Potable Water Project Moving Right Along

Cool kids learned thumbs up from a Jackie Chan movie.



The chief mason Senor Juan and his brother break ground for the cistern.



Principal Niko, Profesora Betty, and Student Body President Kike roll the rooftop water tank into the school yard.



The cement and rebar truck came and everyone helped unload. It was so heavy that the truck got in the door of the school okay, but after it was unloaded it was like 10 inches taller so it couldn't get back out under the low entry way. So all the adult neighbors and the folks walking by climbed up into the bed to weigh it down so they could drive the truck back out!



Before! Professora Betty and Principal Niko collect water in trash cans and big aluminum pots.


We're making good progress on installing the potable water in Rinconada Elementary. We have the cement tank and we're working on attaching all of the pipes and electrical stuff once the cement hardens. It needs to sit for a week or so.

Nuptuials a la Peruana

Last night my dear friends Tessa and Manuel got married! Tessa came to Peace Corps with me and in October, a mere 8 months ago, met Manuel at her town's anniversary celebration. She lives in this teeny tiny town in the mountains and Manuel was there doing his year of rural service as a doctor, required of all Peruvian medical grads. It was a privilege to be there to celebrate with them.

Condors in Colca Canyon

Check out this link to a video that I took of the condors in Colca Canyon! This image has really stayed with me. These birds are so beautiful. It's weird they're basically just enormous buzzards that float around on updrafts all day, but they're also majestic dinosaurs. It was a breathtaking experience. Today I'm planning my classes for the jail. The goal of the administration is really to develop self esteem and leadership skills and I have great materials for that. However, the guy in charge to the technical programs told me that the inmates learn all these carpentry and artisan skills but lack business management skills, so he asked if could I teach some business stuff. I of course said sure. I'm now supposed to combine the two, which in theory is really a good idea... In theory. Now I'm just freaking out that business is not something that I actually know anything about. In the words of Homer Simpson, "Doh." I think I'm going to do a class on double entry bookkeeping, which is easy enough to figure out from a book and two more sessions on writing a business plan, which I'm hoping is also easy enough to figure out from a book. Hopefully, my limited business skills can still be helpful. Eeek.

I can't feel my face! Or why Aaron Groth should be your babysitter.

Here's an article that I wrote with my buddy Aaron for our volunteer newsletter, Pasa la Voz.


3,700 meters is ridiculously high and frankly, just existing up there will really set you back, much less hiking around and climbing rocks. But, we’re hardcore. We hike, we camp, and we do so while living better through chemistry. So, when a troupe of Peru 8ers (those of us who arrived together in Sept. 2006) decided to do up Peruvian independence day 2007 at the Way Inn Lodge above Huaraz and the truly hardcore decided to don crampons and hammer their ice picks into the top of Ishinca, we called up the Peace Corps docs, Jorge and Suni to usurp the soroche (altitude sickness) with those magical altitude pills everyone talks about. After all, Ishinca is at 5,550 m, definitely up in a space where the air is thin enough that us costal folk are sloshed on one Cuzqueña beer and even the mountain dwellers among us are breathing extra hard.

The Peru 8 contingent has since learned that the magic pills, packaged by the Peace Corps office in the ubiquitous brown paper bag with Your Name in magic marker, in fact have a proper name, acetomephaline. We’re hardcore. We’re not fine print people. What directions? We get a pill, we take it and we call it a day. Sitting around the Way Inn at dinner no one noticed Aaron watching the storm clouds cover the glaciers of the Cordillera Blanca while carefully cutting his pill in two with his pocket knife. We just assumed he was sitting over there sipping scotch and spacing out. We chowed down on an approximation of gringo granola natural foods store fare, hung out on the front porch telling lies, and then with a budding headache bid all good night and turned in.

Most of us slept down in a charming room often referred to as “the cave” that night. The two gringo friends of Melissa whimpered from their down comforters, “Can anyone hear me? I can’t feel my legs.” “Anybody? I cannot feel the area between my shins and thighs.” Meanwhile I was just hoping that they would shut up because my ears were ringing so loudly that I thought my alarm clock was going off. Every word just made the ringing louder and the pain behind my eyeballs more excruciating. Not being able to feel my legs or hands was the least of my problems.

Meanwhile, in a tent outside snug in his zero degree sleeping bag, Aaron prepared for hibernation. Kevin and Brian soon followed and commented on their general state of wellbeing.

Brian: I cannot feel my face. No really, my face, I can’t feel it.
Kevin: S#@! I can’t feel my face either!
Brian: I can’t take it any more.

Aaron’s not sure what Brian did when he couldn’t take it anymore, because he fell right to sleep. Aaron awoke at 5:30 a.m. and saw freshly fallen snow blanketing the Cordillera Negra and tumbled into breakfast ranting about the beauty of nature, blah, blah, blah.

Breakfast was coffee and the dull roar of complaints as we commiserated over the questionable presence of various seemingly essential body parts. Promises to never again take the altitude pills followed shortly. At this point Aaron asked, “How much of that stuff were you guys taking?” We all retorted, “Just one freaking pill!” Aaron suggested label reading and kindly offered to lend us his pocket knife to cut those pesky 500 mg pills in half.

Shopping for construction materials Saturday!

We got the money to Peru! It took a small miracle and cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 and for some reason the bank here is very secretive about the actual fees. They can't actually tell me how much it cost me to wire money into my account or they'll have to kill me or something, but whatever. We got the cash!
The Project Committee is made up on the school principal, Prof. Niko, the second grade teacher, Prof. Betty, the student body president a fifth grader named Kike, and the PTA president Sebastian. We met on Friday and discussed some price changes for materials as inflation is pretty crazy here right now. (The prices of rebar and cement have gone up about 10%!) We also planned our trip to price out all the construction materials. On Monday we drove into Piura after school and went around to a few different construction material stores and got price lists. So now that we know where to buy what we're off to make the purchases on Saturday. The construction should start next week!