Working Hard..in Pisco

Hi all... Some photos of what we do here... We will comment and write more on it when we have more time. Work is keeping us really busy and then too tired to update the blog.. :) We are having lots of FUN though working with Burners without Borders.

Ok... got some time to explain better. So Burners have a few projects that is ongoing at the same moment. Depending on what you are capable of and what you like to do. If you have specific skills in construction, pumbling well any sort of specific skills... they will put you where they really need your skills. If you just have time and a heart to help out.. THAT is great too.. cos there are lots of other things to do.. Everyone sort of find their way and find some sort of project they can get busy with. So EVERYONE will feel useful and helpful at the end of their stay here with Burners. One way or the other.. ALWAYS have some important role for you to do.. EVEN volunteering to clean the Center Camp and Bruners House is an IMPORTANT role. After working with UNICEF, packing bags full of school things. Johan and I did different projects... Here is one that I helped out with one of the mornings. Painting the playground equipment!! This is Jorge Chavez School. There are LOTS of kids running around here. So we had to build this "fence" to keep them out. Apparently that didn´t really work. There were still some very cheeky kids that try their luck to come in and touch the wet paint. While we were painting it is not too bad but as soon as we turn our backs and leave... hmmmm... cheeky monkeys decide to play. Sooo.. you can see their prints on the freshly painted equipment. OH WELL... can´t stop kids from playing. We did what we could.
Another project was to paint their walls and put some important messages for them.

This one is about conserving water and keeping it clean.

Here is informs the kids that this water is portable and to ration it well. Not to waste it and to value the water.

They also did the beautiful tiling for the sink area.

This is a project by the beach Johan was involved in while I was painting and shovelling. Building steps at the Malecon Beach so it will be safer for the public to use and for an easier acces to the beach. I couldn´t get a photo of them in action cos it was not advisable to bring the camera or any important belongings on the beach. They had to build that platform you see from scratch.. so yea.. Johan is learning to be the Handy man.. hehehe..

This is Las Banderas College. Well, after the earthquake, they had this temporary made up classes so that the students are able to continue with their education. Then they put up a little more solid modules for the girls. It is only about 2 mins walk from Jorge Chavez school. They want to clear this area to put more of the same modules up to replace those bamboo made classes. They are moving classes around cos they are constructing a new one.

When I decided to help out here, the project was to clear out stones and pebbles from this lot of land next to those more solid modules and put them in a pile. We had to rake the ground, shovel the pebbles and stones and wheel barrow them here with this pile. Can get pretty tiring after a few shovelling and pushing a filled up barrow. We did that for about 2 days and then a truck load of sand came to PILE it on top of where we were cleaning up.

Next step of this project was to fill up the spaces with this soil and LEVEL the ground. So SOME more SHOVELLING.. Johan came and joined us for this part of our project.

We were mostly ladies who were doing this job. Once in a while when the men are available they come to help us. It is a good workout. Although it can be bad for the back. It does help to build muscles though. Good workout.

Taking a little break is a good idea. We sometimes forget to drink water when we´re in our work. Some more shovelling in action.
Then we need to rake them out to level the sand. At times we find MORE rocks in the pile of sand.

After a day of hard work.. some of the girls got curious of what we were doing (They must think we´re crazy) They started chatting with us. Then they decided to give us a hand and eventually TOOK over our shovels and our work.. They were really into it.. we couldn´t stop them. Well, they didn´t have class so it was free time for them and they rather help us then relax and chat around with their other girlfriends. It was funny to see.

They did a pretty good job cos they were FULL of energy .
Here we had one of our team member that went in the classroom and taught them some english to keep them busy. That was one of the few problems as well.. lack of teachers and sometimes the teachers don´t show up for the classes. So these girls, they are just hanging around. They can get pretty noisy too and it can be quite disturbing for the other classes in session.



Another project was to paint the murals. Apparently Sandra (the lady in this photo) has already cleaned and scraped a huge mural where she found out later that she couldn´t paint on it. After all the hard work of cleaning the mural she was still determined to do at least a part of the mural as a remembrance and something nice for the students and public to see. So the diretor of the school showed her this wall to work on. So off they went scraping and clreaning again. I have yet to see the finished painted wall. Will do and will take a photo of it.

(Note behind this wall there is a garden which we also helped clean up. )

GROUP PHOTO..

Aldo´s house is a special project where there are only the volunteers helping to build from SCRATCH! Aldo is a man who has helped during the earthquake and in return the volunteer decided to help him and his family to build His house so they will have a good home to live in. He does construction himself so he knows what to do. He supervises the team. This project is always full and have their own team. I was fortunate to see it and work in it for a day.
The task was to dig a trench for the sewage system. So there we are digging with all sorts of tools. We have people with the sledge hammer, sledging away on the concrete, pick axes, spades to dig our way through. We did a pretty good job that day.

It is a good way for anger management I think. If you have any anger issues.. This is a good outlet..

Then we also did some cement mixing, carrying and pouring.... tough job!

BRICK laying too... Yup, you learn how to do these things even if you don´t know.. someone will teach you. Would have like to do that but only limited amound of people require sooo...... Perhaps next time I´ll get a turn to learn how to do it. Looks easy but.... there are so many little details that we need to take into account it seems. Can´t have a crooked and bend wall... :)

So, there you go.. this is only a FEW things that is going on.. there are more to come.. next post!!.. :)