In bed one night fast asleep, a mosquito net hanging over us, something woke me up. I couldn’t see what but I could tell it was small and moving slightly. I turned on my flashlight and saw the underside of a bat six inches from my nose crawling up the mosquito net. Then I saw other bats, some clinging to the mosquito net, others flying around the room. My tennis racket was close by. The perfect tool to dislodge bats from a net and swat down bats flying in a room. Susan, wielding a broom, deftly swept the creatures out the door. 

San Fernando de Apure, a town two hundred fifty miles south of Caracas. The remote site where the Peace Corps assigned us. Fe y Alegria is a Jesuit founded group of schools located in poorer sections of Venezuela and Colombia. Ours was located seven miles outside the town, a stone’s throw from Rio Apure. Jungle. Monkeys overhead, anaconda snakes, ocelots, piranha fish, caiman. In dry season, pools of water form along the river that collect anaconda, piranha and caiman. Men stand in these pools using long sticks to capture the anaconda which they skin and then sell in the town. Sometimes they are bitten the by piranha. One man showed me scars on his lower legs. He smiled and laughed about it. A mark of his manhood.

Outside town a ways, a small bridge over Rio Apure was built for vehicles to pass over. It was a fine looking bridge, but there was one problem. The opening to pass under the bridge was too narrow. Farmers upstream transported their crops to the town passing under this bridge in their long narrow boats. Fine during dry season when the river wasn’t full and running fast. But during wet season the current through the narrow opening was much stronger. Going upstream this strong current would turn their boats sideways causing them to capsize and dump passengers and cargo into the river. Local farmers protested and demanded the bridge be removed or redesigned. They were ignored. 

One day, during wet season, a group of Jesuit priests from Caracas tried taking this boat trip upriver to visit the Fe y Alegria school where Susan and I were.

One priest had some expensive photography equipment. Their boat had an outboard motor, but it didn’t help. The boat was turned aside by the strong current going though the narrow opening and the priests were dumped into Rio Apure along with the photography equipment. The priests all made it to the shore, but the photography equipment was lost.

When the government heard about the priest’s mishap, the bridge was redesigned and re-built. Proving that Jesuit priests are more important than local farmers.