Iain Smith: Jennifer Smith - Vine Trust
Thu, Oct 20th 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Weekly meeting with guest speaker
The Rotary Club was treated to an
excellent, illustrated talk last week by Jennifer Smith, daughter of Club
secretary Iain. She recently was a volunteer with The Vine Trust on the
river Amazon in South America. The two-week trip on the m.v. 'Amazon Hope'
was staffed by crew, doctors, nurses, dentists and volunteers and the local people,
some of whom had walked through the jungle forest for 2 days, received treatment
free of charge provided by the Trust. She flew in to Iquitos, Peru and
boarded the ex-navy vessel and set off up the Amazon tributaries. The
climate was tropical and all the usual ailments were treated such as malaria, hepatitis and other problems and nearly everyone suffered from worms and gut
parasites. The Trust has operated in the region since 1985 and is held in
high regard by the people. Each trip lasts two weeks and they return to
base at Iquitos to replenish medicines and refuel the boat. The amount of
tree felling in the Amazon Forest was obvious by the number of logs being
floated down-river which also caused some nasty accidents to the men who guided
the felled trees down the river. They had some down-time as the clinic ran
each day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and when they went ashore at stops observed that
the houses, on stilts for the flooding, were very basic with no furniture or
luxuries but everyone had a happy disposition. An interesting evening was
enjoyed by the members and President Jim Walker expressed their appreciation for
Jennifer's talk.
