Living in Padre Cocha

I am now living in a small village called Padre Cocha. From the port in Iquitos it takes around 20 minutes in a boat to get there. I live in the house of one of the workers at Pilpintuwasi - the animal rescue center that I volunteer at. Our house is one of the few that has two floors. We have some hammocks outside which is very nice and each of us (3 volunteers) have our own room upstairs. Then there is a room with a dining table, the kitchen and the bathroom.

We don´t have running water. Every second day, the water is turned on and the family fills three barrels with water. Then we have a small tub in the bathroom. When we want to flush the toilet, we fill the tub with water and pour the water into the toilet. When we shower we also use the tub and the same when we brush our teeth.

The family consists of Humberto, Irene and their 10 year old daughter Lessie. They are all very nice and they are great to practise spanish with. The two other volunteers is Joscha from Germany and Sofia from Greece. We all get along very well and it is great to have some other people who speaks english around me. I really can´t imagine being here without them.

Padre cocha is a small village with just around 2000 people living there. You would think it should be quiet, but no. There is mototaxis driving all day and roosters that wakes you up at 6 am. Luckily you usualy go to bed early and therefore also wake up early, I will explain soon. The village is filled with dogs, cats, chickens, roosters and the house in front of our house has a pig. The people here are very friendly. When you are passing someone on the street, they will say hi - even if you are looking on the ground or maybe at the house in the opposite direction of where they are :)

You can´t buy many groceries here, but it is enough to get by. Many houses has a small shop where they sell some candy, sodas and water and maybe rice. A few has a bit more to choose from. People eat whatever is easy to get, since they don´t import much. There is many different fruits that I have never seen before - most of them taste great!  There is also many houses that cooks and sell dinner for 3 soles.

We only have electricity between 6:30 and 9:30 in the evening. It gets pretty dark before the light goes on and it is not uncommon that the electricity will be delayed. Every now and then we might loose power for half an hour. When the power goes on, you can hear people watching movies (titanic and grease is not uncommon) and you hear music playing. I was very suprised when someone put on Gangnam Style! We are in a village with no computers and no internet connection and still they listen to Gangnam Style. When the electricity stops at 9:30, everything is pretty dark and there is not much to do, therefore we usually go to bed around this time.

When someone gets sick in Padre Cocha, all of the village helps raising money to help this person to get to Iquitos and afford the hospital. You pay a few soles each and then you know that if you get sick one day, someone will help you as well. I think this is a great thing. 

There is a hostel in the village that is open to public on saturdays and sundays. Joscha and I went there this saturday and played table soccer, pool and drank a beer, it was so much fun! In our house there is not much to do, but we still have fun. I spend most of the evenings talking with Joscha. Besides that I also talk to Humberto and Irene or play with the kids from the neighbourhood which is great :) Joscha and I went back to the hostel sunday evening where we were met by the owner who knows us a bit. He offered us some cognac with coca cola. He was a bit drunk and went to bed early, but we spend the rest of the evening talking to his girlfriend and drinking cognac - which by the way was free! :)

We work from tuesday to sunday at Pilpintuwasi. Monday is our day of and we go to Iquitos. Today I went to a big marked which was very interesting and a bit nasty. There is cheap pharmacys, but I don´t really trust then, then there is many stand with shoes and clothes and many with vegetables or dead chicken on the table. The ground is filled with trash and old food and people are sleeping on the tables - it is a interesting marked.

Later on Joscha and I met up with Kathrin, a german girl who works in Iquitos. We had lunch at a cafe with three of her friends which was very cozy and afterwards Kathrin, Joscha and I went for some icecream. 

I wanted to put more details and also write about the work I do, but I need to get on the last boat back to Padre Cocha and therefore I don´t have time for it. I will write about that next monday.