Each year, Halloween becomes a bigger and bigger deal in our house. Decorations, parties, candy gingerbread houses, and usually a cauldron of witch’s brew made of dry ice left over from some shipping containers at work.
This year, the mourning for a Halloween misspent started early. Where will we be on Halloween? No one celebrates it here. What about twizzlers? Who’s going to give out candy at our house? And pumpkins?
The candy’s been ordered on Amazon, the only orange pumpkin in Ecuador has been purchased and carved (usually sold by the slice, so there was quite a commotion when the gringos wanted to buy the whole 30 pounder), and the plans are set. We will be in the Manu Biosphere Reserve (deep jungle) for Halloween. We will probably be sitting in a tree blind that night, waiting for the nightly visit of a tapir.
I saw a carnival costume of a giant green macaw in a local store, but it was a rental. So we will have to improvise with our now well worn existing clothes. It will be a different Halloween, but it will be a nice break between our two upcoming projects.
First, we will be in the Sacred Valley of the Incas (near Cusco, Peru) for 10 days, volunteering with Kausay Wasi hospital. They have already scheduled 40 patients a day for Dermatology, and more for Gynecology. Run by a lovely couple who were previously Peace Corp Volunteers, Kausay Wasi has its own radio station (89.7 FM) and has been advertising our visit! We plan to take a day off to visit Machu Picchu, and then immediately after our work at Kausay Wasi is complete, we take a bus for a brief Halloween visit to Manu. From Manu, it is on to Iquitos, Peru, on the banks of the Amazon river.
In Iquitos, we will work with Amazon Promise to provide gynecologic care (emphasizing cervical cancer screening) to the underserved women of Iquitos. Iquitos, a former rubber boom town, is only accessible by river or by air. No roads lead to Iquitos. Our contacts in Iquitos are preparing for our arrival, and it seems we will have an experienced team to show us the ropes.
So for this year, the spider webs and tombstones will stay in our garage. Numerous Maryland pumpkins will be spared the knife, and I won’t have to ration the abundance of candy. If there is some extra toilet paper where we are heading (doubtful, we usually have to bring our own or pay 10¢ per visit), maybe I’ll teepee the kids room.
Please tell your daughters that we will decorate with pumpkins, scary ghosts, and even save some good candy for them (which you can ration out.) We may even tp our cat! Your trip and your accounting of it is amazing. Thank you for sharing all of this. Warmly, Joanne
Please tell your daughters that we will decorate with hand carved pumpkins, noisy ghosts, and even save some candy for them. We may even tp our cat! But to have Halloween in the jungle awaiting the tiger, oh my. Thank you for your services and for your sharing this amazing adventure with us.
Doc (Gail),
Happy early Halloween. Stay Safe and remember….
I have the helicopters on standby.
It has been a very busy week settling in for the winter. Always thinking about you and your marvelous adventure. Sorry that you will be missing Halloween this year, but maybe next year, at this time , you will be missing South America. We send all our love. Know we are missing you. Lovey and Coach
Just finished catching up on your blogs and sorry that you will miss Halloween this year. Ne
this is amazing. hope the twizzlers help it feel a little more home (:
Dr. Goldstein’s patient here. So here’s what struck me while clicking on this site. In the NYT this week, there was a big to-do about Target and Walmart making the toy aisle’s gender neutral. I related to it, as last year I spent HOURS in the toy aisles trying to buy something else besides a doll or craft for my granddaughters. Now I am inspired by your trip! Instead of sweating over the toys … I will just make sure I take them on gender neutral adventures! What a tremendous thing you are doing for your girls. All the best.