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| Iquitos across the Itaya River, as viewed from La Isla. |
Before we left for Iquitos just over a month ago, many of you asked us what we would be doing here, and though we responded as best we could, the real answer was we didn’t really know for sure. Such is often the case when you travel somewhere as a volunteer. So now that we are here, what does a typical week look like for us?
On most weekday mornings, we scrape paint off the walls in preparation for repainting them. Serena also has Spanish lessons with Juan Carlos three days each week. Weekday evenings we often have free except for Paul’s English conversations with Juan Carlos and a prayer meeting on Tuesdays, which takes place in the gathering space here at home.
In the afternoons, we teach English classes: Tuesdays and Thursdays at the church building in Rumacocha and Wednesdays and Fridays at the church building in Monte de Sion. We also plan to start a morning class in Rumacocha for students whose school schedules conflict with the afternoon time. Between the two classes, we have about 40 students, though not everyone shows up to every class—anywhere from six to 15 in Rumacocha and typically 14 to 18 in Monte de Sion.
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| English class in Monte de Sion. |
The children’s ministry takes place on Saturdays at four different locations. These include Monte de Sion, Rumacocha, San Juan (in our home), and La Isla. The first three occur at about 9:00 in the morning and conclude around 10:30 with an early lunch. The fourth, on an island in the Itaya River, takes place in the afternoon twice each month. Since the church doesn’t have a building there yet, the children meet on benches outside someone’s home, and we hand out a snack at the end. All of the programs begin with singing and dancing, and then the children split into two or three groups (based on age) for Bible lessons.
On Saturday evenings, we participate in a young adult group that meets here, and on Sunday mornings we attend church in Rumacocha (David also leads a service in Monte de Sion on Wednesday evenings, but we do not typically go). The rest of Sunday is unscheduled, and we have Mondays mostly free as well.
In addition to our regular activities, we have gone out to eat a couple of times, explored the city a bit, and visited three of the four ice cream shops surrounding the nearby plaza. We also attended several birthday parties—including Paul’s, which was a small affair involving a handful of friends and a delicious chocolate cake.
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| Paul's birthday party, with Cecy, David, Juan Carlos, Cielo, Daniel, and Sofia. |