A Constantly Changing House

March 17th, 2008 La Encantada, Peru

A Constantly Changing House

My host brother, Edwin, moved to Iquitos in the jungle nine years ago. He married, had two daughters and recently moved back to La Encantada last December with said family. Although the weather is fairly similar to the jungle, Iquitos is a town of 100,000 while La Encantada is only home to 3,500. Lenny, Edwin´s wife, has not got used to living in La Encantada and has therefore decided to move back. Everyone is quite sad. My host mother has only known her grandkids for 3 months and now they have headed back to Iquitos. Edwin has stayed for now because Lenny claims she is just taking a trip to the jungle and will return in May. Since this appears to just be smoke blown in one´s eyes, it is assumed that Edwin will eventually have to return to the jungle as well, if he wants to live with his wife and daughters. Since my host mother has not seen her son daily for 9 years, today was a day to cry as she understood the reality of Lenny´s departure. People all around town can´t comprehend the fact that I have accustomed myself to the living conditions of La Encantada, whereas Lenny failed to do so. Its all attitude.

I will really miss the 5 year old, Jessariah. I have never met such a young kid with so much personality. I mean this girl understood the talent of sarcasm and employed it at the ripe age of 5 years old. And rumor has it, I was to be the Godfather of the 6 month old baby.

As often as the residents come and go at our house, you´d think we were running a studio hotel.