After 2 weeks of hard graft in Pisco it was time again to continue with my travels. I was really sad to leave. My time working for Hands On, as brief as it was, was easily one of the highlights of my trip so far.

I`ll give you an idea about the work that the organisation Hands On and what I got up to in the two weeks that I was working for them...ç

First a bit about the earthquake itself... The province of Ica was worst affected by the 7.9 earthquake that hit the coast of Peru in August this year. But just 35km from the epicentre the city of Pisco suffered by far the worst damage. 80% of the city was reduced to rubble killing hundreds of people, injuring and displacing thousands. The pictures give an idea of the level of destruction but to see it in the flesh really is overwhelming.

Hands On set up base in Pisco shortly after the earthquake in order to initiate projects in the city and the surrounding area to help with immediate needs such as rubble clearance and the construction of temporary structures... and, workforce permitting, what ever else was needed.

Various teams are sent out each day to clear the remains of people`s homes away, pull down disintegrating walls an clear a safe space for people to erect their temporary homes and tents. I spent many a sweltering day clearing the rubble and dusty remains of people`s once loved homes. It`s tragic to see people lose everything they`ve spent their lives working for. And to see three generations of one family living in a tent and perhaps a small temporary wooden structure for the foreseeable future. Enduring all this whilst dealing with the loss of loved ones and having the strength to pick themselves up and continue with their lives seems impossible. But people just seem to be getting on with it. I found this amazing. I also really enjoyed the work despite the inevitable smelly encounter with what was once the family toilet! I`ve never done manual labour before and there`s something enormously satisfying about it. I started to feel muscles in my body I never knew existed! I felt what it`s like to really need food! At the end of a hard day shifting bricks and shovel loads of crap you really feel like you deserve your dinner! Whilst it was enjoyable work I came across constant little thought provokers in amongst the dust and dirt... a child`s shoe, a scrap of clothing, a broken doll... I tried not to think about it too much but it was hard not to imagine how much else was lost here other than homes. It also brought home how terrifying it must have been. When you step outside and see the giant cracks in the ground it makes you realise how nowhere could have felt safe... when the buildings are falling around you and the ground is opening up underneath you... I really can`t imagine.

In addition to rubble clearance Hands On provides volunteers to help out at the various Unicef funded Ludatecas around the city. These are day care centres for the local kids who have lost their homes and are living in tents. There are whole sections of the city which are now just rows and rows of tents. With an entire family living under one nylon roof the Ludatecas provide much needed relief to the greatly overcrowded parents and a safe space for the kids to express themselves and get way from the devastation around them. I volunteered in one of the centres and I swear it was more exhausting than the rubble! So much fun though. The kids were a handful but really great. The idea is to let them guide the games and just be there to keep them safe and stop them from hurting each other (often easier said than done!). We played chess, checkers, twister... but the biggest hit of all seems to be getting swung around by a gringo... hence the physical exhaustion! A group of girls, about 9 years old, performed a song for me the earthquake. They sang how the earthquake could make their houses sway but they will never fall down. They had actions and a dance that went with it. They finished up in fits of giggles. But the earthquake did bring their houses down. They had nothing left. This little show made me want to laugh and cry all at the same time. It was amazing to see how resilient kids can be.

After a week of rubble and little nippers I signed myself up for another project that Hands On were working on. Unicef had provided materials for local schools to build temporary classrooms around Pisco and the city of Ica. The classrooms in Pisco had been put up so badly by the schools that Unicef called in help from Hands On to build the classrooms around Ica. So off I went with some friends to join the group of existing volunteers in Ica already. We joined in towards the end of the project so by this point the pressure was on to get the last classrooms up before the unicef deadline. Whilst the work itself was a little less strenuous and more interesting than the rubble in Pisco, it was harder in a way. The temperature in Ica is stifling, much more so than Pisco. Whilst they`re both desert town, Pisco has the benefit of a sea breeze. So some days building were so hot I could feel myself getting giddy. The atmosphere in the much smaller group of volunteers was not as enjoyable for me as the group dynamic in Pisco. It felt like a case of too many chiefs and not enough indians! Partly I suppose because we were working to a tight deadline. We were also staying in a Peruvian lady`s house. It was incredibly generous of her to give up her home for free to Hands On but at the same time she was slightly bonkers, quite probably an alcoholic and it was a little hard to relax living in her space. All the same the Ica experience was fantastic. I had a good group of friends there... and I`ve never built anything before. It`s a wonderful feeling to have something tangible you can touch and see and be able to say ´I helped build that´ and to know how much value it will be to the kids who will learn in it.

The school I was building at most of the time was really great as well. The kids were fantastic. They were sometimes distracting, playing around us whilst we worked... but it was a welcome distraction. They had endless questions about where we were from... what kind of animals we have in our country, whether we have earthquakes too, whether we have snow... I was working with a tall, fair haired girl called from Slovakia called Lenka. The kids were particularly fascinated by her. They were even too shy to speak to her directly so they communicated with her through me. It was very amusing and puzzling for Lenka. But it`s understandable really.... Slovakia must seem like an exotic and far away place.

When we finished building some teachers asked us to visit each class and help them practice their English. They were mostly too embarrassed to speak to us in English so I, and another volunteer who spoke some Spanish, ended up answering their questions in Spanish. It wasn`t surprising they weren`t confident about their English when their teacher didn`t seem to be able to say more than ´what day is today?´ and ´what is your name?´! The headteacher insisted on having lunch with us and plying the boys in the group with 2 1/2 litres of a locally produced and potent Peruvian drink called Pisco (yes everything from mountains, cities and moonshine are named Pisco in this country it would seem!) So Lenka and I sat soberly eating our lunch while the teachers coerced the male volunteers into a macho display of Pisco guzzling, bicep and tummy slapping raucousness! It was funny and interesting to watch and despite the slightly worrying levels of alcohol consumed by a man supposedly in charge of a school, he and the teachers present gave us very warm and sincere thanks the work that we had done.

With Hands On you work 6 days a week with Sundays usually as a well earned free day. Whilst I was in Ica my work buddy Dennis and I utilised our day off by visiting the nearby oasis town of Huacachina. It`s a very small touristy town surrounding a lake in the desert... I`ll write a little separate piece about that shortly...

Back at Hands On HQ in Pisco I felt more at home again. While I was there there was an average of 80 volunteers with people coming and going every day. The project leaders Mark and Stefanie do an admirable job of keeping everything running smoothly. When we returned there had been such a turnover of volunteers I only recognised about half the people there! I settled in for a couple more grimy days of good honest rubble by my last day I was physically exhausted. I`d only done two weeks but I was ready for a break. There are people who`ve been working for weeks and months who I have total admiration for because in just two weeks I was done for!

As well as all the hard work we had a lot of fun too. We had a few parties and nights out at the `Pisco Disco!` We had a few parties thrown for us by the locals as well. One man organised a fundraising BBQ for us in order to help him rebuild his house. He had lost his son and other members of his family tearfully (and slightly drunkenly!) told us we were like angles fallen from the sky. The reactions from the locals regarding our presence was quite mixed. Generally people understood what we were doing and were incredibly happy to see us and were welcoming and thankful. Those we were directly working for would constantly bring us gifts while we were working, usually in the form of cold drinks and snacks. Others would come and encourage us to move the rubble into the road to encourage the municipality to send bulldozers in again (amazingly some decision makers on high seem to think that no more bulldozers are needed... Well it`s been 3 months now, what are you all whinging about!!). But some people in the community didn`t really understand and would think we were being paid despite having ´voluntario´ written all over everything. It`s really hard to imagine how it must seem for people who have lived through that. Many will never have the opportunity to visit other countries so to see group loads of people from other countries working for no money to clear up a town that they have no connection to must seem very strange.

Without wanting to sound too gushing I met some really inspiring people... both volunteers and locals. I realised, for about the gazillionth time this trip, how lucky I am. It`s actually a privilege to be able to give up time to volunteer somewhere. Most people in the world have to work every moment they can just to survive and provide for their families. I`ve never felt rich or particularly lucky at home but really I`m in a small minority of people who has everything they want and need. Perspective is an incredible thing.