When I got up this morning, I spent about an hour putting together my post, took a shower and discussed the plan for the day with Yully. So the first part of my breakfast was one dark chocolate and coconut Kind bar, one apple and a hard-boiled egg (brought from Iquitos).
While walking around the town plaza, we spotted a small shop selling orange juice and little sandwiches (all of the crusts had been removed leaving pure.white bread triangles). I was very happy to order a glass of the juice being squeezed with a hand-press right in front of us.
I sat down on a stool to savor my drink and as often happens here, a dog who seemed to sense my affinity with his kind came over and sat right in front of me. I am used to seeing sad pleading eyes looking up at me, but this time it was even harder. This bedraggled looking pup only had one good eye to fix on me.
If I have leftovers at a restaurant in this region, I always try to save something for such pooches. This time, however, I felt bad that I had nothing to offer him.
It is definitely hard to be an animal lover in these parts. I visited a house in Iquitos last week where the owner had taken in and well fed (perhaps overfed) a large number of dogs and cats that been barely surviving on the street, but it would truly take a major effort to make a dent in the number of dogs that could be rescued from the streets of Pebas (and many other towns in the region).
It was interesting to see that the owner of the hospedaje where we are staying was once again running for mayor of Pebas. He served a couple of terms in the early teens, but his attempts to regain the post have been hampered by some legal controversies and challenges raising the funds needed to be competitive in a 9 person race.
I also received some sad news this morning, but I will share the story related to that in a different post.
Andrea spent months working with this designer and four artisans to make dozens of colorful balsa wood birds and giant chambira butterflies. The birds included an egret, tiger heron, toucan, macaws and a kingfisher. When we stopped at the mall after visiting the aquarium, I loved seeing these creatures twirl around in a mild breeze.
I was most happy to hear the Chino artisans wanted to resume attending our bird ornament workshops. Half of them have made some birds based on what they learned five years ago, but they were eager to improve the quality of these woven animals they could sell to their visitors and have secure sales to us.
I selected a few baskets laid out on benches and placed an order for elegant two-color models. Lindy reported good progress making lady bug ornaments and planned to attend our artisan facilitator training. We were happy the group looked forward to hosting a bird-making workshop in July with artisans from 3 Tahuayo communities.
