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.

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

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!

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

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

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.

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

Despite our remote location, I was surprised to come across some outside influences during my time in the community. For instance, on Thursday I saw a little Quechua boy holding a packet of WWF wrestling stickers. On Friday, not only did we come across a man with a good-looking CAL hat on (he declined for pictures with us though, with a smile)

I also recognized some music being played through portable speakers on our walk towards the market (Papa Roach and Rammstein). After returning back to the Huata health post with the needed materials, we began the process of assembling a new filter with all the materials we prepared earlier. For this demonstration, Steven took the lead, patiently going step-by-step through the assembly of each pot, explaining the purpose of each material to the gathered community members.

Camila had prepared simple paper handouts with easy-to-understand diagrams of the pots in Spanish, which we then distributed to everyone in attendance.  As Steven explained each step, myself and others walked around with small buckets filled with the two sizes of sand, charcoal, bricks and other components to make sure everyone was able to visualize what we were doing.

Meanwhile, Philippe made some friends and attracted a small group of kids away from the filter discussion. It was fun jumping around and playing with the kids, and it also drew some smiles and laughs from the mothers and old ladies gathered around.

The filter was overall received very well with the community. During Steven’s presentation, members of the community spoke up to offer their comments and ask questions about the filter. One recurring theme was the community’s concern about the saltiness of the well-water. Not only does salty water taste bad, but community members complained of dry and cracked skin being a side effect of exposure to the “hard” water. Although water hardness is a legitimate concern (and at around 800 ppm, their water is well over the 180 ppm distinction of “very hard”, the health risks presented with chronic arsenic contamination are much greater and include pigmentation and thickening of the skin, bladder, kidney, liver, and skin cancers, as well as central nervous system damage and circulatory problems in some cases. After both Steven, the local doctor, and Javier explained the relative dangers of arsenic over salinity, the point seemed to get across. Although it is important for our team to be receptive to what the community wants, if we were to tackle the problem of water hardness before arsenic, we would encourage residents of Huata to drink more of the arsenic-laden water and further worsen their health. Once the second filter was completed, we put it to the test. On Thursday, Jared and Phillipe tested the health post’s water for it’s total arsenic concentration and speciation between arsenic 3 (the more dangerous form) and arsenic 5. They came up with a value of 30 ppb, most of it in the arsenic 5 form. On Friday, we ran this same water through the filter we completed on Wednesday. Even though the filter has not yet reached it’s maximum potential, we observed a reduction in arsenic to 10 ppb, which is at the Maximum Contaminant Level set by the EPA! We expect the filter to further reduce this level as more water passes through the three pot layers and more rust is able to bond to the arsenic in solution. We were careful not to overstress this small victory, as these were just preliminary tests of a pilot filter design that we expect to make changes to during the scope of our EWB program. After the presentation reached its conclusion, Jared, Philippe, Allie and I went on a small hike up the surrounding mountainside, where we met a local woman with a spectacular hilltop house overlooking the town.

As we enjoyed the view from the top, we got a call from down at the health clinic letting us know that the doctor had prepared some huatia for us. Huatia are potatoes cooked in an earthen oven served with Andean artisanal cheese. http://www.cuzcoeats.com/2011/06/huatia/ That got us down the mountain very fast! After our potato feast, we packed back into the combi bus and headed back to Puno.

Along the way, Sophia and Allie prepared some delicious cheese and avocado sandwiches, yummmm. After dinner, we walked over once again to the headquarters of  Red Interquorum, the college environmental group, to give our arsenic presentation to their members. As honorary “gringo primero” of the group, it was good to get some additional practice speaking in Spanish. It was also great talking about the arsenic problem in a much smaller setting, as we were able to get a lot of constructive comments and questions from the Interquorum group. As luck would have it, Javier Bojorquez (the founder of our partner NGO Suma Marka and professor of environmental engineering at the University of San Carlos) was celebrating his 28^th birthday that night! It was great to spend some more time with this Peruvian power engineer and get to know him a little better.

P.S. We’re all back home safe now, having arrived in San Francisco on the 23rd. We’ve just been busy catching up with things back home and have a couple more days to fill in here on the blog.

-Dom

Steven and I were up bright and early as we waited for la banda de diablitos to start up.   Dominic, Camila, and Philippe were lucky today because there was no band practice at 6:45am.  Steven and I have been getting a good laugh every morning because we would be up when the band started and we just pictured Dominic waking up disgruntled and grumpy because of the obnoxious horns and drums blaring right outside their hotel window.  The plan for today was to get picked up in a combi by members of Suma Marka and Chijnaya so that we could travel by caravan to the community of Coata with the filter that we had completed the day before.  There was some sort of miscommunication along the line because the officials from DIRESA set up a meeting in Huatta with the local Quechua villagers.  This was a suprise to all of us but we have learned to go with the flow down here in Peru.

We showed up in Huatta and a group of locals were waiting for us in front of the health clinic.  The main plaza and the health clinic were the only structures that were not made of adobe.

While we waited for the rest of the caravan to arrive, we noted some other problems which could possibly be addressed with future projects under the EWB UC Berkeley Peru program.  One very obvious issue was the way they hauled water from a nearby well.  They transported the water in tanks in the back of a truck and used garden hoses to fill up the tank at the health clinic which could pose huge cross contamination issues.  We also noticed some wells that were basically flush with the ground and surrounded by live stock.  The locals definitely need some education on well-head protection.

Once everyone in our group arrived to Huatta, the presentation began. The president of Suma Marka  , a doctor from the local clinic, and a DIRESA official explained the health risks associated with the arsenic in their water and how the community could use simple filters constructed from local materials to treat their water.  This presentation was made possible with the help of Amelia who

translated the presentations into Quechua.  Amelia is local mover and shaker who even has her own television program.  She is an essential asset to this project because she has the trust of the Quechua communities that we want to help and will help us to gain the trust of the Quechua people.  During this time, Francisco and I practiced using our portable arsenic testing kit that we would be leaving with Suma Marka to test the filter’s performance.

Our next destination was the Reserva Nacional Del Titicaca where a ranger station is located.  Our combi couldn’t handle the rough terrain once we got a few kilometers out so we had to jump into the back of a 4×4 to make it to the station.  Ingrid (a water tester for Suma Marka) and Francisco (a chemical engineering student) helped Dominic and I with our spanish and we taught them some english during the rough ride.

Once we arrived at the ranger station we were greeted by the director of the park.  We had planned on installing one of the filters at this site because their well had very high levels of arsenic and they had a competent staff who would be able to monitor its performance.  Unfortunately, the pump for the well was out of commission and it would have been pointless to leave a filter out there so we brought it back with us.  Even though everything did not go as planned, the day was success in the fact that we met with officials from the park who are very interested in the project and made our presence known to the Quechua community.