The Peru Team Blog is Back!

This is an exciting time for the Peru Team.  The blog has been inactive for a while and we apologize for that but stay tuned as it will be heating up moving forward.  Preliminary reports have been approved by EWB USA so the improved stove project is in full effect.  Fernando and Joel traveled to Araypallpa in December to introduce the some members of the new team and "stove" with the community.  Check out the pictures.  The community is excited the relationship with UCSB EWB will continue and are eager to get improved stoves.  

The team has mostly new members this school year but a solid, committed group has emerged and our dedicated mentor, Mary Dinh, has guided us through.  The two aspects of the project now are designing improved stoves, and continuing to monitor the water filtration and distribution system.   

On the weekend of April 30th-May 1st, Stove Design Manager, Alex Sylvester led a stove workshop with our new Professional Mentor, Charlie Sellers.  It was a great experience for the group to get their hands dirty, work together and build a prototype stove from materials we expect to use in the community.  After a tough weekend of dedicated work, the final product was completed and we successfully boiled water with very little smoke production.  It was a great success!  Check out the pictures.  

Pictures Tell A Thousand Words

Adventures in Araypallpa

Sorry, but we will post pictures once we´re back in the US, its pretty hard to do here in Cuzco!

After our week long trip in the community of Sanka, the team spent two days in Cuzco re-stocking food supplies, hiring a translator, meeting with local institutions including Ministry of Health (MINSA), and preparing for the work to be done in Araypallpa.

Last Friday we took off for Araypallpa and spent a week in the rural Andean village. Araypallpa gave the team a warm welcome and we were able to hit the ground running. We have been working with the community for 6 years now and there is a trust between the community and the EWB team. Mary Dinh, our project advisor, has been leading EWB-UCSB teams to Araypallpa since 2004 and the community welcomes her as their own. The young girls of the community presented us all with flowers when we arrived and we set up camp in their community center.

Immediately on Saturday morning we were able to meet with community leaders including the president, water committee leader, and outgoing local spokesman (Rolando Blanco) to get an update of the community´s latest news and progress. Araypallpa is the type of community that has the leadership and motivation to make things happen (like a new sewer system next year and toilets the year after that!) and this factor makes our work with Araypallpa very easy. They are passionate about improving their conditions and making their community the best that it can be. It seems that this is not always the case in the developing world where people have the tendancy to accept the way things are. During our time there, the Araypallpiños were more than willing to take time out of their busy harvest season schedules to collaborate with us on these various education, water, and electricity projects.

Throughout our prearation this year, the team had split up into sub-teams in order to maximize our potential impact during our trip to Araypallpa. As we all know, plans change and a lot of us ended up working on projects we were unprepared for! Kelli and Carolyn were in charge of the adult and childrens workshops (stay tuned for pictures of the kids brushing Brandon and Mike´s teeth during a demonstration!) and also helped put together a maintenance book for the chlorination system. Mike took on the solar panel maintenance (creatively cleaning the battery terminals with Coke when other resources were limited). Chris and Adam were in charge of the water quality testing throughout the community, finding a small amount of bacteria in the spring water, but zero contamination after the slow sand filters (installed from 2006-2008). They also worked with Danielle (president of water committee) to improve the functioning of the chlorination system. Mary had the most knowledge of the slow sand filters and pilot greywater system, so she took on the responsibility of following up on these two systems. Ruben´s translating skills were just too good for any of us to pass up, so he was dragged from meeting to workshop & to more meetings in order to provide smooth translation between the gringos and the locals. Brandon and Colleen saw the ´down and dirty´side of the life of a local Araypallpiño during their house visits to perform health assessment questionnaires. I hope they get a chance to add their hilarious stories of Chicha (local corn beer) and crazy 90 yr old ladies who only spoke Quechua.

As far as our budget goes, I have to thank all of our friends and family for your support this year. There are always umplanned expenses and your support has given us some breathing room. Our goal for this year was $16k and as of last week we have raised $15.7k. Also, big thanks to EWB-USA and Tetra Tech for the grant funding!

More updates and pictures to come!

Ciao,

Adam

Back from Sanka and off to Arraypallpa

Hi!!

so, the entire team finally made it back to cusco yesterday midmorning. as adam described earlier, the ride out to sanka started with a bit of confusion with the mini sized van. but a larger one finally arrived and we fit in it only with all of our packs and bags strapped to the roof. it took us five hours to drive through the winding highlands roads. when we arrived in sanka it was dark and no one knew we were comming!

we spent the past five days in sanka working on and starting some pilot projects. its the beginning of our relationship with the community, and it comes with its ups and downs. starting relationships and trying to get the community to trust us is our first hurdle, which we will have to continually work on. Adam and Chris led the water assessment. this included sampling and testing water for bacteria and various minerals. Mike, with the help of Ruben and Mary, started working on reparing the grain grinder for the community. Carolyn and Kelli established with the community members a pilot library project. Colleen and Brandon, along with Ricardo, conducted household visits, assessing the health situation for the community.

The community decides how to get organized, and they assigned a committee to each of our projects. For example, the Fathers´ Club and Mothers´Club presidents met with us about the library. We talked out logistics of location, management of books including a registry, and a priority list of books to get first. We also talked to the teachers about books for the school and it´s exciting to think about the kids having more resources to enhance their education. It was a feeling of success to write out an agreement stating the details and responsibilities of each party. It´s exciting to see the community members take ownership of the this project, and ultimately that´s the goal - for them to completely manage for the future the various resources and projects we help start - paso a paso, step by step.

Sanka is set in the Andean highlands, so there´s not much vegetation, a few patches of trees, but mostly shrubs and grasslands. The sky is incredible, the clearest blue, and then at the night the stars are brillant. We were able to go on a couple hikes, one to a high peak above Sanka, and the aerial view provides a different perspective that adds to our understanding of the community. The other hike was to see a nearby river, and this view down the valley provides a regional perspective of the landscape. The mountains never end, there´s always another peak, and this shows how massive the Andes are.

One day we were able to help with wheat harvest. The men bring piles of cut wheat together and use pitch forks made from tree branches that they have widdled into Y shapes. They fork the wheat into a circle. One man stands in the middle with only ropes tied to a team of four horses and then gets then running in a circle to smash and break apart the stalk from the grain. We stand on the outside of the circle and raise our hands and make silly noises as the horses come by to keep them going in the circle. Men continually rake the wheat back into the circle that the horses are stomping. When the wheat is finally broken down enough the horses are left to rest and then men begin the thrashing process, which consists of utilizing the wind. They throw up bunches of wheat into the air so that the light stalks blow to the side and the heavier grains fall directly below - this is how they separate the stalk from the grain. Once a year each man gives a gift back to the earth to say thank you for that year´s harvest. The gifts are a secret, but they did share that they may bury or burn the gift.

We´re supposed to fit in that thing?

On Tuesday, the rest of the team (Mary, Ruben, Chris, Kelli, and the two med students Brandon and Colleen) arrived in Cuzco. Meanwhile, Adam, Carolyn, and Mike were preparing as best they could for the transportation strike that was planned for Wednesday and Thursday by buying all of the food, water testing supplies, etc for our trip to Sanka and Araypallpa. During the strike, all markets would be closed, all taxis would be out of service, all buses would be stopped, all schools closed, and if a tourist bus tried to leave the city, there was a chance you would have rocks thrown at you! Adam, Mike, and Carolyn were able to meet with MINSA (the Ministry of Healh in Peru) to discuss our water projects in Araypallpa and line up some free testing as well as talk with the Director of Health about constructing a health clinic in the community of Sanka. MINSA also expressed interest in coming to Araypallpa wih us to integrate our education program with theirs, which is huge to get them involved in this way! On July 16, Carolyn and Kelli will be meeting with MINSA to coordinate education workshop plans.

Our team was finally all together on Tuesday night. We had a meeting at 7pm with the residents of Sanka that live in Cuzco (Asociacion de los Residentes de la Comunidad de Sanka) in the back room of a resturant called Kiswa in downtown Cuzco. The meeting went well overall. The association expressed their thanks for our work with Sanka and our team expressed our enthuiasm for the project in Sanka. The number one pririty of Sankans is the construction of a health post in the community. Our group specializes in providing technical guidance for projects such a building a health post and it was important to be clear about our potential role if this health post project goes through. We expressed several times that the community must work with MINSA or another NGO to find a solution to long-term staffing of the health post in order for our group to move forward with construction. The community representatives explained their need for a healh post (high infant mortality rate, 1.5 hr hike to closest nurse, inconsistent/insufficient health service at Colcha health post, many women dying during child birth or tansportation to health post, and the need to cross a major river to get to the health post). They also shared their 3 needs pertained to funding and technical guidance for (1) Construction of the health post (2) equipment for the health post (3) personnel for the health post (1 nurse). The meeting was lead by Erbert Farfan of the comuneros (Sankans living in Cuzco). Due to the large meeting size and number of voices at the meeting, we set up another, smaller meeting with Erbert at his house for Wednesday at 5pm. After the meeting, the group wound down over a cheap meal of Aji de Gallina and Sopa de Verduras.

On Wednesday, the strike kept us from travelling too far from Cuzco. All markets were closed and none of the government offices were open. The group focused on organizing our project supplies and preparing for our work in Sanka. Unfortunately, we wouldnt be ble to leave until Friday now, taking two days off our visit to Sanka. At 5pm, Mary, Carolyn, Ruben, and Adam met with Williar and Wilbert Cardenaz Vargaz (Erbert was unable to make the meeting) to discuss the Assocition´s plans for making this healh post happen and also listen to their needs for creating a health post. They were clear that they (WARA and Sankans) would take the lead on the application process with MINSA and they were looking to us for technical advice and guidance throughout the construction proces. They have access to annual funds from the District of Rondocan and they are hoping this will help with expenses associated with the health post.

On Thursday, the strike was less aparent and we were able to trave more freely around Cuzco. However, we still couldnt travel to Sanka because the local told us it would be too dangerous. So, our team hit up the crazy markets (El Molino, San Pedro, etc) to stock up on more food supplies for our time up in Sanka and Araypallpa. These are the kind of markets where cow tongues, frog legs, fish heads, goat heads, and guinea pigs are stocked all over the place. Quite an experience. By the end of the day Thursday, we were going a bit crazy in Cuzco and were ready to get up to nka and start working with the rural village people. Thats what this trip is all about! Although, some of us are hesitant about the bathroom situation (there isnt one) and the sleeping quarters (bed bugs are not fun!). We´ll be alright though, its good to get out of our safe little worlds every now and then, right?

Now, its Friday morning and we have our group of 10, including 6 UCSB students, one staff advisor, one mentor, & one translator, and we´re waiting for our Combi to arrive (the first one was way too small and we all said "Uh, are we supposed to fit in THAT thing?"). It hould be a 5 hour ride up to Sanka and hopefully the community is ready for us! We will return to Cuzco on the 15th or 16th and tavel to Araypallpa the next day. The team is doing great. Ruben has been our crutch for translating between the gringos and the locals, although Kelli, Adam, Mary, and Colleen can (kind of) hold their own. Mike and Chris have been dubbed the teams official "eye candy" since they usually sit quietly through meetings and "look pretty" :) . We´re also very excited to have Brandon and Colleen (med students from Baylor) join us to provide continued health asessment of both Sanka and Araypallpa. Kelli is our eternal energy source and Carolyn is always good for a laugh or in-depth conversation about ´the detrimental affects of our beef industry on global climate change.

We will update the blog when we return to Cuzco in 5 days. Thank you for listening! We are doing our best to approach this project and the people of Sanka and Araypallpa with a sense of humility and kindness. The most exciting thing about the next two weeks is just spending time with the locals and building relationships.

Hasta Luego,

Adam