Nauta - Gardens

Photos:

*Nauta, along the banks of the Marañon River

*Preparing to pour cement for the tank platform

*President & Sister Gomez (Iquitos Mission) and Rob meeting with school director

*The previous water source for the school (muddy river)

*School assembly area (and soccer field) under construction

*Tarp over timber to protect from rain until roof is constructed beneath it

*Interior construction with metal studs and sheetrock

*Insulation between cement exterior panels and sheetrock.

Our assignment recently took us to the city of Nauta at the confluence of the Marañon and Ucayayli Rivers, which join to form the Amazon River. Pictured below is a view of Nauta with the Marañon River to the left. We were there to evaluate the progress of a food production project for families in this area of great need. This is easily the most visibly poor area we have visited and the people who live here suffer from insufficient food.  This is surprising, because the jungle here permits almost anything to grow year round, but the people have no tradition or culture of cultivating gardens. This project provides them the seeds, tools, and training by local agricultural experts to help them begin to cultivate food in the hopes of improving their nutritional status. Over time, it is hoped that they will reap the benefits of their labors. Local church leaders will provide continuing direction and support for the project.

En route to Nauta we stopped at a community called "12 de abril" to evaluate progress on a well project at a new school being built there by the Ministry of Education. They drilled the well and Church donations provided the pump, piping, tank, and necessary materials to make this function and provide a safe water supply for students at the school. They hope to be able to send surplus water to a pila (like a large sink to hold water) for the community outside the school fence.

The new school is a beautiful design to allow open air circulation while protecting from insects in the classrooms. The elevated classrooms also permit school to continue during the rainy season. The roof girders are extended to the ground and benches were placed between them to provide a seating area around the soccer field/assembly area. The school should be dedicated this month. They were laying the sod for the field in the photo below.

Church Building Under Construction

We also visited a new chapel under construction in Nauta. Interestingly, we saw a temporary covering made of timbers lashed together (practical application of scout knots) with plastic tarps to protect from the rain. They were sanding the beams that will form the roof supports and preparing to begin installation next week. The general contractor explained that construction delays are frequent because if there is a single part that doesn't fit right or piece of hardware that they need it has to be requested from Lima where it is trucked across the Andes Mountains and eventually put on a boat to come downriver to Nauta, usually taking about 2 weeks. Several of these delays over the course of construction leads to project timelines getting disrupted, but they are nearing completion.

The Gardens

Photos:
*A family garden
*Tomato plants can be seen along the chicken wire at the right side of this photo

One difference when gardening in the Amazon; the plants need to be covered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to protect them from being toasted by the intense tropical sun. Until the plants are about 6-8 inches tall the sun will burn them up. If you notice the framework above the garden boxes with the palm fronds, those are placed each day to protect the young plants and removed to permit morning and evening sunlight. This family has already enjoyed some broccoli from their garden and shared a watermelon with us when we visited.

Rob was able to share some of what he learned as a master gardener with Washington State University and help the new gardeners understand more about soil and how to make it more fertile in a natural sustainable way.

More Photos From Garden Visit

*Watermelon--shared generously with us
*Riding across a bridge in a moto-taxi
*Another family garden.  Young citrus trees planted at far end
*A very short firehydrant

We visited several families participating in the project, including some across bridges. Mototaxis took us to these areas of Nauta.

We also saw a very short firehydrant. This was the first place we noticed these fire hydrants but have since realized that there are short ones like this in Lima.