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November
2004
World
View
Apolo
Quechua People of Bolivia and Peru
By Chuck Satterwhite
The Apolo Quechua people live in Madidi Park, which is
a national reserve within the Amazon jungle. Apolo is a
hub community of 4,000 people with 70+ communities in outlying
areas. Most of the communities are accessible only by foot
because they are separated by rough terrain, swift rivers,
a long rainy season, and a lack of good roads.
Though the area is isolated and slowly
being closed down to outside influence, the area is slowly
developing. The
Apolo community has a diesel generator that provides four
hours of electricity per night. The community is scheduled
to have 24 hour electricity later this year via La Paz—the
nearest city to Apolo which is 19 hours away. Apolo and
a few outlying communities have eight phone lines that
are supplied by satellite dishes and powered by solar panels.
The Apolo-Quechua live in adobe houses with thatch roofs
and dirt floors. An interesting fact about their houses
is that most have a receiving room for guests. The rooms
are sparsely decorated with a few chairs maybe a table.
Guests are not expected to see other areas of the house.
It is even considered an insult to both visitor and homeowner
is guest enter the kitchen.
Slash and burn farming is still used through
out the high jungle area. For farming, most Apolo-Quechua
raise
lower maintenance crops, ones you plant and forget about
until it’s time to harvest. Their low maintenance
crops include sugar cane, bananas, and yucca—a plant
similar to our potato. Mangos, oranges, lemons, grapefruits,
limes, and tangerines are also plentiful during season.
The cash crop of the Apolo-Quechua is coca. Coca is a stimulant
that can be chewed or brewed for tea. Coca is also the
base for the drug cocaine, which the Apolo-Quechua do not
produce. It is not uncommon for people to walk four or
more days to sell their goods.
The younger generation of Apolo-Quechua is for the most
part bilingual, speaking both Quechua and Spanish. There
is also a good degree of literacy among them. There are
schools and teachers in most villages. Students who live
in villages without a school or teachers are able to walk
to a nearby village that does have them.
Loose Catholicism that is mixed with older, animistic
practices is what Apolo-Quechuans adhere to. They believe
firmly that there is one God, who is mostly distant and
capricious, and that the Bible is a good and holy book.
In Apolo, there are a few churches (one of the following):
Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Mormon, Cristo Viene (a
sect), and Catholic. Most communities outside of Apolo
do not have church work. There are the areas the Xtreme
Team is working.
The team works in pairs to share Chronological Bible Stories,
most of which the people learn after hearing them one or
two times due to their oral tradition.
Pray that the Apolo-Quechua will be led by the Holy Spirit
to remain obedient and that the missionaries will remain
healthy and obedient in making disciples.
More information at http://thextremeteam.org/Mountain.htm
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