Our six days in Carancas

Carancas! A beautiful expanse of land surrounded by mountains, Andes in the distance, livestock and adobe houses every few kilometers and miles and miles of Peruvian wilderness.

This is where part of the EWB spent the past week among the Aymaran people of the altiplano. Even before the Incas, the Aymara people have existed for 2,000 years on the altiplano. Today, the Aymara people live in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

So it was six lucky EWB members and our amazing guide/biologist/teacher/new facebook friend Sylvia from Lima, Peru that were able to spend one amazing showerless week in the Peruvian wilderness.

We arrived last Saturday to the health post of Carancas where we would sleep, test our well water collections and feast on meals of oreos, funcheetzos, cliff bars and wasabi covered peas.

We were excited for our first day in Carancas and luckily arrived on the initiation day of the new Teniente Gobernadors de Carancas. Teniente Gobernadors are the regional presidents of the five sectors of Carancas.

While we were able to introduce ourselves and share a few rounds of Guarana (don´t worry its soda!) with the Tenientes and locals of Carancas…the  party had already started well before our two o´clock arrival…so were still not sure if they remember our meeting. We know for sure that a few Carancans remember our visit because we were able to color in our workbook with a few children.

Since the party was bound to continue, we decided to spend our first night in the quaint little border town of Desaguadero complete with chicken feet soup, questionably stained sheets and for some of us lucky ones, an amazing view into Bolivia and Lake Titicaca (not to mention a view of thunderstorms in the mountains and midnight activities that most likely only happen in border towns).

After waking up from what we´re still not sure was a weird dream or reality on Sunday morning, we had a tasty meaty breakfast at the local market (with no other gringos in sight!) and then picked up some supplies for the well testing that was to come.  We then headed back to the nice, quiet Carancas and hashed out our gameplan for the well testing that was to come out.  During our meeting in front of the heath post in the warm Altiplano sun, a sweet lady named Maria came over chat with us while she took a break from herding her sheep and llamas.  It was really interesting to talk to Maria about her experiences in Carancas, and share with her about our project.  It seems like she enjoyed our company too, as she offered us some delicious homemade bread, and when she had to leave the area for a bit, she entrusted us ingenieros to watch over her sheep, and even left her whip!

Luckily Dominic and Ally were pretty skilled herders, so she returned very pleased.  After finishing our meeting, we performed our first official well assessment on the ¨salud¨ well.

Here’s where we were able to do some engineering in action, or at least chemistry, as we all practiced the proper procedures to test for arsenic and other measures of water quality such as hardness, alkalinity, sulfate, iron, and pH. After getting some practice in, we set up camp within the health post, with the girls finding room in a slightly dusty spare room and the guys making good use of the birthing room. Stephen made some slight modifications to transform/re-imagine the birthing chair as a comfy bed.

The next day represented the first day of well-testing! We were joined by a team from DIRESA and split into two groups, the girls team travelling by pickup truck while the boys got nice and cozy with the DIRESA members travelling by motorcycle. Travelling around the flat, grassy altiplano, the team got perspective about just how spread out the individual households were from one another and the dominant use of the land for agriculture such as potatoes and grazing for alpacas and sheep. Travelling from well-to-well, the team noted that most residents of the region are not permanent, but commute from Desaguadero in order to graze their animals. The majority of permanent residents who continuously use the water are frequently older people who prefer the open country environment from the busy city.  Upon testing both deeper tube wells and shallower government-constructed handpump wells, we observed trends demonstrating very high levels of arsenic (up to 500ppb!) but lower levels of other contaminants such as sulfur, while in the shallower wells there were much lower levels of arsenic but significant levels of iron, nitrate, and sulfur due to improper sealing of the wells coupled with instances of poor draining and infiltration of contaminated surface water in close proximity of animal waste and agriculture. Because of this information, the team is now considering whether to focus primarily on the well used by the 30 or so schoolchildren in Central Carancas for our future implementation trip. While we are planning on conducting an alternatives analysis report to explore different methods for arsenic removal as well as treatment options for biological contamination as well as rainwater catchment systems, the school site may be the most effective venue to focus our attention first due to it’s heavy use by children during the school year and support from community members.

In order to obtain our results, we spent the majority of the evenings and the last day and a half conducting the various water quality tests. Some of the tests were quite tedious and extensive, but we were able to pass the time listening to music (including a techno CD Dominic bought in Desaguadero and another CD with the juicy title “80’s American Rock”), as well as sharing stories (with Stephen’s “chicken story” from his time in the Peace Corps taking the cake).  Ally and Silvia led the effort to put together some informational posters detailing the educational materials we prepared in Puno and gave out to kids who we came in contact with testing wells and hanging around the Carancas health post. By the time we left the health post, we compiled a binder of the well results, background data on the project, and some educational coloring books for the kids.  As we prepared to leave Carancas, we reflected back upon the solid relationship we were able to build with the nurses at the health post, our positive introduction with the tientes gobernadors and local community leadership, and the many samples we were able to take of wells in all 5 regions.

Back to Civilization!

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post to let you all know that both teams are safe and well! The Carancas team just returned to Puno and have been in contact with the Huatta team who have been staying in Huatta this past week (presumably without internet connection).

 

Updates soon!

-Dominic

GOOO TEAM HUATA!!! First visit

So today (January 6) was the first day in which the Huata team (Joe, Camila, Philippe, Miheer, Ollie, and Janice) needed to head out to the community to discuss logistics and our plan for the upcoming week. Meeting up at 8 am in the morning, we had a quick breakfast of sliced bread, strawberry jam, butter, pan-fried eggs, mystery ham and the usual cup of tea or coffee. Before leaving the hotel, we quickly planned out the main  points we wanted to address to the mayor of Huata and gobernadores (leaders of each of the four zones in Huata) in order to gain their trust and permission to go out and test wells in the communities (amongst other things!) We met Javier (head of Suma Marka) and his adorable daughter at his office. We took two taxis to a common meeting place for people to be picked up in small buses (combis) to hitch a ride to Huata. It was a bumpy ride but we passed by beautiful Lake Titicaca so it was all good
We disembarked in the center of Huata, where, today being Friday, we were greeted by the community’s outdoor market, which sold things from toys and twine, to fish and fruits. And surprising a whole lot of homemade jello it seems! At the marketplace, an old Quechua lady told us that she broke her wrist in Spanish but then reverted to speaking Quechua, in which we completely didn’t understand and just smiled our way through the conversation. Exploring the small center, we saw a dog from the previous assessment trip in June! The infamous dog with dreadlocks.While we needed to wait towards 11am to have any sort of meeting, we headed to the health post where we saw friendly and familiar faces, i.e. the nurses of the establishment. Two of the nurses brought us to the mayor’s office where we meet with a gobernador who invited Camila, our wonderful translator (and I swear a hustler!) to speak to the entire community of what and why we were there in the first place! We headed back to the marketplace and the gobernador called for the monthly meeting called bato, where he, Camila, Dr. Rolando (the doctor from the Huata health clinic who came to the DIRESA meeting yesterday) and Juanita, the nurse who translated everything into Quechua, the native dialect
addressed the public. After a rather welcome (on the most part) response from the public and a bout of heavy rain, we headed back to the mayor’s office where we spoke to the mayor and got his approval for testing wells for the upcoming week. Additionally, we discussed logistics of transportation and, importantly, housing. We managed to secure a place from a nice lady (her name is Virginia and she is a regidor)  for all six of us to stay in Huata (and we even have a meal included on one of the days)! Sweeet~ Kudos to Philippe and especially Camila (amidst her “dying” from breathlessness) for doing an awesome job of speaking!!!

By this time, it’s around 2pm and we needed to hitch a ride back to Puno on one of the passing combis. Luckily, we met Dona Teodora which is the only female combi driver in town. She agreed to come back after one of her packed combi runed to Juli. Hence, we were invited to eat and chat in the health clinic. We saw their resident dog, Coco 1, who is the oldest, sweetest “doctor” there of 14 years, were taken back in time by listening to N’SYNC’s “It’s Gonna Be Me” in the doctor’s office, and ate a wonderful and filling meal of grilled pig, dehydrated potatoes white with cheese, and a Russian salad, which was basically a mixture of diced beets, peas, carrots (and some other things!) with something similar to thin mayo. This meal was prepared by Juanita, the nurse and was in commemoration for the Dia de Reyes.Trying to get situated into the combi back to the Puno was a feat in itself as we were squished to the max in order to cram as many people as possible to be dropped along the way! The dirty window and I became fast friends. But it was a very smooth ride nonetheless as we had a very careful driver who wore her seat belt and didn’t dangerously bypass any cars. Dropped off at the Combi stop to Capachica in Puno, all six of us took a taxi back to the hotel. Lucky Miheer was appointed by the driver to sit in the large trunk of the station wagon amidst all of us clamoring for it.

Now we’re back in the hotel with cold pizza and a load of work to do, but we’re happy we had a super successful day! We’ll be heading back to Huata on Sunday and we’re looking forward to it!

Until next time,

Janice

P.S. Pardon the weird formatting. Miheer and I can’t seem to fix it! Hope you enjoyed the post!

Divide and Conquer!

Today was the first day that the EWB-Peru travel team split into two groups, with Philippe, Camila, Janice, Ollie, Miheer, and Joe travelling to Huatta for the first time on this 2nd assessment trip and Dominic, Ally, Jared, Claire, Diana, and Steven remaining in Puno to finalize plans for leaving for Carancas tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

Those who stayed in Puno enjoyed some additional time to write postcards and catch up on some sleep in the morning, and then were joined by a new member of the team, Sylvia! A past collaborator with Suma Marka and a recent environmental engineering grad from Lima, Sylvia has a very outgoing personality, is bilingual in Spanish and English, and will be a great asset to the Carancas team.

While Steven worked to update and finalize the well assessment/ water survey sheets that we will be using during our sampling, Jared, Ally, and Dominic went on a massively-successful shopping trip in central Puno. We were able to pick up rainboots to help combat the muddy terrain and  some crayons for the niños to color in the educational arsenic storybooks that Ally and Camila worked so hard to produce. We also got some tasty ice cream!

Before we headed back, we also bought two soccer balls for each team to take with them to Huatta and Carancas.  Dominic and Philippe have been mentally preparing themselves to once again take on the Peruvians in futbol, but the locals definitely have the altitude on their side so we´ll see if their lungs can handle it.

The Carancas team will be leaving at 5AM tomorrow morning (much to Dominic´s dismay), and will be staying at the health post center in the middle of the region till Friday morning, when they will return back to Puno to reunite with the Huatta team. Since Carancas is very rural, there will be no internet connection so the team will not be able to provide updates until their return to Puno.  Since this is the last time we will be able to talk with you all, we wanted to share the most current version of our plan for the next 6 days. Saturday the team will be travelling along with Javier to Carancas by combi (crowded VW´ish buses). While there is a town-hall meeting planned for Saturday, we are not currently on the agenda and will try to participate if invited. Sunday will present time for the team to explore and get oriented with the Carancas community, it is very important for us to not ¨jump the gun¨and immediately begin snooping around and testing people´s water without first getting to know them, gaining their approval, and establishing our presence in the community.  Monday and Tuesday represent the major work days in our time in Carancas.  Our plan is to split into three groups with the 6 members of our team joining forces with the doctors and nurses of DIRESA as well as volunteers from Suma Marka.  These three teams will have the goal of sampling at least 20 sites in a 10 mile radius including wells, springs, and river sites, in order to gain some serious documentation of the water quality in the region.

This will definitely shape up to be an adventure, as one of the teams (most likely the girls) will travel in the official DIRESA truck while the other two teams will travel from site to site by motorcycle. (I PROMISE I´LL BE CAREFUL MOM)

After the two sampling days, we will spend Wednesday testing the samples by conducting in-depth chemical tests (yaaaaaaaaaay Chemistry!), with the plan to bring back samples to further test in the UC Berkeley labs.  Thursday will hopefully present opportunities to distribute our awesome educational materials to the community, as well as conduct additional assessments of rain-water catchment systems and sanitation practices in the community.  Friday morning we will begin the journey back to Puno.  Ally and Dom remain hopeful that we will have enough time to make a quick pitstop to the beaches of Juli (Javier´s hometown on the way back to Puno) in order to take a quick dip into the worlds highest commercially navigable lake and largest lake in South America!

Hasta Luego!

-Dom

Super-productive day in Puno

It was very difficult to get some of our team members up this morning. Almost all of us were up until 3 am preparing for our meeting with DIRESA (local ministry of health) and Suma Marka (our partner NGO)  the following morning.  To my dismay there were no huevos with our hotel breakfast so we made do with some bread and jam before we headed over to the Suma Marka headquarters for the meeting.  The purpose of this meeting was to make our objectives and project process clear to all of our partners and to arrange for our stays in the communities of Huata and Carancas.  After Javier (Suma Marka president) gave a brief overview of the project, our health and safety officer Philippe described EWB’s project process in detail so that everyone understood how our organization works.  We had to make it clear that we cannot rush straight into implementation without a comprehensive understanding of all possible alternatives as well as how each community collects and uses their water (how much water they use, where they get it, how they transport it, etc.). Diana, one of our engineers and valuable translators, finished up summarizing what the EWB process and project was all about. Camila then presented the goals of the education team and the educational materials for the kids and asked the doctors at the communities to give feedback on these. It was awesome to watch the doctor from Huatta smiling at each turn of a page of the kids’ booklet the ed team had prepared.  Then we split into a Huatta section and a Carancas section to coordinate the visits to both communities with the doctors and Eng. Javier from Suma Marka. After this very succesful and exhausting meeting we went for lunch at La Cayma. Boy they serve so much food here! We had a 4 course meal complete with avocado salad, corn soup with mystery meat, entrees of either pesto pasta with steak or chicarron de pollo, and a dessert of rice pudding – all for 10 soles! (less than five bucks) 

We had to return to the cell phone shop because for some reason our in-country cell phones were blocked.  While we were waiting for Camila to resolve this issue, we explored the market place and saw all kinds of curious and amazing things. From girls jumping rope in the middle of traffic to a Papa Smurf and Smurfette cake and novelty t-shirts depicting famous pop culture scenes (the last supper and the simpons) all starred by cuys! (guinea pigs).  Plus, Ollie got some quality time with some street dogs (and almost got eaten alive) and Dominic bought a Han Solo head on a Millenium Falcon toy – for kids and bigger kids alike. By the way, getting a cellphone here can be a rip off!

After coming back, everyone was so tired from a long night of work and a day full of meetings, food and exploration that they fell on their beds like logs and slept for so long that some of us thought dinner was no longer in their agenda. Meanwhile, some went back to the Suma Marka office to get some maps of Huatta and training on the water testing that would be undertaken. But, alas, at 9pm, everyone was either back or awake and we made it to a restaurant that was willing to take us in 20 minutes before more restaurants close. We shared a serving of assorted meat and had to try some anticucho (beef heart) that Jared had ordered. Even our vegetarian member found a tasteful option for himself. So everyone was happy and ready for bed, and ready for the adventures of a new day!  Until next time…

Ally and Jared

A First Full Day in Puno

After 2-3 days of sleeping at odd hours, lugging baggage and keeping track of passports and boarding passes, a solid 7 hours in plush beds (relative to plane seats and benches) did us a world of good.

For those who braved the cold showers last night, a hot shower this morning was a godsend. Breakfast was a standard, but delicious, bread, eggs, cheese, and some meat (ham, maybe?) At 9:30am, Javier Bojorquez and Yelitza, the Suma Marka representatives, came to the hotel for our first order of business.

We began by introducing ourselves, who was going to which community, and which sub-teams we are in. We then dived into answering Javier’s questions. This was followed by a discussion of the plan of work in Huatta. Javier and co. gave us some great tips. He told us about some general information of the pueblo, who we should talk to, how we should behave, who the important people are and who can help us the most, and things we should and should not do. Furthermore, we discussed what the objectives of each of the sub-teams is in Huatta. This was followed by a discussion of what needs to be prepared for tomorrow’s important meeting with DIRESA (the health organization), DIGESA (the environmental organization), and Suma Marka. The discussion was very fruitful, and split into two halves by lunch and a stroll in the city of Puno. Lunch at La Cayma was great value for money.

Everyone filled their tummies and re-energized for the second half of the discussion with Javier and co. The stroll in Puno was to buy rain ponchos, rain boots and mobile phones for each team.

On returning to the hotel, we discussed the details and objectives of the team travelling to Carancas. The same things were discussed as for the Huatta team. Finally, the education team showed their materials to the Suma Markans who were very impressed!

A few lingering discussions remained, but most of our temporary brain space had been used up. We departed with Javier, Yelitza, Sandra and Hector (both of whom showed up at some point during the first half of the discussion). Everyone freshened up, and we got right back to work. A few of us began putting together a presentation for the big meeting tomorrow and others got together in their sub-teams to ensure we were all on the same page as to the objectives of our assessment trip. 7:30pm, dinner time. We walked to Tradiciones del Lago. On the pricier side, but good quality food. A much needed break, and we shared some great stories and interesting conversations, as always.

Two hours later, we made the walk back to the hotel that erased the drowsiness from our bodies. More work to do. We organized the sampling materials and split them into two for each community. People showered, checked email, emptied bowels, and then returned to the lobby to finish our preparations for tomorrow’s big meeting. While others are doing that, I am writing this blog.

Whew! It’s late (12:30pm) , we’re all tired. We’re making good progress in finishing the presentation. If I help, we will finish faster.

Hasta manana!
Ciao.

Off on a second adventure

We are off on our second assessment trip for the Peru Project!

Hour 20 of 34 in airports and airplanes.

Twelve intrepid engineers without borders are now in Puno and getting used to the altitude after a safe bout of aeroport hopping.  In the next few days, we will continue the work we started in June.

Fueled with enthusiasm from our first assessment, we came back to Berkeley and built up our team.  We formed groups of students dedicated to education, filter research, lime softening research, and hydrogeology.  Each team became experts in their respective areas  and contributed to a plan of action for this second assessment.

While the first trip was focused on creating strong links with the local NGO and department of health, this trip will be focused on the community needs.  As a result, we will only be spending the first few days in the larger city of Puno, before going out to the communities of Huatta and Carancas.

We are now plotting our next moves while recovering from the exhaustion and the altitude.

Hasta Pronto,

Philippe