On the 28th of February 2001, Buck and Luciene moved to the Amazon Basin of Brazil. We lived in Macapá, right on the equator. Why would a web designer give up his career and take his family from their comfortable life in Columbus, Ohio, USA, to live on the Amazon River? We came with a vision to save the Amazon, to tell people about Jesus, and plant a Vineyard church. We have planted a church, and we are turning it over to the national leaders, heading back to the States in Sept. 2009.

 
20 May 2003
As I am sitting here, writing this, I am being eaten alive by mosquitoes. I have to put on Off™ just to sit in my office to type on the computer in my shorts, with a fan, in the tropical heat. Well, it is actually cooled down right now, it is probably about 80º degrees F (25º C), at ten PM at night.

We just finished putting screens on the whole house. So this is a huge improvement since we got to this house. We still have to spray poison all the time. And we still always have a horrible amount of mosquitoes.

The house right behind us has an open cesspool in their back yard. It is literally their septic tank, that just kind of overflows all over their back yard, especially when it rains. It is the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. The city tries to combat Dengue Fever, and Malaria, and other mosquito born illnesses. They send people house to house to check. But no one ever seems to notice this neighbor. I don’t know why. Maybe it is dry when they come. The last time the inspectors came around, we told them to check that house. The owner lives in Germany I think, studying there. It is rented out to another family. This needs to be denounced, because it is a Dengue outbreak waiting to happen.

As I said, the whole house has screens. The master suite also has a screen door on it, from the hallway. We all sleep in the master bedroom. It is the only room where we can get a night’s sleep. The mosquitoes almost lift you off of the beds in the other rooms.

We tried putting the kids in their own room with mosquito nets, but one of the kids always throws a leg out, and leaves space for the mosquitoes to come in. In the morning, the kids are full of mosquito bites, and there are like ten fat, happy mosquitoes that have gorged all night, but couldn’t find the way back out. Those mosquitoes usually die horrible deaths at my bloody hands.

One thing that did seem to work, we put a tent up in the living room. The kids loved it, the fact that they got to sleep in a little house, and it has screens on it, so they didn’t have a problem. But daddy wasn’t real keen about putting a tent up every night, and taking it down every morning. We have considered taking their bed apart, because that would give us room for the tent, and then just making the tent their bed. The mattress fits in there fine. I think I will go ahead and do that in the next couple of days.

It looks like we have to move, so I will have to tear the bed down in any case at some point. The landlord said he is not interested in renewing the contract. (see our prayer requests- you can subscribe to our e-mail prayer letter by sending an e-mail to Schmidt_Newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com) So maybe the place we go won’t have so many mosquitoes, and the problem will take care of itself.

You know, five people between one bed and one hammock is not easy. I guess we could just put them in their own room, but with the risk of malaria and dengue fever, we just can’t bring ourselves to do that.

Of course, if you come to visit, don’t worry about the mosquitoes. We’ll set you up with some Off™, a strong fan (if you put a fan at your feet, blowing the length of your body, it is also one way to reduce attacks from mosquitoes), a sheet, and weights, or a rope so that you can tie yourself to the bed and not be carried away while you sleep. Come visit, we would love to have you!!!!

posted by Eduardo Buck at Tuesday, May 20, 2003