Eric's Trip to Tarapoto

March 18, 2010 from Eric

Last week I spent part of the week in Tarapoto, a smaller rainforest city in the northern part of Peru. It's a beautiful place and a bit different than Iquitos, the other rainforest town I visited. Tarapoto is bordered by the Cordillera Escalera ("mountains stairs") with great forest and numerous waterfalls. Otherwise it's similar in that the pace of life is a bit slower (I think the heat helps to slow things down) and folks are generally quite friendly. Mototaxis and motorcycles are the predominant ways to get around, although there were more cars than in Iquitos. In any case, like the other trips that I've taken while here, I traveled to Tarapoto to investigate opportunities for students to study and work on diseases caused by many of the parasites which afflict folks in this area.

I worked mainly with an NGO called URKU-Estudios Amazonicos; this group works with indigenous communities on a variety of economic and agricultural issues in a context of conservation and community development. There are a number of different ways that students might become involved with projects in this area, from treatment for various parasitic infections to education to water quality.

One of the neatest experiences for me was the welcome I (along with a colleague of mine) received in the indigenous community of Kawana-Sisa, about 1.5 hours from Tarapoto (by motorcycle, but that's a different story...). The Director of URKU works in this community and holds a special place of honor there. In any case, we arrived and met with community leaders in an outdoor shelter. Many folks from this small town were there and offered their official words of welcome. It was unlike any experience I've ever had.

After we were served masato (a strong drink made from manioc -- you'll have to ask me if you really want to know how it's prepared), the president of the community invited folks to speak additional words of welcome in addition to words of their concerns about health, etc. (I had spoken briefly prior to this, mentioning that I wanted to learn about their lives, their health and their concerns about this.) As is true for many people who live in rainforest habitats -- even though this town is not exactly surrounded by forest as you might think of it -- many of the folks are infected with various species of worms and other infections. Life is hard.

Many of the people spoke up -- their health and the health of their children is their primary concern (something that unites them with other folks around the world, perhaps). Their access to health care is VERY limited -- e.g., they want a small health clinic in their community. It's hours for them to get to any kind of hospital, at times, and many of their children have been refused treatment there. Like many people in this area, they mainly rely on traditional medicinal remedies from rainforest plants. (By the way, the amount of knowledge they hold in this area is amazing.) Many of them asked for my help, my mercy. (Believe me, I explained that I wasn't a physician.) It's difficult -- at the same time it's very possible that work there in the future will be helpful to them. Some simple things will make a big difference for them.

After receiving some great gifts and taking some pictures, we were invited to a special meal they prepared. It was made from manioc and fish (and wrapped and cooked in a large leaf), and apparently is a very ancestral dish for them. Wash that down with some more masato and you have yourself a meal! Add to that the chance to see a live boa (as in snake) leashed to a tree -- they use part of this for medicinal purposes -- and all in all it was a very memorable (and humbling) experience. I really hope to be able to return there at some point.