Construction Brigade Report

Our friend Caio has posted his notes and photos from our May 2008 Construction Brigade in Chincha. Here are the links:

• Read Caio's original posts (in Spanish)
• Read Caio's posts, translated into English (automatic translation by Google)

Chincha Project Update June 9, 2008

QUE BUENO! and we still need your financial help to complete the project! (see below)

The U.S. crew arrived and joined the Peru crew in an opening ceremony of solidarity. You can see the ceremony mandala in the foreground of the large group photo. (Gracias a Jason!)

The old gringo is center stage in photo #2 with Mily and Jacob and crew.

Caio (on the left) and part of his crew.

Completely perfect experience! Look for more photos of the earthquake resistant adobe construction.

Construction Brigade in Peru!

Stay tuned for new photos,

and watch our Peru-based blog, too!

WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP
to construct a clinic in

MINA DE ORO, CHINCHA, PERU.

Please consider a tax deductible contribution to

this neighborhood learning & earthquake recovery project.

MUCHAS GRACIAS!

Spanish Language Blog in Peru

Our partners in Peru have put together a Spanish language blog to document their progress. It's called Centro Paz y Amor (Peace and Love Center). You can view photographs of the project to date, and read the notes of the organizers.

• De Vuelta a la Tierra introduces the directors of the Centro Paz y Amor.
• If you don't trust your Spanish, you can read the site translated into English.

Peru Poster!

Here's the brochure, printed in Peru to advertise the "Proyecto" in Chincha:




The workshop and reconstruction program runs in Chincha from May 27 to June 3, 2008. Participants will learn about permaculture, sustainable building techniques, bio-orchardry, and more. Our construction brigade from the United States will partner and mentor in building an earthquake-resistant structure.

Enrollment closes May 18.

A Related Peru Reconstruction Project

Here's another group that's helping Pisco, Peru rebuild:

http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/bwb-goes-to-peru-we-need-your-support

-- Dan Paul

What We're Doing (An Outline of our Project)

1. We're organizing support and volunteers to travel to Chincha, Peru in a one-week volunteer construction brigade in May, 2008.
2. We'll help build an earthquake-resistant adobe building there.
3. This building (and its construction) will serve as a model for other construction projects in Chincha.
4. We'll also help at a local children's center.

At the construction site, we will:

• partake in the hands-on work of earthquake resistant Adobe construction
• mix mud
• lay blocks
• lash bamboo
• whatever else may be required to keep the work moving forward

At the children's center, we will:

• do woodworking projects around the Center (Bunkbeds, Shelving Units, Painting, etc.)
• assist with programming and support for the children

All this information is subject to change as we organize and plan with our comrades on the scene in Chincha.

People of Chincha, Peru

Here are some photos of the people we met in Chincha during our information-gathering visit in January:

Jacob, Mayten, Cesar (the Architect) and Leslie at the site of the Rehab Center

A group of volunteers living at Mayten's Kids from the neighborhood
Kids and Dan at the "Carpentaria" Workshop

Temporary Houses after the Rubble was cleared

These photos show what was once a neighborhood of Chincha.

This is all that is left after the earthquake.

Notice the trash that is accumulating in the foreground. It is rubble and trash from the earthquake, buried when the city regraded the demolished neighborhoods.

Notice the adobe blocks being accumulated for rebuilding this house.

This family is living in the makeshift tent while they produce adobe blocks for rebuilding their home.

Our project aims to provide a community workshop on earthquake-resistant adobe construction, so that the next house they build will be safe and sturdy in the next earthquake.

How to Get Involved

Contributions
For tax-deductable donations, checks may be made out to the Hopkinton Independent School, with the description line noted: "Peru Reconstruction Project" and mailed to:

Hopkinton Independent School, 20 Beech Hill Rd, Contoocook, NH 03229

Any donors contributing $50 or above will be acknowledged in the Construction Manual as Contributors, $500 or above as Underwriters.

>> Email organizer Dan Paul for more information about contributing <<

Partners

We are fortunate to have a collaborator in this project: The Hopkinton Independent School. Our friend Marek Bennett, a teacher at the Independent School, is working at developing an exchange relationship with a Chincha neighborhood Children’s Center (headed by Mayten Sanchez, who is mentioned in our Project Background). Our special thanks go to Cathy Chesley, the Independent School's founder, for her support of this project.

Hopkinton Independent School's mission speaks to educating children to be world citizens devoted to community service. Because of the school's exchange with the Chincha neighborhood Community Center, the school will serve as a fiscal agent for the reconstruction project. The school is a 501-c-3 non profit. All donations made to the Chincha Earthquake Reconstruction Project are tax-deductable.... 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the project!

Earthquake-Resistant Adobe Construction

This photo shows adobe blocks layed in a Flemish bond pattern with native bamboo being used for reinforcement. This is the kind of construction we will demonstrate in the workshop in Chincha.

For more information on earthquake-resistant adobe construction, visit:
http://www.engineering4theworld.org/Documents/Pakistan/Adobe_Tutorial[1].pdf

Background: How the Reconstruction Project Came About

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, this January Leslie and I once again traveled to Peru to visit our son, Jason, and his partner, Lucila, who have been living and working in the ancient Inca city of Cuzco. They have both been teaching at a private, bilingual grade school. One of their co-workers, Mayten Sanchez, is from the coastal city of Chincha, near Pisco, Peru. On August 15th, 2007, a severe earthquake struck the southern coast of Peru. The epicenter was near Chincha.

Mayten immediately went from Cuzco to Chincha following the earthquake, and found herself immersed in the work of helping to organize dozens of “Community Kitchens” around the city. This effort proved to be highly successful in providing food to the many thousands living in the chaos of their heavily damaged city. As the immediate demands of providing survival essentials started to ease, Mayten immersed herself, with the use of her intact family home, in providing enrichment activities in a caring and loving environment to the many traumatized, and some homeless, children of the neighborhood. For assistance she called upon her many friends and contacts in the teaching, art, and counseling worlds to lend a hand in the effort. Jason and Lucila were among those first to respond.

What we saw in our days at Mayten's in Chincha was truly an Oasis of Hope in the desert (literally and figuratively) of hardship and despair. In the 5 months since the earthquake, many things had returned to a sense of normalcy, with the exception of the reconstruction of permanent housing for the majority of the population who are not financially up to the task. I haven’t found any “official” data, but my unscientific assessment in the neighborhood in which we stayed is that well over half of the population lost their homes.

The purpose of our time in Chincha, other than to lend a hand to the efforts of Mayten and friends (which we did through carpentry projects around the house, and woodworking workshops with the children) was to explore the possibility of organizing a “Construction Brigade”, to work collaboratively with local residents, to at the very least, plant a seed of hope.

In an almost magical fashion, several things came together to allow for the emergence of plans for just such a construction project. This is one of those opportunities, where for a relatively modest amount of resources, and the hard work of a group of focused people, many extremely positive outcomes can be realized.

Without going into a great deal of detail here and now, I am very excited to tell you that Leslie and I have made a financial commitment to a very well presented licensed Peruvian Architect, Carlos Cesar Torres Allende. Carlos has a strong resume in the area of “Bioarquitectura” (in the states otherwise known as “Green Architecture"). Carlos has designed and overseen the construction of Government funded rural school buildings built with earthquake resistant adobe construction techniques. (see Earthquake-Resistant Adobe Construction- A Tutorial link).

The recipients of this new building will be a couple who have for many years been Drug and Alcohol rehabilitation councilors, who, before the earthquake destroyed it, operated a residential treatment facility affiliated with CEDRO. This facility housed 54 recovering addicts. Since the earthquake, most of these residents have returned to live back on the streets. When we went to visit Jacob at the site of the center, he was working at making new adobe blocks by hand, without even a shovel!

Another very important element to this project is that it will be used as an educational workshop in the training of Earthquake Resistant Adobe Construction. There will be an ad campaign administered by Carlos to advertise to other architects, builders, and “rebuild-it-ourselfers”.

One other element to this project is that in addition to actual construction, a “how-to” manual will be created for distribution to local city building departments, architects, builders, and residents!