Our trip to the Beni was really a great and sad experience. It was unbelievable the conditions the people are living in that have houses under water. They are given a tarp and then it's up to them to construct some sort of living quarters. There were tent camps for miles and miles. The smell in the camps is unforgettable it's so bad. We saw dikes up all over the city of sand trying to protect some neighborhoods. We saw streets that were underwater up to your shoulders. The water is very polluted and contaminated and there were people bathing in it. The news said a major problem is there are not bathrooms so people are using the water as bathrooms. We had a meeting with some pastors to discuss what the mission is going to do. We decided to do similarly to what we did last year as a mission and that is providing food twice a month to a group (a large group) and also talking to the people about God and evangelizing. They make up bags that are about 20 kilos of rice, oil, sugar, flour, beans, coffee, powdered milk etc They also help all the people from the churches in the area that are hurting. They waters are not going to go down until June or July so it's not a short term displacement from their homes. At this rate the people in this area live in their homes about 2 thirds of the year and the rest they live under a tarp in the middle of thousands. Our mission is raising money so we can support as many families as possible. This trip we brought enough food for 100 families for a couple of weeks. Also we brought tarps and water boots. The pastors have a heart to help the people long term as well by giving them seeds and helping them to plant so they will have food longer term.
I have some pictures but Grant has our camera in Peru right now. He is helping a pastor and his family to rebuild a house they lost in the earthquake. I'll post those later.
