My New Love

This past weekend my initial discontentment at the idea of living in a desert for the next two years (if my site ends up being in Ica instead of Libertad) changed, and my conception of organizing projects was inspired. My tech group spent 3 days in Bernales, Ica learning how to build dry bathrooms. For perspective, Bernales is a big sandbox. There are no trees, the only green areas are the fields being cultivated for crops, which are few and far between, located by the water source. Everything else is desert. The houses are all painted bright colors and constructed from adobe. We were at Bernales because it suffered from the earthquake two years ago and a lot of the houses are lacking a wastewater system. Well, most are lacking toilets and such as well.

We worked with a family that needed a septic tank. When we had a site visit Thursday night, we met the family – Diana, Sr. Lopez and their 4 year old son. Their house was built of walls out of woven straw (‘estero’ in Spanish), which is a very common building material in Peru. Sr. Lopez prepared the hole where the septic tank was to go. It was 2 meters deep and 1mx1m. A huge sand pit. Sand. That was a huge problem. The idea behind us doing this project was that we would be able to get a chunk of it done this weekend. Since a foundation hadn’t been laid with cement for us arriving, it was impossible to pour one and expect to be able to work on it that same time without it needing time to work. Because of this, we had to improvise the foundation of the septic tank hole. Instead of a concrete footer, we used huge rocks, followed by a layer of gravel, sand, and a slab of bricks mortared together. (We are crossing our fingers that this will withstand any sinking into the sand.) Improvisation – a new word all WatSanners love. Then we spent the next two days mortaring bricks up in the pit for the walls, mixing cement (which can never be done as well as a Peruvian can do), transporting gravel, and playing with poop pipes. At the end of the time we had finished laying the plumbing tubes for the toilet, sink, shower, the trench for the piping to the septic tank, and the septic tank. It was hoss. Great. Beautiful. And, we were one dirty group that hadn’t showered for 3 days.

On the way back we adventured to an oasis. A literal oasis. This is when my perception of the desert changed. I have found that I am happiest where I am living somewhere that is green and with mountains if possible. But, if there is something as cool as a lagoon with wildlife in the middle of the desert near my site I would totally be happy. In addition, Bernales is beautifully situated with mountains in the distance.

For Halloween I ended up being a gringo and celebrating with the WatSan crew. A little lame, but finding a costume was less pertinent than showering and relaxing! We stormed through a grocery store and bought candy to trade as simulation of Halloween treats.

November 1st was Day of the Dead here and I celebrated with my family. The whole day was hilarious! It is tradition to make dolls out of dough to cook and trade with family. The word for this doll is ‘wawa’ which originates from the Chequa word for baby. So, all day I was hearing my family say “wawa this” and “wawa that.” I kept thinking I was surrounded by grown up babies crying out for attention. It was so funny. Also, I was making it with my aunts and grandmother and they were all bickering over who’s bread was who’s when it was coming out of the oven. When, in reality, they each had literally enough bread for a month - two huge tubs worth of bread dolls each, yet claiming the bread coming out of the oven was theirs. I was thinking, “Honestly? How much bread is really necessary to have?” I still don’t know how it’s all going to get eaten before they turn to croutons. I chilled the evening eating gluten-free bread out of my mix of rice flour, quinoa, and corn flour (sooo fabulous!) and painting with my aunt. By the end of the weekend I loved the potential of deserts, the word ‘wawa’ and how it creates adult babies, and painting.

Count-down: 4 days until I find out my site for the next 2 years!