Wheelchairs in the Jungle City of Iquitos

25 February 2018

This was the week to take a donation of more than 100 wheelchairs to the jungle city of Iquitos for a delivery to the disabled.

We had planned for this delivery last year, but the Peruvian Air Force, who was to help with the transport, could not send them because their planes were committed to helping out with the floods along the coast. Now, 11 months later, the wheelchairs finally arrived in Iquitos.

Back to Iquitos in the Amazon Jungle

Iquitos is the world's largest city that can't be reached by road (only by air or boat). Located on the Amazon River, this city of 500,000 is isolated from the rest of the country. This also means that if you are disabled and poor, your life can be much harder than living in a major city like Lima. The trip this week was designed to help those most in need.

Half of Peru is in the Amazon jungle, and Iquitos is the largest jungle city. Getting there from Lima requires a flight over the Andes Mountains and across the upper Amazon River basin.

It is always a shock to get off the plane in Iquitos. Hot and humid, you know you are in the jungle as soon as you get off the plane. We have now been to Iquitos several times, and just thinking about going makes me sweat!

Welcome to the jungle as soon as you get off the plane. Note that there are no jetways in most of Peru's airports - you just walk down the stairs off the plane in Iquitos and immediately face the heat.

Wheelchair Delivery

We held the wheelchair delivery inside a huge public building called "Casa de la Amistad" (House of Friendship) which thankfully had a covered atrium to keep us out of the sunshine during the many hours of the delivery. Our long-time partner, the National Institute of Rehabilitation (INR) in Lima, worked with a local organization for the disabled to select the recipients. This was one of the best-organized donation events for wheelchairs we had ever attended.

Recipients and their families arrived at the donation site and waited patiently for several hours to receive the wheelchair that would change all of their lives.

Of course, to kick off the delivery, the Peruvians always hold a delivery ceremony with speeches, music, and program (and yes, they always have me speak). Next, they had a symbolic delivery of a few chairs for media photos.

Symbolic delivery of the first wheelchairs. Dr. Cusihuaman (right), donation committee chairman from the National Rehabilitation Institute (INR) in Lima, brought his team of six to Iquitos for this delivery. Other local partners participated in assembling all the chairs and helping with the adjustments.

Following the short program and symbolic delivery, things got underway. Within 4 hours, 60 chairs were delivered (with the rest to be given out next week). Each chair was personally adjusted to fit each recipient's body. These final adjustments, performed by the INR team from Lima and the local partners we trained last year, are critical to keep the wheelchair recipients from developing sores due to the long hours they will spend in the chairs.

New wheelchairs line up for the donation. These chairs were all assembled before the day of the delivery to speed things up.

A grandfather who lost his leg due to diabetes received one of the new wheelchairs. He can now get around without the crutches that were previously damaging his shoulder and back. His grand kids were really excited to be able to push him around. As they left after the donation, the boys were pushing grandpa and then broke into a run while still pushing - grandpa had a huge smile. I was afraid the boys were going to dump out the grandpa, but he seemed to be having fun with his grand kids and his new mobility.

Grandpa can now get around with two eager grandsons to help push (or run while pushing).

This woman suffered a neurological disease at age 35 and has been practically bedridden for the last 8 years - she cannot walk at all. Her children have to lift her and carry her everywhere in the house. Now she has a new set of 'legs' with this wheelchair. She told me she will now be able to return to the kitchen and cook for the family. This wheelchair will make a huge difference in her life.

This woman's children have had to carry her everywhere for the past several years. She will no longer be bedridden now that she has a wheelchair.

Wheelchairs change lives for those most in need. They allow a formerly home-bound man or woman to finally leave their house and return to work and become self-sufficient. They allow people the dignity to move freely about their house and cook, clean, and take care of themselves. They allow disabled children to go to school. Wheelchairs allow parents of severely handicapped children to finally be free of the back-breaking job of carrying a large child everywhere they need to go. Wheelchairs change lives in incredible ways for the disabled and the crippled and their families.

This cute little girl has a neurological condition that keeps her from walking. This chair will give her hope for a more normal life, despite her crippled body.

This severely handicapped child will be wheelchair-bound for life, but his mother will no longer have to carry him everywhere she goes - what a blessing this wheelchair will be for her.

So we count our blessings that we get to play a small part in these projects that touch so many lives.

New Wheelchair Design

LDS Charities is donating about 1,200 wheelchairs in this current project (and about 4,500 wheelchairs donated in Peru over the past 5 years). The latest container of wheelchairs arrived in Peru last month. This container included new designs that allow far more adjustments to fit an individual. However, they take longer to assemble and perform the fitting. Before going to Iquitos, our partners at INR in Lima needed training and practice in assembling and adjusting.

Sergio (on the right) is one of INR's top technicians (along with Jorge and Jannina). After the training, Sergio holds the record for assembling one of the new standard chairs: 9 minutes. There are two other models we donate that take longer to assemble (15 to 20 minutes). A rough-rider model is for use on tough terrain, dirt roads and gravel, and an active model is for people who get around well with lots of upper body strength.

Before going to Iquitos, we held a training course this week in Lima with our INR partners so they could know how to assemble and adjust the chairs once we arrived in Iquitos. Dave and Sherri Jones, our wheelchair specialists from Texas, came to Lima (along with two other church wheelchair technicians) to oversee this training.

Partners from INR, Jannina and Jorge, assemble the new chairs while Dave Jones, our wheelchair specialist from Texas, observes. The new chairs are far more adjustable than the old ones, which takes longer to assemble.

The new chairs offer the ability to adjust up to a dozen parameters, including seat height, wheel placement, arm rest and foot rest positions, etc. Unfortunately, the chairs now take longer to assemble and adjust (15 to 20 minutes to assemble, 15 to 20 minutes to adjust). On delivery days when 100 recipients are arriving to receive their chair, that can make a big difference in terms of how long it takes to pass out and adjust the chairs.

Sandy was the test patient on the training day for INR partners Wilmer and Elise as they adjusted the chair to fit her body. Fit is very important for people to avoid developing sores from being in one position constantly.

The new designs also include quick-release wheels. This is really handy for transporting wheelchairs in vehicles, like transporting on this motor-taxi shown here. At least 95% of the vehicles in Iquitos are motor-taxis, so being able to transport a wheelchair in one of these is critical.

This wheelchair recipient in Iquitos lost her leg at age 20 and has been on crutches ever since. But her shoulders and her remaining leg were suffering, so she became a candidate for a wheelchair. To get home, she just pulled the wheels off the chair and had the driver strap the chair on the back of the motor-taxi.

Around Iquitos

The jungle is a tough place to live due to the heat and rains. Most of the homes have corrugated metal roofs. As neighborhoods expand on the outskirts of town, people just go into the jungle, cut down the trees and stake claim to what will become their land (if they live on the land for 3 years).

New neighborhood on the edge of Iquitos, You can see how they have cut the jungle trees in a straight line to make way for the new houses. 

Of course, there is lots of river-front property along the Amazon and other rivers around Iquitos. You just have to build your house on stilts for the times when the river is 12-to-20 feet higher during the wet season. I took this shot right near central Iquitos, two blocks from Plaza de Armas.

River-front property in Iquitos. Note the boats in front of the house. They have to go through lots of water plants to get to the dock. Both the dock and the shack next to it are floating, while the house itself is on stilts to keep it dry when the river rises. 

The buses in Iquitos are an interesting sight. Because the city is so remote, they only ship in new bus frames and engines, then they build the rest of the bus locally in Iquitos. The design makes it look like they reused old trolley cars, although the have new frames with new engines. Note that because of the jungle heat, they don't have windows on the buses, just open air to help cool things off. Seeing these buses on the highway makes me feel like I have gone back in time 60 years.

Locally built buses (without windows) in Iquitos - these are actually modern buses that only look old.

Taste of the Jungle

Peruvian food is excellent, and we have found delicious food all over the country. However, food in the jungle regions is especially tasty, and we always find wonderful food in jungle towns like Iquitos, Pucallpa, Tarapoto, and Moyobamba.

Here is a dish I ordered this week in Iquitos.  The meat is a smoked pork plate called "cecina". The meat is first smoked, then it is roasted and is very juicy. Next to it is baked sweet potato with a passion fruit glaze, garnished with a marinated onion salad called "sarsa". The plate to the side includes three types of quinoa. This is a great meal for about $10 at an outdoor restaurant called "Dawn over the Amazon" that overlooks the river.

Jungle cuisine - cecina smoked pork with sweet potato and passion fruit glaze and sides of marinated onions and quinoa.

And so we arrived home at around midnight Saturday after this week's journey to the jungle. We have this coming week to catch up, then we travel next into the Andes Mountains of the Huancavelica region to develop a host of projects. One thing we seldom suffer from on this mission is boredom.