Puerta Pulache - What am I doing here?
So after extending my stay in Huarmey to the end of the project, I accepted another offer to travel north with the project to the small village of Puerta Pulache, near the northern border of Peru. This area was the worst affected during the floods. While Huarmey was also badly affected, their floods were caused by mud washing downstream from the hills, while in the north the rivers around the urban areas flooded and the currents pulled houses and roads apart.
Why are we in this particular village? During the floods, the local secondary school was totally destroyed, which served not only Puerta Pulache, but kids from a group of hamlets in the surrounding area. With similar problems facing other schools in the area, local authorities ran out of money to replace it properly. They were able to put up a plywood temp school, but that won't survive the next wet season.
All Hands has stepped in to provide a permanent set of classrooms for the secondary school, a total of 5 individual rooms for about 160 expected students including bathrooms and septic tanks. We have also been assigned to build a concrete football pitch with the funds coming from a provincial sports budget I believe. The new building will aim to be flood and earthquake proof with a 50+ year lifespan, constructed of mainly Peruvian materials with some specialist material sourced from elsewhere. Along with the volunteers, we are employing community members in skilled and unskilled labour positions along the way as need arises.
Why are we building a school? Besides the community need for education, there are a lot of benefits that a school provides in a disaster zone. It returns traumatised children to a sense of normality and routine. In secondary age children, it returns them to a sense of community and can help prevent problems with drugs and alcohol that can set in after disasters (a week before we came, the community was mourning the death of a 16 year old girl who died of alcohol poisoning). Most importantly, schools help to prevent child trafficking, which has seen a shocking rise in northern Peru since the floods thanks to the influence of Colombian cartels.
What is the work like? For the initial stage, the work is tough. The isolation and low budget means we don't have an excavator for the foundations: all the holes must be dug by hand. For the foundation braces, this means 50 1.6m deep holes, with two 2mx2mx1m leach pits and a 5mx3mx2m pit for the septic tank. This is all done in muggy heat that can get as high as 35 degrees in the afternoon in ground that is uncooperative in our efforts to remove it. Recently we have started some of the concrete pours, which involves a lot of heavy lifting, though thankfully no hand mixing as we have a small motorised mixer provided by one of the contractors. Later on, it will be more technical and less heavy-lifty as the structure comes together, so future generations of volunteers will have an easier time!
Still, the work is rewarding. You have to keep the end goal in mind, and remember just how much the work will come to benefit a needy community.
The villagers are very welcoming, always happy to have a chat about the build and feed us a snack. We have also set up community engagement projects to introduce ourselves to the community in other ways, such a film nights with local kids and sending a few vollies to dinner with a family every week. On base, I have started Spanish classes to help people talk to the locals, with pretty good results so far! It's an important step to ingratiating ourselves with a community totally unused to foreigners.
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| Holes, endless holes |
Why are we in this particular village? During the floods, the local secondary school was totally destroyed, which served not only Puerta Pulache, but kids from a group of hamlets in the surrounding area. With similar problems facing other schools in the area, local authorities ran out of money to replace it properly. They were able to put up a plywood temp school, but that won't survive the next wet season.
All Hands has stepped in to provide a permanent set of classrooms for the secondary school, a total of 5 individual rooms for about 160 expected students including bathrooms and septic tanks. We have also been assigned to build a concrete football pitch with the funds coming from a provincial sports budget I believe. The new building will aim to be flood and earthquake proof with a 50+ year lifespan, constructed of mainly Peruvian materials with some specialist material sourced from elsewhere. Along with the volunteers, we are employing community members in skilled and unskilled labour positions along the way as need arises.
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| Oh hi there |
Why are we building a school? Besides the community need for education, there are a lot of benefits that a school provides in a disaster zone. It returns traumatised children to a sense of normality and routine. In secondary age children, it returns them to a sense of community and can help prevent problems with drugs and alcohol that can set in after disasters (a week before we came, the community was mourning the death of a 16 year old girl who died of alcohol poisoning). Most importantly, schools help to prevent child trafficking, which has seen a shocking rise in northern Peru since the floods thanks to the influence of Colombian cartels.
What is the work like? For the initial stage, the work is tough. The isolation and low budget means we don't have an excavator for the foundations: all the holes must be dug by hand. For the foundation braces, this means 50 1.6m deep holes, with two 2mx2mx1m leach pits and a 5mx3mx2m pit for the septic tank. This is all done in muggy heat that can get as high as 35 degrees in the afternoon in ground that is uncooperative in our efforts to remove it. Recently we have started some of the concrete pours, which involves a lot of heavy lifting, though thankfully no hand mixing as we have a small motorised mixer provided by one of the contractors. Later on, it will be more technical and less heavy-lifty as the structure comes together, so future generations of volunteers will have an easier time!
Still, the work is rewarding. You have to keep the end goal in mind, and remember just how much the work will come to benefit a needy community.
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| The ice cream man is always welcome in the heat of the afternoon |
The villagers are very welcoming, always happy to have a chat about the build and feed us a snack. We have also set up community engagement projects to introduce ourselves to the community in other ways, such a film nights with local kids and sending a few vollies to dinner with a family every week. On base, I have started Spanish classes to help people talk to the locals, with pretty good results so far! It's an important step to ingratiating ourselves with a community totally unused to foreigners.
So all of this is part of the second stage of the All Hands mission in Peru which I have loved being a part of. If you have a spare penny or two, my fundraising page is still active and receiving donations if you would like to give! Visit give.hands.org/NatPeru to donate.
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| Step into my office |
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