It is about 4:00 pm on Sunday in Arequipa. We are sitting at an internet cafe in the bus terminal waiting for our 1:00 am bus to take us to Cabanaconde where we are hoping to see the second largest canyon in the world (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon) and the worlds largest bird (the Condor, which has a wing span of 3.5 meters). We were hoping to catch a bus this afternoon (the town is 5 hours away), but even with 5 bus companies running the same route, all of the buses were full. Time to wait.

As mentioned in our last blog, we spent the first day volunteering by pouring a foundation for a temporary home. We ended the blog by mentioning the first of a few side notes of the day, which was that Braden was bitten (minor) by a dog and went to visit some Cuban doctors to have it looked at. Braden went to see the doctors with two other volunteers. These were Jason (who is the camp medic and wanted to meet the doctors), and Dragonfly (who is fluent in spanish and had met the doctors previously). The three took a Tuk Tuk to the complex that houses the doctors as well as about a thousand Peruvians who are sick and homeless. The complex is enclosed by ten foot concrete walls. The gates are protected by the Peruvian army carrying shotguns. Everyone in the complex lives in tents which are lined in rows. To one side of the complex is a sectioned off area for the doctors, nurses, bed ridden patients, supplies, and housing. This area is also protected by the army with shot guns. To Braden´s understanding, this facility has come into being because Cuba offered to provide doctors free of charge in return for food, water, and protection for the doctors. For the residents living within the complex, all health care is free. While the benefits of this are obvious, the situation also allows for people to pretend to be sick, or to drag a sickness out, in order to have the ¨luxuries¨ provided. Within 15 minutes, Braden saw the doctor. The doctor asked how Braden had treated the wound, which was with water, antiseptic, and iodine. The doctor said this was fine and that no more treatment (other than keeping it clean) was needed. Braden asked the doctor if he should be looking into having a rabies vaccination. The doctor said no. Braden is confident with this diagnosis because the dog bit out of self defense, and because the dog had bitten two others without causing a problem.

The second sidenote of the day. Everything in Pisco has value. This became apparent when we had to carry all supplies to the jobsite hidden in bags, when we had to go back to the jobsite at 9 o´clock at night to retrieve the forms used to pour the foundation, and when the reminents of sand and gravel left over were stolen from the jobsite in the night. Again, everything in Pisco has value. This point was reiterated time and time again by Burners without Borders staff. (As mentioned in the previous blog, the organization before BWB in Pisco actually left because about nine people were robbed at machete point in the span of 2 or 3 weeks). Everything in Pisco has value. Rules included: Never go to the beach. Never go to the bar. Never walk alone at night. Never take a taxi or Tuk Tuk with two Peruvians in the front. Never show tools or cameras in public. Often, BWB volunteers were told by Peruvians not to walk down certain streets, were escorted home at night, and were warned about potential dangers. For example, some Peruvians warned us at the BWB house always to keep the door locked for there had been talk around town of an armed robbery on the gringos. That said, BWB was extremely security conscious and did everything possible to provide the knowledge and protection for its volunteers.

Third sidenote of the day. The entire family worked like dogs helping us with the foundations. This we found to be the case for all of the families we helped throughout the week. Any able bodied person helped. However, in our whole stay in Pisco, we did not witness anyone unrelated to the family assisting with the rebuilding. In Pisco, many can´t understand that gringos are willing to come and work for free. To them, any labour requires money. Therefore, over the course of the week we often saw many Peruvians standing around watching us work. No one could afford to pay them, yet they were not willing to work. (This is our impression anyways, no telling how accurate it is.)

Our second day was just as amazing as the first. We went out to a small community 20 minutes east of Pisco to start digging out the ground for a foundation. The road linking Pisco to this village is littered with garbage (people of all ages are continually hunting through it - anything in Pisco has value) and the road is too dangerous to walk. In this community, (actually 5 linked communities with a couple hundred people) most families live in one or two room bamboo huts with a dirt floor. Families wash in the stream about a 100 meters away. This is about the same distance to the nearest out-house. Power lines pass right through the town, but many families cannot afford to have electricity wired to their home. BWB is to build a home with attached bathroom and septic field for a family with two children. The youngest, a girl of two, had a colonoscopy when she was five days old. She needs two more surgeries if she is to survive. Just this week, her dad got a job as a night security guard which has insurance benefits. BWB is still not sure how much will be covered by insurance, and is hoping to raise the money needed to cover the rest of the surgery. That said, the family still needs a clean home to help their daughter. The other families in the village understand this and apparently do not mind that they are the only ones to receive a new home.

We began digging around 9:30am on Wednesday after surveying the land. It was found that we would have to dig down three feet in order to provide a level surface with which to pour the foundation. Our digging immediately drew a lot of attention of the villagers because no one before had ever dug a foundation for a home. In the past if a foundation was poured, it was done using forms above ground. A couple hours into digging we started to uncover buried artifacts. Bits of fabric, broken clay pottery, bone fragments. Eventually, we found what looked to be part of a skull of a child, an arm bone, pieces of hair (not sure from what), and part of a wall. This was of course very exciting for us, but of great concern for the family. They did not want it to look like we were digging for artifacts (remember no one had ever dug a foundation before) and they didnt want other villagers digging in their yard in the middle of the night (years earlier, a nearby farmer had found 2 chests of gold in a field). We had to be discrete if we found something. Later in the day, we reburied the finds (they were essentially scraps) out of respect for the dead. That evening, it was decided to put the project on hold while the matter was brought to local authorities. It was found that often bits of buried things are found, and we got the approval to continue digging. (We spent Thursday clearing rubble, but returned Friday to continue with the dig.)

It was a very hard decision to leave Pisco and Burners without Borders. The projects being worked on are incredible, and the people at Burners are all amazing. We were touched time and time again by the kindness and dedication of the volunteers. However, we were even more touched by the friendliness, appreciation, and resilience of the people of Pisco. While Pisco is a dangerous city, the vast majority of its citizens are extremely warm, caring, and hardworking. We hope later on in our lives to work with a BWB organization somewhere else in the world.

If you might be interested in donating to Burners without Borders, please ask us for more information or go to burnerswithoutborders.org. Unlike large organizations, 100% of donations go directly to families in need. If you would like to donate, please consider donating to ¨Dragonflie´s Pisconte Project¨which is where we spent most of our time.

Thank you so much for following our blogs. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve them, of if there is anything else you would like to know, please just let us know.

Love always,

Braden and Maya.