3 weeks into our new project, and one year older, I´m back in a small booth with kids playing gory computer games next to me. We got up early this morning to fill our new, sandy trenches with concrete, only to find that due to a power cut in the district, there was nothing we could do. We`ll have to hope that the trench walls will hold together for anothert day, or we`ll have a lot of digging to do tomorrow.
We´ staying in two houses of people from the church - 6 girls in one with Irini, and the guys next door with Maribel and Jesús. Yep, I´m living with Jesus. We´re much more cramped than we had been back in Tupac, and we only have water for one hour a day, but we´re also a lot less isolated from the community than were before. Last week I spent a whole morning with Tim talking to a neighbour, Miguel (not the eponymous Saint of his area of town, but a great guy nonetheless) who fought the Shining Path in the Peruvian jungle. Some almost unreal stories. It´s pretty cool to be living with a family, too, and Mary´s insanely speedy Spanish is great practice :) The kids are way too noisy though....
So, I last left you before our team holiday, which promised to give us a fairly comprehensive tour of the south of Perú. In fact, we spent 60 hours out of our 180 (for the slow ones among you, that´s a third) on buses. But it was definitely worth it. Our first destination, Arequipa, was a beautiful city, surrounded by snow-caps and even a volcano. From there we ventured yet higher up into the Andes, before descending the world´s second deepest canyon. True, it just looks like a really high valley, but I´m told it´s a canyon, and I´m gonna believe that. Either way, our night at a small lodge at the bottom of the deceptively named geographical feature was both incredible and very short. The stars were, due to almost zero light pollution, the clearest I´ve ever seen them; however, we were hiking again be 3.15 in the morning. To see the sun rise over the mountains from half way up one side was stunning.
After a largely uneventful trip to Bolivia, we took a boat trip out onto Lake Titicaca (which is ridiculously enormous) and visited some `floating islands´. Made entirely from roots and dried reeds, these islands continually threatened to give way under foot. Unfortunately, though, no one fell in.
Back on the outskirts of Pisco, and still within throwing distance of the Panámericana highway (which, if you follow it all the way, will take you from northern Venezuela to southern Chile) our home is now San Miguel. The work is pretty much the same as it was at the last project, but this time we´re working towards a Community Centre. More rubble to move, more ground to level, more holes to dig; this time, however, the ample available sand turns slow periods of no work into sand-castle competitions, followed by target practice with big rocks. Good times.
So, I once again hope that you are all well, and look forward to hearing from you. And thanks so much for all your birthday messages and cards (and even a present! ;D). I´ll do my best to reply to them all........
Sunday, 1 June 2008
Friday, 2 May 2008
The Belated Third Entry
So, first off: I apologise for a distinct lack of communication for a good few weeks now. We don´t really get a lot of time to use the internet, so e-mails and (I´m afraid to say) facebook sometimes have to take priority. Plus, the connection here is about 0.003 bits per minute dial-up, so my patience often doesn´t strecth far enough to bother. But here is, I hope, an entry which is worth the wait.
I said last time that we were having to wait for materials and concrete mixers in order to take the project any further; it was the morning of Thursday 17th that the wait was finally ended. Working together with the whole church (even the elderly women of the congregation were carrying bags of rubble) we filled in the prepared trenches with concrete and hardcore, under the direction of a man in a big hat. It was great to see the Peruvians getting involved - it really felt like it was their kitchen being built, not ours. And since then, sombrero man (whose name I have recently discovered to be Máximo :D) and his eternally smiling friend have been able to build almost all of the walls, while we´re back digging again round the corner. I´m gonna miss my Columbian-made picaxe. I´m not gonna miss fixing it every 11 minutes.
We´ve had some more great days at the beach, although I seem unable to spend a day sunbathing without suffering some sort of injury. No, I haven´t been sunburnt again, but - I kid you not - last time I managed to get bitten on the temples by a stray Alsatian. I would say "don´t be alarmed", but you probably should be. It didn´t break the skin, though. I´ll let you know if I start foaming at the mouth.
A few weeks ago, we walked up the hill from the top of which a Río-esque statue of Jesus overlooks the district. From the summit the view was stunning, gradually changing from sea in the distance to desert on the eastern side, with town, suburbs and even some farmland in between. Continuing on down the hill, we met some ladies in a field of Alfalfa, who gave us some fruit and sugar cane, even letting us do some harvesting.
Last Thursday we were back in the countryside, as we visited another project of the charity we´re working with here, Paz y Esperanza. In the sparse community of Cabeza de Toro (which I had visited a month before) the architect-come-translator-come-incredible-goatee-wearer, Jaime Mok, is currently constructing an ambitious two story community centre out of bamboo. Developed specifically to be able to ¨danse with earthquakes¨, Jaime´s totally new style of building is a very positive step forwards for the local people, and it was brilliant to see how it worked. Oh, and the Peruvian Air Force swung through in a convoy of buses which kept getting stuck in the mud. Bizarre, and almost absurdly shambolic.
In sharp contrast to the rural life of the cotton fields, less than 24 hours later we found ourselves in the middle of downtown Lima. Having been given Friday and Saturday off, we decided to spend two days in the capital, which we hadn´t seen since our first night and half-morning in Perú. Charlie and I managed to see a lot of the city, including the heavily guarded presidential palace at the Plaza de Armas, the bright blue national football stadium and the brown exterior of the national museum, unfortunately closed til July. We stayed in the Miraflores area of town - one of the richest districts in Lima, and home to the very European and astronomically expensive Larcomar shopping centre. All the way accross the world, and we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. But this one had an amazing sea view.
Beck in Pisco, winter has set in, and the ominously menacing cloud which rolled in from the ocean at dusk yesterday seems to have brought woolly hats and scarves with it. Church in the evening now looks like a meeting of Eskimos, as out from behind balaclavas the Peruvians call us crazy for enjoying the cool breeze in T-shirts. The mosquitos donçt care about the temperature, though: I think I´m gonna scratch my right ankle away completely.
And so, we near the end of our time in Tupac Amaru Inca. This Sunday we leave for Arequipa, a city further inland and in the arms of the Andes. After a trek down the enormous Colca Canyon, we´ll head to Puno in the south and spend a few days at Lake Titicaca, crossing over into Bolivia to renew our Visas. If I don´t get another chance before our next project, I´ll write again from San Miguel. Adios, amigos, and don´t be with bicycles (local slang for having a stomach upset). Take care, and keep your e-mails coming!
I said last time that we were having to wait for materials and concrete mixers in order to take the project any further; it was the morning of Thursday 17th that the wait was finally ended. Working together with the whole church (even the elderly women of the congregation were carrying bags of rubble) we filled in the prepared trenches with concrete and hardcore, under the direction of a man in a big hat. It was great to see the Peruvians getting involved - it really felt like it was their kitchen being built, not ours. And since then, sombrero man (whose name I have recently discovered to be Máximo :D) and his eternally smiling friend have been able to build almost all of the walls, while we´re back digging again round the corner. I´m gonna miss my Columbian-made picaxe. I´m not gonna miss fixing it every 11 minutes.
We´ve had some more great days at the beach, although I seem unable to spend a day sunbathing without suffering some sort of injury. No, I haven´t been sunburnt again, but - I kid you not - last time I managed to get bitten on the temples by a stray Alsatian. I would say "don´t be alarmed", but you probably should be. It didn´t break the skin, though. I´ll let you know if I start foaming at the mouth.
A few weeks ago, we walked up the hill from the top of which a Río-esque statue of Jesus overlooks the district. From the summit the view was stunning, gradually changing from sea in the distance to desert on the eastern side, with town, suburbs and even some farmland in between. Continuing on down the hill, we met some ladies in a field of Alfalfa, who gave us some fruit and sugar cane, even letting us do some harvesting.
Last Thursday we were back in the countryside, as we visited another project of the charity we´re working with here, Paz y Esperanza. In the sparse community of Cabeza de Toro (which I had visited a month before) the architect-come-translator-come-incredible-goatee-wearer, Jaime Mok, is currently constructing an ambitious two story community centre out of bamboo. Developed specifically to be able to ¨danse with earthquakes¨, Jaime´s totally new style of building is a very positive step forwards for the local people, and it was brilliant to see how it worked. Oh, and the Peruvian Air Force swung through in a convoy of buses which kept getting stuck in the mud. Bizarre, and almost absurdly shambolic.
In sharp contrast to the rural life of the cotton fields, less than 24 hours later we found ourselves in the middle of downtown Lima. Having been given Friday and Saturday off, we decided to spend two days in the capital, which we hadn´t seen since our first night and half-morning in Perú. Charlie and I managed to see a lot of the city, including the heavily guarded presidential palace at the Plaza de Armas, the bright blue national football stadium and the brown exterior of the national museum, unfortunately closed til July. We stayed in the Miraflores area of town - one of the richest districts in Lima, and home to the very European and astronomically expensive Larcomar shopping centre. All the way accross the world, and we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. But this one had an amazing sea view.
Beck in Pisco, winter has set in, and the ominously menacing cloud which rolled in from the ocean at dusk yesterday seems to have brought woolly hats and scarves with it. Church in the evening now looks like a meeting of Eskimos, as out from behind balaclavas the Peruvians call us crazy for enjoying the cool breeze in T-shirts. The mosquitos donçt care about the temperature, though: I think I´m gonna scratch my right ankle away completely.
And so, we near the end of our time in Tupac Amaru Inca. This Sunday we leave for Arequipa, a city further inland and in the arms of the Andes. After a trek down the enormous Colca Canyon, we´ll head to Puno in the south and spend a few days at Lake Titicaca, crossing over into Bolivia to renew our Visas. If I don´t get another chance before our next project, I´ll write again from San Miguel. Adios, amigos, and don´t be with bicycles (local slang for having a stomach upset). Take care, and keep your e-mails coming!
Monday, 14 April 2008
I´m back in my booth and I´ve got my sprite again, but this time I´m wearing jeans. Over the last few weeks it has become clear that a South American winter means that it is a lot colder at night, while retaining the intense heat of midday. It´s pretty much the perfect climate - although I still managed to get myself quite badly burnt a few weekends ago when we spent the whole day at a nearby beach called Yumaque. I hadn´t before realised that sunburn could give you swollen feet for 3 days.........
So, we´ve been here a month now and we´re pretty settled. We´ve not been able to do as much work as I would like, but our progress is, nevertheless, marked. We´re ready to concrete the foundations of the kitchens, having dug the trenches and made all the steel supports; it´s just a matter of when we can get concrete mixers in. The recent high demand for the machines is enouraging though: people are clearly startng to rebuild. We´ve also done quite a bit of removing rubble, as well as building the perimeter fence of the church compound.
Work aside, it´s just been great just getting to know people and practise my Spanish, as well as taking every opportunity to see and do as much as we can. The people at the church are quite protective of us, which is understandable but sometimes quite stifling. Still, we´ve had some awesome ´team days´: we went sandboarding at the desert oasis of Huacachina, and watched the Sun go down over the sand from the top of the highest dune we could find, and this Saturday we had an absolute treat at las Islas Ballestas. These islands were described to us as Peru´s Galápagos, but I reckon the Poor-Man´s Isle of White is probably a more fitting title. After you´ve seen a hoard of roaring sealions on a beach and a cliff face veiled with Chilean boobies, you really start to look forward for everything else you´re gonna see. But that was, I´m afraid, all there was. Just more of the same around a really large island. At least you can go bowling in Cowes.
Once again I hope everybody is well back home. I really appreciate all your emails and facebook messages - keep them coming! :D I´ll wave adios for now and try to post again as soon as I can. And remember: you may start the day wearing trainers, but that doesn´t mean you don´t need to put sun cream on your feet when you take them off.
So, we´ve been here a month now and we´re pretty settled. We´ve not been able to do as much work as I would like, but our progress is, nevertheless, marked. We´re ready to concrete the foundations of the kitchens, having dug the trenches and made all the steel supports; it´s just a matter of when we can get concrete mixers in. The recent high demand for the machines is enouraging though: people are clearly startng to rebuild. We´ve also done quite a bit of removing rubble, as well as building the perimeter fence of the church compound.
Work aside, it´s just been great just getting to know people and practise my Spanish, as well as taking every opportunity to see and do as much as we can. The people at the church are quite protective of us, which is understandable but sometimes quite stifling. Still, we´ve had some awesome ´team days´: we went sandboarding at the desert oasis of Huacachina, and watched the Sun go down over the sand from the top of the highest dune we could find, and this Saturday we had an absolute treat at las Islas Ballestas. These islands were described to us as Peru´s Galápagos, but I reckon the Poor-Man´s Isle of White is probably a more fitting title. After you´ve seen a hoard of roaring sealions on a beach and a cliff face veiled with Chilean boobies, you really start to look forward for everything else you´re gonna see. But that was, I´m afraid, all there was. Just more of the same around a really large island. At least you can go bowling in Cowes.
Once again I hope everybody is well back home. I really appreciate all your emails and facebook messages - keep them coming! :D I´ll wave adios for now and try to post again as soon as I can. And remember: you may start the day wearing trainers, but that doesn´t mean you don´t need to put sun cream on your feet when you take them off.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
La Primera Semana
¡Hola! I´m not sure how much time I´m gonna get to write this, so I´ll be as succint yet comprehensive as I can. I am right at this moment sitting in a plywood booth of a Piscan internet ´café´, sipping through a straw a 20p bottle of sprite. And for the first time this side of the atlantic, I´m enjoying the benefit of an overhead fan. Ah, the luxury.
But, let´s begin back on your side of the pond. The flight to Madrid was relatively uneventful, but after a long delay in Spain, we spent a pretty darned uncomfortable 12 hours on our LAN flight to Lima. My language skills received a baptism of fire as my neighbour in flight, Juan, a guy of my age and of both Peruvian and Spanish decent, almost immediately struck up conversation. Juan spoke only three words of English.
After spending the night at a hostel in the Free Town district of Lima, we made the journey south and arrived at Pisco Tuesday evening. After the stunning and far-reaching citiscape of Lima, where we saw very little evidence of last year´s Earthquake, this more southern town was a very different picture. With few or no buildings fully intact, and with not a single second story to be seen, the district we´re staying in is confirmation that the estimates of 80% damage to the city were probably very close to the mark. In the city entre, the Plaza de Armas offers a glimpse of the city may have looked this time last year; I wouldn´t dismiss a comparison to a typical Spanish town. However, the remains of the central Cathedral provide a stark contrast to the almost pristine squar. And as our guide David, one of the happiest men I´ve ever met, showed us around on Wednesday, the extent of the destruction was quite unbelievable. I´ll try to upload some photos when I can.
The people here are brilliant. They´re so friendly and welcoming, and it really is amazing to feel such warmth from people you´ve only just met. Unfortunately, we´ve pretty much all been ill (at on end of the other), but our English stomachs are slowly hardening to the Peruvian comida. As feared, the food has turned out to be undelightfully bland, but it´s not too bad. Porridge without oats, warm jelly that smells like Christmas and a potato puree resembling Smash are becoming as normal for us as the constant, unfightable layer of sweat which only a shower can stave off for even a few minutes.
Yesterday a few of us went to a clinic for one of the team to give a stool sample, expecting nothing more than a really dull day of sitting around in an overcrowded waiting room. But the ever-chirpy David was determined that we would have at least some fun. So, on our way back down the coast, he suddenly veered off from the road and took us straight out East into the desert. In what could easily have been an episode of Algunas Madres los Tienen (Frank Spencer, how I love you) I attempted to hold onto a bag of eggs in the back of the van as David treated us to his rally driving skills. Needless to say, there were a few breakages. After passing the most isolated battery chicken farms I´ve ever seen, we passed into endless fields of cotton. The sand gave way to a green and white landscape, and in the town of Cabeza de Toro we visited David´s home. Almost entirely destroyed, it was reduced to a single room, yet was still home to 5 people. The resilience of David´s family was amazing, though not remarkable; everyone here is in the same position, and it´s pretty cool to see people just picking themselves up and carrying on, and it´s even better to be able to help. But more on that next time.
Alas, my time is up. I hope at least that this post reads cohesively, and and best that it has been a good introduction to our time here. Do check out the team post on latinlink.org (you´ll have to follow a few links to get there). I hope everyone is well, and to hear from you all soon. As Juan would say: Orange, are and seatbelt.
But, let´s begin back on your side of the pond. The flight to Madrid was relatively uneventful, but after a long delay in Spain, we spent a pretty darned uncomfortable 12 hours on our LAN flight to Lima. My language skills received a baptism of fire as my neighbour in flight, Juan, a guy of my age and of both Peruvian and Spanish decent, almost immediately struck up conversation. Juan spoke only three words of English.
After spending the night at a hostel in the Free Town district of Lima, we made the journey south and arrived at Pisco Tuesday evening. After the stunning and far-reaching citiscape of Lima, where we saw very little evidence of last year´s Earthquake, this more southern town was a very different picture. With few or no buildings fully intact, and with not a single second story to be seen, the district we´re staying in is confirmation that the estimates of 80% damage to the city were probably very close to the mark. In the city entre, the Plaza de Armas offers a glimpse of the city may have looked this time last year; I wouldn´t dismiss a comparison to a typical Spanish town. However, the remains of the central Cathedral provide a stark contrast to the almost pristine squar. And as our guide David, one of the happiest men I´ve ever met, showed us around on Wednesday, the extent of the destruction was quite unbelievable. I´ll try to upload some photos when I can.
The people here are brilliant. They´re so friendly and welcoming, and it really is amazing to feel such warmth from people you´ve only just met. Unfortunately, we´ve pretty much all been ill (at on end of the other), but our English stomachs are slowly hardening to the Peruvian comida. As feared, the food has turned out to be undelightfully bland, but it´s not too bad. Porridge without oats, warm jelly that smells like Christmas and a potato puree resembling Smash are becoming as normal for us as the constant, unfightable layer of sweat which only a shower can stave off for even a few minutes.
Yesterday a few of us went to a clinic for one of the team to give a stool sample, expecting nothing more than a really dull day of sitting around in an overcrowded waiting room. But the ever-chirpy David was determined that we would have at least some fun. So, on our way back down the coast, he suddenly veered off from the road and took us straight out East into the desert. In what could easily have been an episode of Algunas Madres los Tienen (Frank Spencer, how I love you) I attempted to hold onto a bag of eggs in the back of the van as David treated us to his rally driving skills. Needless to say, there were a few breakages. After passing the most isolated battery chicken farms I´ve ever seen, we passed into endless fields of cotton. The sand gave way to a green and white landscape, and in the town of Cabeza de Toro we visited David´s home. Almost entirely destroyed, it was reduced to a single room, yet was still home to 5 people. The resilience of David´s family was amazing, though not remarkable; everyone here is in the same position, and it´s pretty cool to see people just picking themselves up and carrying on, and it´s even better to be able to help. But more on that next time.
Alas, my time is up. I hope at least that this post reads cohesively, and and best that it has been a good introduction to our time here. Do check out the team post on latinlink.org (you´ll have to follow a few links to get there). I hope everyone is well, and to hear from you all soon. As Juan would say: Orange, are and seatbelt.
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