Day 4 by Chloe D and Katherine

The day began with Sarah, our Me to We guide, knocking on our doors for the 7:30am wake up call. Looking out of our windows, we saw the sun shining and a herd of cows casually grazing a few meters away from our rooms at the beautiful Hosteria Pircapamba. We quickly got dressed for our long day of work and went to the dining hall for breakfast. We were pleased to hear that we would be eating cheese empanadas, scrambled eggs, fruit, yogurt, and raspberry/pomegranate juice. After breakfast we went back to our rooms to pack our day packs and apply lots of sunscreen (don’t worry mom!). We got on the bus at 9am and were ready for our trek in the Andes.

 In the 45 minute bus ride, we traveled up 2,000 feet to reach a final elevation of 12,000 feet. The village we were working with was called Shuid and was located at the peak of a mountain. At our arrival, we were greeted by dozens of school children, both boys and girls aged 6 to 15, in red and navy uniforms. Many of the boys were playing soccer by the cliff and the girls played on the swings. They initially were shy, but warmed up once we started taking photos. They especially loved looking at the photos after they were taken!

 With the community, our goal was to help with the construction of a kitchen and dining room for the school. To do this, we were separated into 5 groups of 7 and sent to 4 different stations. At every moment, 2 groups were working on digging 30cm by 40cm holes for the cement foundation of the kitchen. Another group was making and mixing cement using rocks, sand, and water and then transporting it to the holes. A fourth group sifted soil to remove big chunks of rock, plants, and pebbles. The last group compressed the sifted soil into bricks, using a new brick making machine (which we dubbed the “Brick-O-Matic 3000”). Our working day was between 10am and 4pm, with occasional water breaks and a lunch break.

 For lunch we enjoyed massive amounts of spaghetti and Bolognese sauce, broccoli and cauliflower, and dried plantains. Many of us went for seconds as we had worked up an appetite!

 We worked for another 2 hours continuing our work in the stations. At 4pm we collected all of the tools and materials we used and walked them to a tool shed at the top of a hill. We said “good bye” to the foreman, his workers, and the students, and then we walked down to the bus for our drive home. On the way back, the mountain we were driving down was in the midst of clouds and we spent most of the time within them (hoping the bus driver could see!).

 When we got back to the hotel, despite our filth, we all took VERY quick showers as there was almost no hot water. We spent the rest of the time before dinner resting, playing card games, or running around outside. At 6:30pm we were called for dinner and were served potato soup, chicken and rice, and salad. There were also delicious passion fruit cakes and lovely teas.
         

After dinner, our guides Carlos and Sarah led an activity. We were separated into groups of 3 and assigned different real life family scenarios and given their monthly income and yearly expenses. From the given information, we had to determine their daily budget which were roughly 35 cents, 95 cents and close to $3 respectively. Afterwards, we sat in a circle and considered the implications of this and thought about our own lives, which helped us understand the perspectives of the people we were working with.

We were then given free time with a “lights out” time of 11pm, but all of us went to bed sooner as we were physically exhausted from our day’s work. We are excited for our service project tomorrow, which is visiting a women’s community and learning and helping with their daily activities and chores. We’ll update you tomorrow!