Martes 24 Julio (Tuesday 24 July)
It is our last day in Peru and there was still a little more
work to be done. A time was set to meet Raul, Luis and a local builder at the
base of the Hill of Pain at 7am. This meant a bright (meaning hazey in Lima)
and early 5:30am wake up. But this wasn’t such a fuss because we have to get up
at 4am tomorrow morning to catch the flight home! So we’re thinking of it as
good preparation to our oncoming battle with jet lag.
We arrived on time but Raul was nowhere to be seen. Cath
stayed at the base of the hill in order to try and get into contact with him
whilst I went up to set up the Kestral (provided by Prospectors) and tripod (provided by Fotogenic) to take atmospheric conditions readings. I then
proceeded to continue where we left of yesterday.
The aim was to complete trenching from the site near the top
of the hill all the way to the base of the hill in order to finish installing
two hoses, 300 m in length each, and subsequently refilling to cover them. The
intention is to allow the water to be fed down closer to where the locals
reside so that they can measure and use any water that is collected by the
systems.
About two thirds of the trench had already been dug up with
two 200m hoses installed and portions of it filled so I continued to fill
progressively from the top. However, this proved to be a challenge as this required
large amounts of soil, dirt and sand to fill the mostly rocky terrain. There were
sandy areas around so I proceeded to shovel and fill buckets with the soil and
carry them back and forth down and up the hill to fill the trenches. It was a
strenuous task especially given that the ground was very irregular and steep.
Fortunately, Raul, Cath and Luis emerged which sped things
up a lot. We all worked together, two of us shovelling, one transporting the
buckets and one filling the trenches. At the top, we noticed that one of the
hoses wouldn’t reach the SFC (Standard Fog Collector) so we had to switch the
trough around.
Luis mentioned that he had spoken to the locals who had
told him that they would be happy to help complete the rest of the trenching on
the weekend so we decided to finish filling the top two thirds of the job
(involving 50 or so buckets of sand) and leaving the bottom portion in their
hands. On the way back down the hill, we spoke to the lady, named Vidalina, who
lived closest to where our collection containers will be situated. She said she’d
be happy to take measurements and send us the results after we leave and use
the water for irrigation.
Their support symbolizes all the help and generosity we have
received on the trip and solidifies one of the project’s objectives; to get the
community involved and inform them on how to construct the systems for themselves using locally available materials. The project team has thus become Cath, Louis
(from PEBAL), Louis’ brother Raul, myself,
Victor (from Solidaridad en Marcha),
and the community itself (in particular Freddy). Their involvement reveals
their care, belief and desire that the systems be an ultimate success.
It is time for celebration, Pisco Sours y Cervezas on the house!
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