Left to Right: Richard Kimball, Dr.Elizabeth Newhard, Dr.John Mazolla, Dr.Neal Lehrman, Michael Goopta
However, despite the best efforts of our friends at Rotary Club at Manaus, the Brazilian customs denied us permission to carry medical equipment into Brazil, at the last minute. It caused considerable disheartenment, and finally Dr. John Mazolla DDS, and Dr. Neal Lehrman DDS, decided not to go as they could not have provided any effective treatment without their tools and other accessories.
Thus only two members of the organization, Michael Shakher Goopta from Fords New Jersey, and Dr.Elizabeth Newhard, ND from Warwick NY finally left from JFK on February 22nd. It rained hard the whole day as if the nature was also trying to test our spirits. We were scheduled to take American Airlines flight from JFK to Miami FL. The plane was about 3 hours late.
We reached Miami at 11:00 at night, and our plane for Manaus had already left. We had to make a decision on how to proceed. We could fly to Sao Paulo, and then take another flight to Manaus, or go to Bogota and take a flight to Manaus from there. We decided to take the second option as despite a six hour break in Bogota, it reached Manaus earlier. Once the new travel arrangements were made, we called Richard to inform Mr. Roberto Campos of the changed travel plans. Next day, we were ready for a different adventure.
Ready to go to Bogota:
In the plane, we were fortunate to have as our co-passenger, a lady who was kind enough to tell us about the city of Bogota. We decided to spend the few hours we had, visiting the Church at MontSerrat on the mountain. We took the teleferrico cable car to reach Montserrat. The sunshine coming from a few clouds made the whole place surrealistically beautiful. There was a beautiful view of Lady of Guadaloupe.
At Montserrat:
Finally, we reached Manaus at one am in the morning. Our guardian angel Mr. Roberto Campos, owner of a Dairy Company by the name of Fazindinha, and a very active member of Rotary Club of Manaus, was present to receive us. I was impressed by the size and modernity of Manaus. We checked in to Novotel Hotel of Manaus.
In the Novotel Hotel Lobby with Mr. Roberto Campos:
Next day we purchased some Naturopathic medicines, and then attended a special meeting of Rotary Club of Manaus, to celebrate the 100th aniversary of the founding of the club. Mr. Celso Zilves, and Mr. Daniel Mesquita of Rotary Club, were kind enough to give their time to us.
Leaving Manaus for Parintins:
At 4 pm, we took a small 16 seater plane to Parintins, the border town before we could enter the indegenous areas. The view from the airplane was magnificant. The land was criss-crossed by mighty Amazona and its tributory rivers. I had a brief glimple of meeting of waters of white Amazona river with Black Salimoes river (reminded me of joining of River Ganges and Yamuna at Allahabad, India).Another similar view I had was of Los Angele's freeways from a small airplane, many years ago. However, here it was grandiose. It made me realize the deep and mysterious nature of forces at work both in Universe and Mother Earth. There is much culture and mythology associated with Amazona, that I shall try to cover in Mythology section later.
View From the airplane:
Reached there around 5:30 pm. Davide Testa, the head of the Agriculture School of San Pedro, was there to receive us. I was deeply impressed by his humility. After half-an-hour of van drive, we reached at P.I.M.E. (Pontificio Instituto Das Missoes Norte), located at Trav.Cordovil 509, Parintins, AM 69150-000. Father Salvatore, and Father Alemando were there to receive us. We had our dinner at PIME with Davide, Father Alemando, Father Salvatore, Father Miguel and other priests.
Meeting with Donna Graca:
After dinner we went
to meet Donna Graca, the Chief Officer-incharge of health of all
indegenous people in that area. We had a drink together. She was very
pleased with the good work that Davide was doing.
Immediately afterwards, we started making preparations for the boat ride to EISP (Escola Indegena de Sao Pedro). We were going to go into Father Salvatore's boat (about 50 ft long), and Davide's boat would be tied at the back of this boat. Father Salvatore was to be the principal driver assisted by two young Indian drivers. The journey will take whole night from 8:30 pm to 9:00 am in the morning. The route was treacherous, as the rivers had swollen more than 15 ft, due to rain in the morning, and also we had to cross rivers (just like highways) from Amazona to Andira in the middle of night. This was going to be my first experience of sleeping in a hammock. Elizabeth was more expert than me, as it was her third trip to Amazonas. The boat was always kept in complete darkness, to avoid the attack of all kinds of insects. It was an errie feeling when Father Salvatore turn on the fog lights for a few seconds every 15 minutes to ensure that we did not get lost. Once lost, it would be difficult to be found again, as rivers constantly change their course and depth.
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| Father Salvatore drove the boat whole night | His Young Assistant Okitai |
The beauty of sunrise in Amazonas is breathtaking. If I had to go to
Amazonas only for this reason, it would have been worth it in itself.
The real work started now, after we reached the school, had a coffee, and a shower, and got down work in the clinic in the school. We saw a total of 80 patients in 4 days. The progress was slow initially, due to dual translation required (from Satere to Portuguese, and then Portuguese to English).
Life at EISP:
On the way back to Parintins
On the way back, I had an opportunity to meet another area nurse, Gracizinha.
Activities in Parintins on Saturday & Sunday
We had a wonderful opportunity to meet Davide's family and become friends with them. His one year old daughter Maria Ingrid captured the hearts of every man & woman that saw her. We visited the HIV-AIDS clinic in Parintins. On Saturday night we had an opportunity to have dinner with the Bishop of Parintins area. On Sunday morning we went to see a free daycare center run in the poor section of town by PIME volunteers. We also had an opportunity to attend the Sunday mass in a popular catholic church. It reminded me of a trip I had made to Goa in 1979, where there were similar churches with same atmosphere.
Back to Manaus, the glory of Manaus
We reached back to Manaus around 7 pm on Sunday March 2nd. Our guardian angel Mr. Roberto Campos was there to receive us. On the way back, we decided to visit Carnival of Manaus after dinner. Roberto's wife Denise (even though she was suffering from severe cold), graciously agreed to accompany us. After checking in and putting our luggage in Novotel hotel, we went to a nice restaurant serving typical food of Amazonas. I do not even remember the names of dishes, except for the fact that all of it was delicious, especially Acai soup. Unfortunately, we dicovered that there was no Carnival that night, so we spent some time seeing CarniBoi, and then returned to our hotel.
Next day morning, we decided to visit a few historical places in Manaus, espcially the port, customs house, and the Opera House.