Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 1.

Shibpo kids playing on a mototaxi

Well my 4^th visit to Pucallpa has been and gone. However this time I (Mark) didn’t go alone, or just with 1 or 3 other people. This time I went with 20 other adults as well as Daniel and Joel. This was the 1^st Vision Vida mission trip, and overall went really well. Yes there was the normal hiccups, and errors, but there was no major stomach upsets, no great falling outs or major incidents, and no one resigned to bed on day 3.
We went on Sunday 8^th November in the evening and arrived at about 21.30. We left on the Friday 13^th at 22.15, and arrived back in Lima very happy, but very tired.

Daniel decides how he is going to get to Pucallpa

I have led a few shorty term mission teams before, and I have been a member of 2 large short term mission teams, but I have never led a team of 21 before so this was a challenge, and it certainly turned out to be so, especially in the area of coordination and details, as neither of them are strengths of mine!

The team minus Daniel and Joel

Day 1 started well at the airport, although a few of the team arrived late, arriving in Peruvian timing and not English timing! We managed to get everyone on the plane and to Pucallpa safely, although Ronald one of the first time flyers had his bag sent to Tarapoto, another jungle town instead of Pucallpa. He did get it back 24 hours later.

The first thing many people noticed when we arrived was the heat, which was a running theme throughout our time there, and a classic quote was made by Lili, when she said, it’s not that hot, it’s just the heat from the engines of the plane. It wasn’t just the engines, it really was that hot!

Dolly affected by the heat.