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  • Fourth of July
    July 4th finally came, and even though Peruvians weren't celebrating it, we certainly were! We got off of work, so instead of laying aro...
  • Kickin it in Peru
    Finally the day arrived that we drove to Ciudad de Dios to meet the community we would be working alongside for 8 weeks. It was exciting, ...

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Fourth of July

Published on Sunday, June 12, 2011 Leave your thoughts »

July 4th finally came, and even though Peruvians weren't celebrating it, we certainly were! We got off of work, so instead of laying around the house all day we went to Chan Chan, capital of the Chimu empire. It was incredible! Walking around listening to a guide tell us about this culture was worth seeing/hearing. Some awesome pictures from our tour...











That night we had a cookout at Nourish International's Hospedaje. Professor Billman grilled hamburgers and we had guacamole, fresh vegetables, and french fries (I ate a TON of french fries while in Peru). It was all delicious, and afterwards we all went down to the beach and lit fireworks. They were mildly successful... as successful as on can imagine Peruvian fireworks are. The archaeology students had a bonfire going so we joined them in making smores and hanging out. We played a huge game of capture the flag... and if you've never played capture the flag on a wide, open beach, it's hard! It comes down to who is the fastest because there isn't anything you can hide behind. Not to mention running on sand slows you down quite a bit. Still, we had a good time and a fun day of honoring our country's independence.

 **Thinking back, I feel like we should have at least sang the national anthem or something...

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Vacation in Peru!

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A few weeks before we said goodbye to Peru, our group got the chance to visit Cajamarca. The 8 hour bus ride there was terrifying because most of it consisted of winding through mountainsides on a double decker bus that was extremely top heavy. We made it safely though, and the hotel, San Vicente, was amazing. We stayed in a glorified tree house carved in the side of a hill overlooking the city.





View from our hotel


The first full day we were in Cajamarca, Magdalena, Justine, Ellie, and I didn't waste any time.. we went straight to the hot springs. It wasn't too expensive, and we were given a room with what was basically a huge bath. So we pretty much just took a bath together in our swim suits for 30 minutes in water that is apparently really great for your skin. After that experience, we went shopping around the town. Cajamarca is fairly large with many little shops to explore and alleys with craft stalls set up. I managed to pick up gifts for friends and family that day.


Hot springs!

I made an interesting note in my journal about our trip that the constellations looked enormous from our hotel. Staying in Huanchaco, we hadn't been able to see stars because of light pollution, but in Cajamarca the sky was beautiful and clear. If you're in Peru, definitely take a trip to this gorgeous city.



Our room (we had to use large, heavy blankets because the temperature dropped at night.. unlike in Huanchaco where it was warm all day/night)


Or bus ride back after 3 days in Cajamarca was brutal because sickness decided to set in. Good thing we went on the trip when we did.

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Digging

Published on Sunday, May 15, 2011 Leave your thoughts »

Some pictures from the digging we spent 8 weeks doing


Carrying pipe to be laid at the next point in the line


Supporting the pipe with rocks underneath and backfilling overtop


Locals using tools to extract a large rock from the water line path

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Guac

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During our time there, Rosa was the best cook. She made a DELICIOUS chocolate cake, and also some kick ass guacamole. Here is the recipe I wrote down in my journal (in case I ever felt like trying to make it at home... which has yet to happen).


1 avacado
1 tomato
1 lime
1 onion
salt

1. Peel tomato. Cut into quarters. Remove mushy stuff (very eloquent I know). Cut into small bits.
2. Peel and cut onion into small bits.
3. Cut lime in half and squeeze into bowl.
4. Add tomato, onion, salt to the lime
5. Cut avacado into quarters. Remove seed
6. Peel skin off, mush with fork
7. Mix into tomato concoction.

Done!

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Assembly Line

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One day in June we didn't go into Ciudad de Dios. Instead we went to where the springbox would be located up from the town that would filter the water. To construct the springbox we had to haul sand and gravel from the dropoff point to the box, which were not next to each other. We formed a chain and passed the buckets down it until it reached the box. I was exhausted doing this work because the buckets were quite heavy and awkward to carry. Compared to the digging and laying pipe this work was more difficult to me.

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Tacky up the Mural

Published on Friday, April 29, 2011 Leave your thoughts »

After being in Peru for a couple of weeks, we were informed that a group of students from UNC would be joining us. They were part of the Nourish International group and all of us worked on the water line together. I would be lying if I said there wasn't tension between the groups (and definitely some run-ins that made for interesting stories), but overall we got along and having the extra hands digging was welcome.


Before we got into the bulk of the digging, I was given the chance to accompany some of the Peruvian professional engineers to survey the water route, which was great for me. The skills I learned at Duke were being put to use (minimally) and that is a satisfying feeling. We also plastered the main wall of the plaza in the middle of Ciudad de Dios to prep it for mural painting. This was one of our community beautification projects, along with creating signs for them designating it as more than just temporary.



The completed mural that I designed in the plaza



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Forgotten

Published on Saturday, April 23, 2011 Leave your thoughts »

The first job I was a part of after we were introduced to Ciudad was helping evaluate the existing water quality (they got their current water after it already traveled through other communities). I worked with Maggie and Carrie in Menocucho to test the streams that fed into the water supply. One day while doing this, the Professor in charge of MOCHE (Professor Billman) forgot to pick us up and take us back to Ciudad de Dios. So instead, we walked about 1.5 km towards the community along the main road and then took a combi the rest of the way. It was quite an experience, especially the combi ride. Combis are very small vans that work like buses. They pick up people at stops and then when you need to get off you pay and get off. Well the one we were one decided it wanted to be a clown car and pack as many people as humanly possible into it. By the time we got back to Ciudad, we only had time to collect water samples from the taps in town.


The next day we did the same testing in the morning, and in the afternoon we were given the opportunity to make adobe bricks. It basically consisted of putting mud into a mold and letting it dry for 15 days. The entire process was "extremely tiring" (according to my journal entry), but I also noted it was a lot of fun. Not every day do you get to make bricks that will be used to construct houses and schools. Since there were so many of us working, we finished early and left Ciudad de Dios by 2:45 PM. Not too many exciting or new things were taking place around that time... and really throughout our trip our daily activities remained fairly constant. I'll write about certain changes in our routine and trips we took/experiences we had that were different from our normal day-to-day happenings.

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