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Other entries in Pucallpa

More about life in Betania

My favourate time of the day is when we all go to the river to bathe and do laundry. It was a bit of an adjustment but is amazing. We eat once or twice a day. Fish caught from the river or meat if the hunt was succesful. That does not happen very often. There are so many different types of fish that it would take too long to describe. I don't eat much fish, though. Although the fish is delicious it has a very strong smell that does not seem to agree with my 'delicate' nature. So I eat a lot of eggs and chicken (when available). Pedro also prepares vegetable soup and tortillas for me. It is great.My apprenticeship is going well. So far I have dieted on 5 plants. A diet means drinking the plant to enable the body to absorb its healing powers, energy and strength. It also cleans out the entire system - spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. We have done some Ayawasca ceremnoies that were fabulous. I have 7 Maestros (master shamans) teaching me and am very priviledged. Their wealth of knowledge and abilitites are astounding.

Later on my training will change and when I am done I will have dieted on 250 plants and have achieved the level of Maestra. Well, that is the plan anyway.

I generally take the plants (extracts from the roots, leaves or roots) in the morning and evening and fast the next day until either 12h00 or 14h00. The fasting is not so bad.

They go to the shaman centre (approximately 40 minute walk into the jungle) every day. Sometimes I join them. It depends on whether my plant diet requires me to rest or not.

Pedro's mother, Senora Paola, also lives with us. She is wonderful and argues with Pedro when I get sick or feel ill. Does not matter where I go I have a mother looking out for me. So you don't have to worry mom, I am well looked after. There are also two chickens and aduck that we have not eaten yet. They look like they may be Senora Paolas pets. The one hen is carzy so I call her Pollo Loco (Crazy Chicken). She has a friend - Funky chicken, but since my dicitionary did not have the spanish translation for funky, she became funny chicken. The duck is called happy duck because it always seems to be smiling and wagging its tail. The names for the chickens and duckes were adopted by the family and the pets have now become a primary point of conversation and jokes.

Along with Pedro's mother, three of his cousins also live here. Two of them go are schoolgoing children. High school I'd say. Then there is Pedro, his brothers Cezar and Alberto (Betto), their cousin Angel and Pedro's 17 year old son, Douglas. Pedro's other brothers lives next door and across the street. Elias, is also a shaman and will also be involved in my apprenticeship. He has a television and DVD player in his casa (house). So once a day when the generator is starter for a few hours, the children watch animimations and karate movies purchased in Pucallpa. They also have a larger casa in Betania where they show some national geographic type movies sometime. That is of course when the generator is on.

They also have one car, an ancient bakkie (pick-up truck for my American friends) which is used to cart heavy logs from the port to the other end of the village from time to time.

They also have a school (picture of a part of the school attached). It consist of a few buildings and seems quite large for the village. There is a baker and about four little shops that sell coldrink, soap, eggs, biscuits, crackers and sigarettes. Sometimes they have fruit. They also have a cultural group of young people that perform the traditional songs and dances for tourists. A television crew from Lima arrived here the other day to film Betania and the group to market Betania as a tourist destination. They are also mad about football and have two teams that practice every day before sunset. As I said before, during the day it simply too hot to do anything. They are very good.

At the moment they are clearing some ground at the shaman centre to build a few houses. They are also building a house for me - Casa de Biri Kate. It has a nice ring to it.

WE also went to the centre one day to plant some Ayawasca vines. That was a lot of fun.

A Belgian girl named Celine came with us from Pucallpa and stayed for about two weeks. She was on an exchange student programme from her university for 7 months and came here just before her return to Belgium. Since they do not have any kind of garbage system here she tried to teach them to use garbage bags and create a garbage disposal area. She also gathered the children to clean up any garbage lying around. It was not very successful because this has never been part of the reality for many peoplein Peru. But now they are aware and some families actually use the system. The children were very keen on it, but not many men turned up for the meeting she help to inform them of the system. It is a pity. To me it seems sometimes that the world is trying to save the rainforrest but the government of Peru does not seem to care that much. It is very strange to have to step over an empty Inka Cola (popular cold drink in Peru) bottle while walking through the jungle. It was very noble of Celine to try and I respect her for that. Every little bit helps.

Well that is all for now.

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