Made it to Manaus

Well we made it into port late last night at Manaus, Brazil, a city of 2.5 million people. We left Benjamin Constant, a neighboring city to Philadelphia on Saturday evening.

We had spent the week with a missionary and his wife in Philadelphia. That is where we had gone to church, and I fell up the hill. There were 20 people in his house with only one bathroom and the electricity would go on and off for hours. Cal and I had their little kids room and the rest hung hammocks all over the house to sleep. This missionary has a school that he runs as a remedial school to help the kids get ahead with their education. They go to school either in the morning or afternoon and then come to his school in the afternoon. He includes the Bible too. His wife is the cheif's daughter and she has a masters in education so she is one of the teachers.

One of the pictures is of our boat trip over to Philadelphia on Monday. We took all the luggage and people in one big outboard motor canoe. The other picture shows me making the trek up the same hill on Monday and making it. I must say it was not as muddy and slick. But several of the pastors with us helped me too. The bridge is what we had to cross to get to the church.

During the week Larry had classes with the pastors we had with us and new ones from that church. On Wednesday four people from a church on Sanibel Island, Florida came. One lady gave workshops for several days on prayer. The man in the group is the videographer for that time and at Compli this week. I had a workshop on puppets and about 8 teens made puppets. They were to bring them back for us to talk about storytelling with them but only one young man came. However, I also gave a class on illustrating Bible stories. There were 8or 9 in that class. Several of them were very good.

I had them read the story of Christ stilling the storm, gave them pencil and drawing paper. They were to go home, read the story and draw it. They came back the next day to show me their drawings. Then I let them use some watercolor crayons to color the picture. They were all different and several have a lot of potential. I have the finished pictures that we will incorporate at least one of them in our group of pictures.

During the week we ate some interesting things including beans and rice. One day we had alligator. It didn't taste too bad. Several days we had fish. They cook one kind whole with the backbone and rib bones taken out. Not sure how they do that. We also ate a jungle rodent one day. One night the missionary said we were having an American meal. They had taken hot dogs, split them in half, cooked them in beans and corn. Then he had hot dog buns. He had bowls of shoestring potatoes and generic coke. Sort of American I guess.

Cal still did not feel real well all week although one day he did help the missionary with some wiring at the school. So by Thursday he really felt he needed some air conditioning and his own bathroom. The four people from Florida were staying in a hotel in Benjamin Constant. Cal went there and got a room. He came back to our place on Saturday, feeling better but now weak. To get to Bejamin Constant you had to either take a boat upriver or a motorcycle over a very narrow wooden bridge. He had already done the motorcycle so chose that. I was chicken and would not ride on the motorcycle so he went alone. Besides I had my classes.

There is much more to tell about this place but I will say that they want us to come back with a work group next summer to help build a discipleship house for kids without homes. Anyone want to go?

We left Saturday about 5:15 for the boat we were taking to Manaus. It was a slow passengere boat. We Americans had rooms and the indians slept in hammocks on the deck below. This was a much nicer boat than the previous experience. We had air conditioning, a nice bathroom, our own deck and a full sized bed. Their were plenty of chairs on this boat too. We were served our meals at our room but we often either at on our deck or together on the big deck.

We had 28 people in our group on this boat. Larry and Barb, the prayer teacher, gave workshops twice a day on the deck. It was interesting to see other people join. Allen Graham from HCJB had workshops on radio. I did a follow up for the Spanish people on their pictures.

The river was very different on this leg. We were now in Brazil. The river is very wide and the shore much greener. We did not see logging as in Peru so there were more trees along the shore. The houses we saw were different too. They seemed to be made a little more stable but still on stilts.

We are leaving Manaus tomorrow for the conference which is held at a camp some three hours away. Four of us will be staying at a hotel closer, while the rest will be there in hammocks.

I would love to tell you more but I have to get off now. I am at an internet cafe and my time is almost up. Sorry no pictures. I tried but they didn't come up.

Thanks for your prayers and the e-mails. It was so good to read letters sent to us this morning.