Orphanos Foundation

Amazon River Team Feb 09

posted by Jennifer Ragland — January 27th, 2009

A Beautiful Visit with the children of La Aljaba! 

Feb 12th:

The team has arrived in Colombia safely on Thursday night.  The Memphis crew met at the airport around 9:30 this morning.  After making several, "Oh I forgot" stops we all made it to the airport.  We flew into Atlanta and then flew to Bogota.  On the way to Bogota we were able to play trivia on the plane.  Chris, Katie and Audrey made the game a tight competition. In fact, Audrey (who is only 5 years old) won one of the games and almost won the second one.  It just goes to show that guessing is almost as good as knowing!

We arrived in Bogota around 9:30 and made our way through cutsoms and immigration.  The progress went very smooth.  Grace was our right hand through the process due to the little spanish we know.  After everyone was through we got our bags and began to look for Lindsey.  We had a hard time finding her.  While Grace and Wayne called and spoke with airport personel Angela took care of Audrey and prayed for Lindsey in the car.  We finally found Lindsey (she was waiting for us on the inside of customs - somehow we passed right by her on our way in) and then loaded up the cars.  We left the airport around 11 and went to Hostal casa Franco.  It was a nice bed and breakfast.  After checking in we all headed to bed.  Well except for the 3 girls who stayed up talking until 2 in the morning.  Grace, Lindsey and Jennifer had a great time getting to know one another better.  After a long day and God protecting us day one was over.

Posted by Jennifer

 Feb 13th:

Today we started early.  Breakfast was ready for us at 6:30.  It included juice, cafe con leche, eggs, and bread.  We all enjoyed the food and expecially the cafe con leche.  During breakfast, Wayne led us in a devotion on what God might have planned for us during our time here.  After discussion and breakfast we packed up and left at 7:30.  From there we went to the Botanical Gardens in Bogota.  It was extremely beautiful.  Next it was to the airport to fly to Leticia.  We ate lunch at the airport and left for Leticia at 12:20.  We arrived in the hot jungle of Leticia at 2:20.  Lucy was there to greet us after collecting our bags.  We piled the bags on the roof of Lucy's Land Rover and also inside the back.  After cramming all the bags in, then the girls got inside, but Chris and Wayne stood on the back of the Land Rover and held on for the ride.  It was a sight to see.  It took less than 5 mintues to get to the Ecohotel where we are staying: the Malakamazones.  We checked in and took a short break.  We were greeted with juice and showed to our rooms.  Shortly after arriving we changed clothes and walked to La Aljaba.

The children were all smiles and gave us hugs when we walked in.  This afternoon was so much fun.  We all played with the children.  Chris threw the kids up in the air so many times his arms have to be hurting.  Katie taught the children fun games to play in the grass.  One girl loved taking pictures and took lots of Lindsey and Jennifer.  Wayne spent time with Lucy and Audrey and Angela played with the kids.  We are off to dinner now and will return for a little more time with the children.  God has really touched our heart for loving the children here.  Thank you for your prayers, we can definitly feel them.  Thank you and God Bless.

(Post Script: we went to a restaurant close by for dinner and very much enoyed our time!  Great food here!  After a late dinner, we were all completely wiped out so we went back to the hotel and crashed)

Posted by Jennifer

Feb 14th:

After a great nights rest, we got up and had a huge multicourse breakfast at our little ecohotel.  We want you to understand that the hotel is about 5 doors from the orphanage, and is very much just the basics.  Each of us have a room and a bathroom.  Several showers are not much more than a pipe coming out of the wall.  There is no glass in the windows, only mosquito screens.  There is not airconditioning, only oscilating fans.  There are no bedstands with lights, only one light bulb in the ceiling.  This is ecohoteling at it's finest.  But then what do you expect for only $35 per night!! :-)

After a delightful breakfast, we walked over to La Aljaba where hords of kids were anxiously awaiting us.  The atmosphere went from light playing and jovial kidding around to instant pandemonium with children jumping up on us and begging to be held and played with.  You would think that these kids had never seen white people before!  We were all having a great time and there were just more and more kids showing up all the time.  As it turns out, today was the monthly birthday party at La Aljaba!  Its the day where all the kids who have a birthday in that month (February this time) get to have a party in their honor.  So the team jumped in and started helping decorate the home.  Lucy had ordered a huge cake and Anamaria (Lucy's adult daughter) went to get Ice Cream.  We sang songs, ate cake and ice cream, danced, played, and gave out special little gifts to each child who had a birthday.  Well, more than just children, because three of our team celebreated birthdays also: Grace, Wayne, and Katie.  So the kids made sure that the three of them were included in the festivities.  Pretty soon it was all over, and we all sat down for a good laugh and to catch our breaths.

After a very filling lunch at a "real" hotel (Where Audrey got to swim in their pool while we waited for the food to come) we all loaded up and headed out for an adventure of our own.  We hope you understand that we were not just leaving the kids behind to go play, they actually all go home on Saturday afternoons so La Aljaba is bascially empty on Saturday nights.  Each of these precious children have some kind of family in the community.  The management at the home feel its important that the kids keep these connections, as long as it does not pose a risk for abuse.  So the kids spend one night a week with whatever family that they have in town.  So since the kids were gone, we took off for a little fun of our own.

Not far outside of town there is a series of three jungle lakes that stretch for about 15 miles.  We rented some Kayaks and headed out for an adventure in the Amazon! Of course we had guides with us, but it still felt like we were way, way way out in the middle of the Amazon Jungle.  Well, truth is we ARE!!!  We spent about three hours kayaking through huge open lakes and dense dark forests with water as black as coffee.  Even Audrey, our youngest team member at 5 years old, had a great time.  Poor Wayne, he had to paddle the Kayak with Audrey "helping".  At the end of the adventure, we all were very glad we went, but exhausted from the workout.  What a hugely fun day.

For dinner we actually went "next door" to Brazil.  The city we are in is Leticia, Colombia and it shares a common border with Tabatinga, Brazil.  When we say common, it's more like a slight bump in the road.  That's about the only indicator that you've left one country and entered the next.  It's an open border since this area is completely isolated in the jungle.  The only way in and out is by air or river boat.  We had a very good meal of Brazilian Pizza.  During dinner, Grace (who is Brazilian) called her mom and dad collect.  They live several thousand miles away in the south of Brazil, but is was still fun for her to say she was in the same country as her family!

The only issue with today that we should report on is that Jennifer woke up feeling mostly ill.  We did our best to make her comfortable, and gave her medicine and electrolights to help her back to recovery.  She didn't participate much in the events of the day until late afternoon.  But now she is up and going and feeling much better (aside from a slight headache she says). 

We are so enjoying getting to know the children at La Aljaba, and seeing how God is working in this wonderful little place in the jungle.  What a joy and priviledge to be here.  What a GREAT way to spend Valentine's Day.

Posted by: Wayne

Feb 15th:

Well today started very early for us.  We got up at 4:00am and went down (sleepily) to the Amazon River and got in a small covered speed boat.  For the next 2 hours a few of us enjoyed the sunrise over the Amazon and a few of us tried to go back to sleep while our boat driver sped up river to a little town called Puerto Narino.  It's a sleepy little town that caters to eco-tourists in the jungle.  As we pulled into the area our driver pulled off onto a tributary river and sped along a narrow way with low haing limbs and lots of river weeds grabbing the sides of our boat.  Not long after the river opened up and we realized that this was as much a long lake as a river.  Suddenly, Wayne saw what we were all intently looking for: A Pink Dolphin.  As he pointed to the left side of the boat, there was a huge weight shift as we all scooted to that side to see the sight.  For the next 45 minutes we sat staring at the water hoping for more glimpses of fresh water dolphins.  Thankfully, the wait was frutiful.  Every couple of minutes we were delighted as one, two, and sometimes three dolphins would come up and splash around.  What a great way to start our day!  God is so creative, and here in the Amazon it's brilliantly apparent.

We had a breakfast of scrambled eggs, fruit, juices, bread and real deal coffee! After breakfast we did a walking tour of Puerto Narino that included a climb up a huge tower (much like a fire tower in our National Forrests) and a visit to the Eco Museum where we learned a lot more about Dolphins, Manatees, and other incredible creatures in the part of God's amazing earth.

The team got back in the boat and headed down river.  Immediatly upon starting our journey back, we were again delighted to be surrounded by about a dozen fresh water dolphins coming up and showing us how playful they really are.  This time, we were not in some side river but right out in the middle of the Amazon River!  Incredible.  Beautiful.  Marvelous.

One the ride home we stopped by a river community on the Peru side of the Amazon (yes, we have now been in Colombia, Brazil, and Peru in the last 24 hours) where Lucy has been doing some work with an indiginous tribe.  Another mission group had "planted a church" there, and Lucy has been doing the follow up work helping the pastor and delivering food to some very poor families in the community.  The lady (Lucy) is truly the Mother Theresa of the Amazon!

We arrived back in port at Leticia around 2:00 and headed straight to get something to eat.  It's amazing how hungry and thirsty one gets while exploring the Amazon!  LOL  Of course, lunch was amazingly good.  If any of our family thought we were going to be loosing any weight on this trip, you're going to be suprised.  We're eating great.  And eating a lot!  These wonderful people here sure know how to cook!

After a very late lunch we all headed back to get a quick shower and headed back to La Aljaba.  Of course, we were greated by a few very excited kids.  They normally start coming back from home visits around 5:00, but since they knew we were here, they started coming back early.  At 5:00 they actually have a church service for the children and whatever family they have.  It's something new Lucy has begun.  Her idea is that if she can get the families to worship together, that maybe, just maybe, she can restore the family to health.  Tonight there were about 12 "family members" who attended.  There are 26 children who sleep here regularly, so that's not a bad start.

After church, the families all left and we are now here with just the kids and the staff.  And as of this blogging, here is what is actually happening.

One group is outside swinging the swings beyond what they were inteded to endure.  Another group is teaching some of us all kinds of hand games and chants.  Another group is playing UNO.  Another group (who are not happy about this) are finishing homework they didn't get done yesterday.  Another group is chasing each other around the yard playing some kind of tag game.  And some of us are sitting here at this computer blogging (and being very grateful for the fan blowing in our face keeping us cool).

Posted by: Wayne

(Post Script: As it turns out, the team had a little suprise up their sleeve this evening.  While I (wayne) was sitting at the computer, the team was trying to stall my completing the blog.  They were up to something, and needed me distracted for about an hour.  So they kept sending kids into the room where I was trying to quietly blog.  The kids were asking me all kinds of crazy off the wall questions (just to distract me so it took me longer).  That didn't seem to work, so then they said that Miss Lucy wanted me to share my testimony with the kids.  So I paused the blogging and went into the meeting room, shared my humble story, and then went back to blogging.  That worked!  What they were doing was preparing a suprise Banquet Party for my birthday.  Well it worked.  I had no idea that all the cooking and activity going on around me was FOR ME!  It never occured to me they were doing something like that.  How humbling and pleasant it was.  Thanks team!)

Feb 16th:

This is a very sad day for us.  The kids are expressing sadness as well.  We're leaving to go back home to the United States.  <sigh>   Won't heaven be nice?  No more sad good-bye's.  We basically spent the morning at La Aljaba playing and just being with them.  Although sad, it was nice.

At lunch we stopped by a little chicken stand on the side of the road and bought 3 fully cooked chickens along with some coke and buns.  The guy took a pair of (cleansed hopefully) hedge clippers and cut the chickens into smaller portions so we could all eat it.  Even though it may sound gross, it was actually very tasty.  We sat in the waiting lounge of the airport and ate it.  After saying our good-bye's to Lucy and Lindsey (our team member who is staying behind for a few more months) we slipped into the boarding area for our first "air conditioned" environment in 4 days.  It was fun to listen as people walked into this area.  Without fail, each of us let out a soft "oooh, that's nice" as the cool air hit our hot sweaty bodies.  It's good to be back in physical comfort!

After flying to Bogota, we were being picked up by Lucy's nephews again and they took us to our little Bed and Breakfast.  Then we headed straight out for some quick sightseeing.  We went up to a place called, Montserrat.  Its a monostary very high up a mountain cliff right over downtown Bogota.  You have to ride a very long (and a little scary) cable car, but the view is definatly worth the tense ride up.  Amazing!  Bogota has about 8 million people in it, and from this vantage point you can see them all.

We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner (even though we've been eating very well since we got here) and ate at a cha cha cha restaurant overlooking the steep cliff.  What a pleasant evening.

Feb 17th:

Today we made it all the way back to Memphis.  But not without several bumps along the way.

First, our driver misunderstood us and was late to pick us up.  Instead of getting to the airport the required 2 hours ahead, we arrived with just under 1 hour to go.  The people at the check in counter said it was too late, we would miss the flight.  After Wayne did some begging and pleading, one of the ladies (clearly a supervisor) turned to the workers and said a few very strong sentances in Spanish and BOOM everyone exploded into action.  Within 30 minutes were had cleared 6 different security checkpoints and were sitting on the waiting lounge.  That was pretty amazing.

The silly part, was that our flight was then delayed 45 minutes, so we ended up sitting there for a long time.  Oh well.  Then we missed out connecting flight out of Atlanta to Memphis.  That actually didn't bother us too much because we were all craving some American food.  Praise God for Chili's in Terminal A of the Atlanta Airport.  We were blessed to all make it on the next flight out of Atlanta to Memphis.  Everyone is home now, and very grateful for the blessing of being a part of God's Kingdom in a tiny little spot on the Amazon River.

Thank you Jesus for using us, blessing us, and honoring us.

To Him be all the glory.

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