Making progress

After many months of planning, we have finally begun to build! On January 12th, my counterparts and I borrowed the municipality's truck to pick up our materials and move them up the mountain. It was a rough day, and for me it ended at the doctor's getting shots of anesthesia to remove a toothpick-sized splinter from my hand, but we eventually made it safely home with our load of materials.

Loading materials in Caraz. If only that back door had opened...

Our storage room full of cement, pipes, and wood.

The next day we had our first training session with Eliseo, the plumber, to teach each family how to install their pipes. Some families are still choosing to pay the "maestro" to do it for them, which was not part of the original plan, but in the end I am glad as it will generate some income for Eliseo, who has helped me incalculably with this project. While the men paid close attention to the training, the women prepared a huge lunch of pasta and (surprise!) potatoes, and after lunch each family departed with cement and pipes. Of the 20 participating families, only one family dropped out of the project. All of the remaining 19 families met the requirements and I was pleased to be able to give each and every family

Breaking ground at the training. Note that I am only pretending to be helping. After the embarrassing splinter incident the night before, it was decided that the 'senorita' should leave the real work to the farmers.

Reviewing the instructions as we go.

One of the ladies presides over massive pasta pots.

Explaining how the pipe layout works to prevent undesirable odors.

As much of the group as we could get in one place at one time.

So now each family is on their own until Feb 3rd to finish installation, although I plan to start pestering them a week before that. On that date we will have the second training session where each family will learn how to put together the exterior of the bathroom. Everyone who has successfully installed their pipes and cement floor will receive wood and aluminum siding after the session. Of the 20 participating families, only one family dropped out of the project early on. All of the remaining 19 families have met the requirements to date, and I was thrilled to be able to give each and every family the first half of their materials. I am very hopeful that with a bit of gentle pressure, and the reward of an electric shower for the best bathroom completed on time, all of the families will at least come close to meeting our project deadline at the end of February.

Happy belated holidays to everyone! This year the Schwartz-McDermott family decided to skip the snow and spend Christmas in the sand on the coast of Peru. We started off with a visit to my home town in the Andes, where we were invited to a lunch of guinea pig and played some tag with my small neighborhood friends. Then we headed south to the National Reserve of Paracas and the spectacular dunes of Ica, where we spent Christmas day flying down mountains of sand on snowboards, starting a new family tradition of X-treme sports. Other highlights were visits to two glacial lakes in the Andes, and taking a tour of the wineries in Ica and seeing dad forced to take shots of the traditional Peruvian Pisco prepared by hand (and foot) and aged in clay casks.

Sean meets some of my friends. They may be small, but there are a lot of them.

Dad tries to stay focused during a tour of the oldest winery in Ica (after his 7th shot of pisco)

The trip was also memorable for some of the most spectacular come-from-behind victories in the history of the game of Hand and Foot, a card game that has pitted father and daughter against mother and son for almost 10 years. My host family will also never forget how my dad explained why they arrived late for lunch one day. What Brian meant to say was that there was a giant truck, or camion, blocking the road. What he actually said was that there was a giant camaron in the road, which would look something like this:

But now it's back to work in 2010. January is shaping up to be a busy month- we are getting ready to start construction with my bathrooms project, and I have been kept on my toes trying to get all the details in order. This week, we have our first training session to learn how to install the tubes and cement floors for the bathrooms, and then each family will begin construction on their own bathroom. I'll probably be pulling my hair out for the next few weeks as there are endless details to keep track of, but I know that the project will be just as rewarding for me as it is for the 20 families who will have a bathroom for the first time. Much of the work we do as volunteers involves slow change and awareness-raising, and does not have such immediately tangible results, which can be discouraging at times. Fortunately I have lots of things to look forward to this year - finishing my bathrooms, hiking, camping, visitors from the States, trying out my new rock-climbing shoes, and soon enough I'll be planning my return home! Not that I'm excited about that or anything...

2010 has brought a new addition to my Peruvian family: a kitten that we call Chicken and who likes to shred my socks and pounce on my face while I'm trying to do yoga.