prayer while Kizzy and I bowed our heads. After the prayer, I got the distinct feeling that everything was going to be just fine. I became as relaxed as if I was on fishing boat in Lake Pactola back home.


2 minutes later they shut down the motor to look at it, I was afraid they had water in the carb and they would never get it restarted again. The motor was brand new and it turned out to be just a loose plug wire, they started the motor easily and it ran fine. We were off again to Iquitos, 20 km distant.

At the dock when we landed was the boat owner of the new boat who had refused to negotiate with Fernando. His boat had been at the dock all day and now he was Kizzy´s best friend. Kizzy again told him to talk to Fernando and I think if we don´t use the navy boats, we will get a fine deal on his better boats =)

Miracles happen all the time, they just do not usually happen to me several times a day for several days in a row. I haven´t even told you everything yet.

Casey

An amazing day in the Amazon

This day brought us to the first village on our trip. The people of Santa de Maria de Fatima were playing music for us as we landed the boat onto the shore about 20 km from Iquitos, Peru. Because Fernando had been communicating with them, they were expecting us.

I don´t know how to explain the experience. Things like life changing can´t really help you understand what it was like to meet these peope and talk to them about bringing them SUSTAINABLE clean water, electricity, and increased income. So many times in the past people have come into their village and made promises for things that the people did not ask for and did not want. Then to drop this unneeded and unwanted thing and never come back.

The villagers were so excited about what we were presenting them with and how these projects could be sustained for a very long time. NO ONE had ever come BACK after the first visit, much less brought them the help they needed. I explained the Solar Lights we bought them and our hydro electric generators while Kizzy, Fernando, and David told them about all the different projects. Their Mayor, Juan, stood up and spoke to his people and to us. With David translating for me, Juan told his people how many years they have waited for someone to give them a hand up. He spoke to his people for about 5 minutes and as he choked up while thanking us, I sincerely had tears in my eyes.

It quickly became clear that a fast running, down hill stream wasn´t close by the village they told me of a water source into the jungle that might work. The other water options close by were nill and despite the fact I was quite sure we wouldn´t get the elevation increase or water volume needed, I still knew that I had to go into the rainforest to look. Otherwise I would always wonder if I could have brought the locals lots of reliable electricity if only I had went. So we needed to set out on a 2 hour hike through the rain forest.



Before we left the clearing of the village, the mayor warned us that there were many deadly poisonous snakes as well as a certain kind of spider, then asked if we wanted to still continue. When I asked what markings the deadly snakes had, he said that there are so many different kinds of poisonous snakes he couldn´t even tell me. I then had Kizzy ask him in Spanish, JOKINGLY, if he was strong enough to carry out my dead body if I got bitten. He assured me that he would not even try to carry me out, then I said ´Lets go!´.

You haven´t lived until you have hiked into a Rainforest. The mayor of the village led me on what could loosely called a trail. Girls less than 7 years old ran through this rainforest, without shoes, like little gazelles. The young and old kids ran far ahead of us, such that they were out of site for a long time, without any of the villagers being slightly concerned. Unlike us nervous U.S. parents that stand ready to catch our children should the fall off the McDonalds Jungle Jim and hit the rubber floor with their bums. After about 15 minutes we were completly under the Jungle canopy and you couldn´t see for more than 6 feet before the person in front of you would disappear. Vines cut our arms so that they bled, caught our pants, and just a few bites from Fire Ants (very painful) made me more fully appreciate why they have such a name. Quick lesson in rain forest etiquite, don´t lean on any tree (even just slightly) if you don´t want fire ants dropping down on you and biting you (yes I have seen Platoon but didn´t remember until the ants were biting me) The deeper we got, you dare not stop for very long becuause another breed of ants would instantly start to converge on your feet. The looked like army ants in South Dakota, only 3 or 4 times bigger.

When we got to the water source, it was obvious that it wouldn´t work. So, we turned around and came back to the village completely wiped out. To the the Peruvians, it was like a Sunday stroll. For the Americans, our clothes were soaked all the way through with sweat and I had drained a 30 oz bottle of water and quite a bit from my camelpak.

My hypoglycemia created great difficulties for me as I was making great effort to be right behind the Peruvians and in front of the rest of my team because I wanted the villagers to know how serious I was about bringing them Hydroelectric. Despite snacking on nuts, cheese, and other protein item on the hike as well as drinking lot´s of water, it was clear I had to take a break. From past experience I know that my blood sugar was between 40 and 60 (normal is 100). So going back to the village, when we were about 2/3 rds of the way back I had to rest. I felt like the biggest dirtbag for slowing things down. They put down 3 of these giant leaves and I just lay down there for about 5 minutes and ate part of a granola bar. After that I was back to normal (for me) energy and we were in the village 20 minutes later.

We brought them many donated items. But with so many barefooted kids, it was extremely meaningful to bend down and put sandals on their feet. Flipflops are the low end of the footwear foodchain in the United States; but when you live in the Amazon and your other option is barefeet, it is like a 200$ pair of Nikes for us.

Then.....

I will continue more tomorrow, it is 11.45 pm and I need to go to sleep. More amazing things happened later in the day and as well as earlier that I don´t have nearly enough time to explain.

Ask me about the boat on the return trip home, it´ll sound like right out of the movies but is 100 percent truth.


Casey

in Iquitos

Mi Amigos, buenos noches

we are in iquitos, peru as of yesterday. we landed thursday night in Lima and we did not get to sleep until 3 am, then got up at 6am. I couldn´t sleep so it ws 38 hours before I got any sleep just because I had the micro hydro surveying stuff in my head. We met with the health minister first thing in the morning, and he said he will come to see the Governers in our area next week and tell them to do everything possible to help us in the future. He also said that in his meeting with the hydro electric people, of whom he is in charge of, he will tell them to find ways of financing some projects to build a factory here for us for things we are going to manufacture here. Following that we met with the minister of foreign affairs who gave us tons of valuable information, along with her cell phone numer to call us if we need ANYTHING while we are here. This woman is exactly the kind of person who can make things happen fast with any government agency in Puru.

Casey

More later with pictures.


Nice hotels with AIR CONDITIONING. It is very humid and warm, but no worse than Orlando, FL in my opinion. The food has been excellent. Iquitos, is the larges city in the world that cannot be accessed by roads. Once inside the city, 99.99% of people ride motorcycles or 3 wheeled motorcycle cabs. We are going to our first village today.

Our BAGS ARE (OVER)PACKED

We leave tomorrow and right now our only worry is keeping 10 suitcases at less that 50 pounds each. This is GOOD! That means we have a lot to bring to our villagers. We leave at 11 am Denver time and get in at about midnight in Lima, Peru. Our friends, family, coworkers, volunteers and donors have really showed how much they care. I will keep you posted during our trip, pictures will be added daily if we get good internet connections.

Wow! The foundation has made enormous progress in a very short time! Ana Morrow from the Peru Club had decided to come with us on our January 21st trip and introduce us to her many friends in Peru in hopes of increasing our ability to help the people there. There was a $15,000 donation of medical equipment from a generous doctor in Littleton, Colorado. Otherpower had donated time to help us bring light to villages that do not even have kerosene lamps and there has been great progress in finding a micro hydro generator that can be used in the amazon to light up villages. American Innovations has donated solar rechargeable lamps. One lamp can light up a whole room and these will be used in community centers for kids to study at night and adults to bring their work to earn extra income.

All of this has allowed a foundation, that was only a dream 2 months ago, magnify our efforts and bring to bear a great amount of help to these people. In the West, we don't realize how many opportunities we have even if we come from less privileged families. In these villages it doesn't matter how much ability you have, how hard you are willing to work, or what sacrifices you are willing to make. There is NO opportunity to make your life better or to provide better for your children. All these people need is the smallest window of opportunity to greatly improve their lives.