The Amazon Basin Benevolent Association (ABBA) Mission was created in order to deliver medical services to remote villages along the upper Amazon river basin in Peru.
In this effort, volunteer mechanic Larry Pouch would make an annual trip from Florida to perform maintenance on the mission’s boat. But unfortunately, the harsh climate of the Peruvian jungle would quickly take its toll, make the boat inoperable, and bring the operation to a halt.
What the mission needed was a full-time mechanic.
Therefore, 18-year-old Peruvian native Edson Rodriguez was sent to the United States to study boat mechanics at the AMI institute in Daytona Beach, FL.
Upon graduation, Rodriguez said goodbye to all things American (like McDonald’s, video games, and electricity for that matter) and headed back to his primitive home in Pucallpa to start his new career.
Pouch joined the next mission group to work along side Rodriguez to ensure that the young man and the boat were ready to go. Once set, the group journeyed up the Ucayali River (a major tributary of the Amazon River) to recommence delivery of medical supplies and to minister to the villages along the way.
