We planned to take a train from the border down to Chiapas where we would meet up with other new recruits. My sister drove us to the border at Tijuana in our little VW bug and dropped us and our luggage. I was pregnant and rather emotional. It really helped in the following cross-cultural encounter.
In a nutshell we arrived at the border without proper documentation. Bill discussed options with the border police with no success. Here we were at the border with no transportation or anyone to call for help. The officers would not give us any leniency. They gave Bill a phone number to call. The person who answered gave him another phone number. This continued for a while. Finally the person who answered the phone told Bill to call Ponce de Leon and gave a phone number. Ponce de Leon was a famous early Spanish explorer and we finally understood we were being given the run-around. At this point, I sat down and cried. It was then that they weakened --when they saw the tears. They stamped our cards and let us pass through.
So we were out of the frying pan and heading into the fire. We made it to the train station, boarded the train for the three day train ride to southern Mexico. Thinking there would be food available, I only packed about a dozen peanut butter sandwiches, without jelly or jam, to hold us between meals. However, there was no food service and we had to grab food at the various stops. We ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. It was a very long and challenging trip down, but we finally made it to San Cristobal de las Casas.
Along with the other recruits we were oriented for a day and night while we recovering from the trip and then we moved out to Main Base in the jungles of southern Mexico, close to the border of Guatemala, for our first eight weeks of training. Here we were provided a small hut with bed and desk in which to live. The picture below shows what they looked like. (All photos from Jungle Camp were kindly shared by good friends Carl and Sharon Kotapish.)
There was a common dining area where we all took turns preparing meals. Below, you can see Bill on the right, with Carl and Sharon, preparing a breakfast meal.
We ate very simply and whatever was cooked—even when someone forgot to put salt in the oatmeal! At Thanksgiving we had a wonderful turkey and at Christmas time when we were living in our champa at Advanced Base, we were generously given the gift of a tin of butter. What a treasure that was.
During this first eight week period we were taught skills of survival in the jungle. Two of the instructors were Spence and Lee Ann Wimer. They were very good friends from my Biola days; I was a bridesmaid in their wedding. During this time, I learned woodworking and the mechanics of a working engine. Bill recalls that he also tried to learn woodworking, but he could not plane a block of wood into a perfect square. He kept trying till all that was left was a splinter. I, on the other hand, came out with a nice perfect square.
We all had lessons in navigating a cold rushing river in a canoe, including managing capsizing skills for survival. Bill became quite capable at canoeing us out of danger. The river was called the Hatate (ha-ta-te). We dubbed it the Coldtate (cold-ta-te) because we had to bathe in it and it was icy cold! Learning to survive in a jungle environment on our own was one of the main goals and no small assignment.
We also made a three day trip to a local village, walking and by mule. We had to spend the night on the trail sleeping in a jungle hammock, tied to trees. To make it stable, we had to secure it to the ground. We tried. But we ended up falling out of it! Repeatedly. Not the nicest sleeping arrangement. We walked through rivers and a lot of mud. They had donkeys that they graciously let the pregnant women ride ... at times.
At one point there was so much mud, the shoe on my paralyzed foot came off and the mule stepped on it. We rescued and cleaned it and made it so I could wear it again. When we got to the village we were each assigned a village home to spend the night in. We slept there, but didn't do much sleeping. Besides trying sleep on a bench, we watched overhead as the herds of rats in the rafters made their nightly vigils. We were very glad to be back to our little huts in the campsite.
By now I was about six months along in the pregnancy and getting larger and larger. One of the other trainees was a doctor. He heard two heartbeats with his stethoscope and thought I was carrying twins. We later joked that our firstborn had the energy of twins and we were very glad he was only one! There were no ultrasounds back then, so we didn't know until his birth whether it would be one or two.
During this period at Main Base, we were assigned a paper to write (that was graded). I wrote mine on "How to Survive and Thrive While Pregnant at Jungle Camp." I know I survived, and the thriving was only by God's grace and goodness to meet me in my weakness.
Once the eight weeks were over, we were "ready" to move on to Advanced Base where we would learn and practice more advanced skills. All this was to prepare us for our field assignments in whatever country and village we were placed. Later during permanent field assignments, many lived in even harder situations than jungle camp, and some less difficult, but equally challenging. I'll tell you about our assignment in Nepal soon. But first we need to complete Jungle Camp ... in the next blog!
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