It’s another beautiful morning here and I have the place, and the internet, all to myself. The internet has been either not here or, yesterday, excruciatingly slow, but I may be on a roll now.

Yesterday morning Fernando came back from Iquitos with our new music teacher, Rafael. After breakfast he went to rest and we headed to the library for the Monday morning meeting. We didn’t get there, because the engine wouldn’t start. But we made up for it in the afternoon, there was music everywhere!

These are the non-musicians, reading with each other.

Some of the older kids you see in these next shots come from the other library, Sapo Playa.

The flight from Lima to Iquitos was not the most pleasant flight I’ve taken, mostly because two young women with a screaming child sat with me. It was actually worse for the people in front of the child, as her screams were right in their  ears.  Here is a picture of her and her Tia when she finally fell asleep, 15 minutes before we landed.  Isn’t she an angel?

  
Here are some shots of what I saw out my window, fascinating I think.
   
   

With a handful of German tourists I boarded a bus to take us through the city to the Explorama office and dock. Our guide, Percy, explained everything in German, but with my previous knowledge I was able to follow a lot of it.  
At the Explorama office I had a brief chance to speak with Cynthia, who is the person in charge of all CONAPAC , which means she is my boss.  She will be out here this week for more direction.  
The Explorama boat dropped the tourists off at Ceiba Tops and continued on to Explorama Lodge with me and  two other men, who turn out to be computer techs, ready to repair Internet access, or lack thereof.  
4:30 at Explorama Lodge. Alone. No other lodgers tonight.  

I transferred from one boat to another at a dock on the river. Fernando was there, so we spoke for a brief moment before he went into Iquitos.  He will be back Monday morning.  

I had many surprises when I got to the lodge. The biggest is that they have installed a little electricity in each room and the walkways. So my room has a bathroom light, a ceiling light, a charging outlet. Wow!  It’s actually very hot and still today, making me wish there was a ceiling fan, too.  

There is a new outdoor lounge area, very well placed. 

And I asked for the wrong room!!!!  I wanted 215, asked for 301!!!! I am hoping to make a switch tomorrow, if Jamar, the new manager, agrees.  I will compose a nice apology. He has already been good about correcting my mistakes.  

There is thunder in the distance, it is so still I can hear a soccer game nearby.   I didn’t sleep last night. So I am going to take a nap.  

No photos of that. It was very nice, no bugs, quite cool. Saw lots of stars, and one very cool yellow bellied tree boa, about 2 feet long, on a tree.

Back to the day. The beading was great, the kids, and adults, loved it. There were even a few fathers who joined us. They loved the Christmas beads that were donated by my friends at Beads and Art in Lighthouse Point. (If someone knows them, maybe you could show them this part of the blog? Anne?

All the kids made at least two bracelets, some other items or three bracelets. Pulsera is the Spanish word for bracelet.

We had great day at the Sapo Playa Library! I cannot begin to tell you all we did. Lara, Fiorela, Fernando y yo went downriver and on another river to get to Sapo Playa. It didn’t take long, maybe half an hour. This is a one room library. Fernando got right to work.

I worked on the book shelves for the older kids. Here they use S for Senior, I for intermediate, and P for Primary. I found 4 books I believe were too low a level, and had to debate seriously with Fernando to make a change. He feels the decisions the founder, Dr. Nancy Dunn made, were never wrong and cannot be changed or corrected. As I say, debate…. I only found one book to weed, about the solar system. I am asking Fernando to think about adding replacements to the wish list.

We walked over to the school about noon, it’s pretty big, includes high school kids.

When the children came to the library in the afternoon Tia Juanita read to a bunch of them.

Then we began our beading work. We had a blast! It’s dinner time now, so I will add to this post later.

Today Fernando and I will go to the other library, in Sapo Playa. I don’t know much about it, it is smaller, and I think about 20 miles away. We have left a First-aid kit at the clinic, with the hope they will replenish this as they did for our library. So this morning, we will leave here about 9:00, pick up that, stop at our library to pick up the materials we are taking, and pick up Fiorela , our reading teacher. I think we are taking her to her home, not sure. At the Sapo library we will meet with the staff and see what needs to be done. I may spend some time weeding the collection, or organizing their work area, or, or???
We will eat pb&j sandwiches which we will make here at breakfast. In the afternoon I will be running a jewelry making project, using mostly plastic beads. Adults and children have been invited, hopefully. I had my doubts about this, since they have access to seeds and carved wood beads here, but I am assured it will be popular. I have brought some kits and many loose beads donated by Beads and Art in Lighthouse Point. The library also already had some beads. The word I will be using for beads is cuentas. I have a vocabulary list. If they have a whiteboard, we will write the vocabulary there. This is what we have been doing here.

That’s the wonderful library staff.

Fernando and I worked here at the lodge this morning. We tried to get some cataloging help from a certain well known, by Broward folks, cataloging system. Not much luck with our Spanish books.
In the library I worked with some of the kids in English vocabulary. The younger kids worked with their computers.

First, another relaxation shot. It’s what I managed most of Sunday morning after doing my laundry. By the way, just before lunch I smelled rain, and took all my items off the “line” I had created. And it poured during and after lunch. Wet clothes in my room…probably for a few days.

A little after 3:00 my boatman Cesar picked me up and walked me through the rainforest, about a 5 minute walk, or less, and we were at the Jaguah village! I didn’t know it was that close. I met up with two other people staying here, they went on a nature hike first, I think. The villagers demonstrated one of their dances, and then invited us to dance along. The guide made it clear we should not say no. Something about head shrinking…. So, these following pictures show me participating. Not a very pretty sight…

There was another dance, more religious, then a short demonstration of the use of the dart gun.

then we had an opportunity to shop. I asked the guide to explain that I was the library volunteer, and would like to come back next week and trade. They were fine with that, so I just window shopped. One of the library students was in one of the booths, and she and her family gave me this bracelet. That was so nice, I thanked them profusely

And, now a final relaxation, a caipirinha