Peru

A diverse landscape, a rich history, and an incredibly varied cuisine make Peru one of the most unique countries of South America. Peru has mainly three natural regions: the coast (la costa), the highlands (la sierra), and the jungle (la selva). Between these three regions, Peru offers some of the most spectacular views of South America. The culture of Peru is shaped by the relationship between Hispanic and Amerindian cultures. The beautiful mezcla of the two cultures gives Peru a unique and extraordinary personality.

Pucallpa

Pucallpa is a wild-west frontier town at the end of a long rough road through the Jungle. If its not in the middle of nowhere, its certainly at the edge of it. Its the largest jungle town in Peru with a rapidly growing population of around 300,000. People from the jungle are drawn here for a shot at the ‘civilized’ world, and missionaries are drawn here as a launching pad for missions throughout the river systems up and down the Ucayalli. The town is growing so fast that the infrastructure is nothing close to what it should be. A small core of choppy concrete roads in the main commercial district quickly transitions to rough unimproved roads (if you can call them that) everywhere else.

The main industry here is logging. Huge 7-foot diameter logs are floated down the river to Pucallpa and quickly processed in one of the many mills. From there the wood is shipped to Lima, or more often, down the Ucayalli to the Amazon and around the world. Tourism is light, with only a tickle of wandering adventure types wishing to get a glimps of life in a jungle town.

The general climate is, well . . . jungley. It’s hot and steamy. Except during the dry season. Then it’s just hot and slightly steamy. Average temperature is 95 degrees year round and shops in town close down from 12-2 in the afternoon to take a nice ciesta during the hottest part of the day.

The culture is very lax. Unlike the cities along the coast, Pucallpenos (Pucallpa natives) are generally non-religious and non-political. Sure, they will participate in occasional strikes and protests. But to them, its more like a sporting event than anything core to the heart. There is a small population of Catholics, and a large number of neighborhood protestant churches, each consisting of a rickety wood structure and a small handful of sleepy patrons on Sunday morning. [This is a generalization and wonderful exceptions exsist]. People generally only attend churches they can attend to by walking. Even in the midst of all the protestant and catholic churches there still exists a strong remnent of an anamistic world view that comes from traditional tribal religions.

And this is the environment that the missionary finds himself when working in Pucallpa. The challenge here for the Church is to energize, focus and develope local Christian leaders to bring the life-changing gospel message to a people – not much different than you and me – who need it.