A Pictorial Progression of the Green House

Step One: Mud with some straw mixed in

This mud is then crafted into a lot of bricks.

The mud bricks we used for the green house we made for us before we got there, but here you can see the workers fitting mud into a wooden tool (seen best near the guy on the right's foot). They do this for hours.

And here is the original site of the greenhouse, taken after the first day of work. There were already some plants growing in the middle, and we spent the majority of the day moving brick mountain near the sit of construction. We also put rocks in the trench, and made an outline for the cement with

 wooden boards (Kevin, Maria's son is sitting in between them and in a couple pictures below).

The rest of our work site

Day Two!

There was a team brick, and a team cement. Team brick continued to move bricks closer to the job site, while team cement started to make cement using pebbles, special cement powder (first picture below), water, and the machine in the below picture. The cement was going to be the strong foundation we would later put bricks on top of.

Team cement also began pouring the cement into the board skeleton we made the day before. We would pour some of the cement, throw rocks in the middle of the cement block, and then we would smooth out the top.

We also made another board mold for the one remaining side. Here is a nice action shot of Joe doing so.

Then we had a great weekend! Here is day three. Today was the day the mud pit began. We had a hose running through some dirt we had moved, and we mixed the dirt with water to make mud that we would use to fill in cracks between the mud bricks. We mixed the mud using our feet, shovels, and pick axes.

And we started laying the mud bricks! It was easy to see the results of our hard work today.

We layed the cement for the last side also.

Day 4, the mud pit got significantly smaller, but we worked really hard to make the greenhouse 8 bricks tall. It was so exciting to see our progress today!

Day 5 began with these giant trees (as Patrick Wilson put it, "the lost truffula tree"). We had to take hammers and pics and take the outer layer of bark off of them. It was a pretty fun task! These were going to be used to the structure of the roof and top of the windows.

Jamie flashes a winning smile at the trees she stripped

After that, we began to form the brick pyramid that would give structure to the roof. This part was deemed as two fragile for us to build ourselves, so we would hand the bricks up to experienced workers. This was also a rough day because we needed even more bricks, and we had to wheelbarrow 300 of them from a different site. The first brick pyramid was finished today.

Day six (Thursday) began with wheeling about 100 more bricks from a different site. The other brick pyramid was built, and the experienced Peruvians started to put up the rafters (the trees we had stripped).

Day Seven! Last day of the greenhouse! The morning started with the local women teaching us how to make ovens to cook potatoes--then, they let us try to build them! Unfortunately, I got caught up in the oven making so I didn't take pictures. Once we began working on the greenhouse, we started unrolling yellow plastic across the top. We held the plastic down as a team while a Peruvian worker would hammer wood over the plastic to keep in taut. 

And alas, we were done!! 

Cheers,

Katelyn Rowley

Macchu Pichu

I woke up to, "LAST DAY YEAH YEAHHHHH!!" ricocheting down the stairwell of our hotel...This was the end. The homestretch, 27 hours until departure to the states. Thinking of our time with Maria, so full of grace, as done and untouchable twisted my heart.

It was one of those rainy, misty mornings where there wasn't a ray of sun, the kind that of weather that made you feel like you're part of a Lemony Snicket novel and the weather has been bad for days, months, years, you've lost track.

It was about 7 in the morning, and our fuel for touring one of the wonders of the world would be a complimentary breakfast of an omelet, a piece of ham, and coco tea. Berta, our faithful tour guide who gallantly swept us through Peru, led us into the hazy fog.

We hitched a ride on our noble steed (a bus) and took the half hour winding route that thinly snaked up to the top of the mountain. The bus was completely enveloped in a cloud--we could only see about fifty feet in each direction--so whenever a view beyond the trees developed, it felt as though we were traveling higher and higher into a grey oblivion (pic below). Losing a reference point for how high we were, it felt as though we entered the lands of the Gods.

The bus dropped us off near a bathroom, a couple overpriced restaurants, a dark-wooden gateway with workers feverishly checking passports, and a hotel (the type Oprah could afford). And this was the entirety of our world--the rest was fog.

And we shuffled through the entryway. I think we were all quiet. We didn't know if letting our stomachs boil with excitement with the wonder we were about to see was appropriate or if the whole place had been swallowed by the cloud and the beauty had been lost.

Berta, our guide, took us to our first outlook--and this spot is supposed to be the chariot that oversees all of the mountain range--and it looked like this (below). She started laying down her knowledge, and we learned that the phrase Macchu Pichu had no meaning, that the Incans worshiped the sun, and that they built Macchu Pichu high in the clouds to be a sort of resting sanctuary to worship the sun.

Even though the view at the time seemed anticlimatic, the rock structures were impressive. We could see some of the famous Incan terraces wrapping around the mountain, an already impressive feat knowing that they must have been carved through an Amazonian jungle like domain (click for visual). We could see people exploring the same pathways the Incan people must have walked, except today the people walking up the paths looked like a pathway out of the board game Candyland via all of the colored ponchos (below).

But Sellvy insisted the day would clear up, and we would not leave disappointed.

Have you ever felt some sort of determination, or a visceral longing, pulsate through your ribcage...? I really wanted the showers to pass. And slowly...ever so slowly...

The paradise in the clouds slowly revealed itself to us. Something about the llamas (or alpacas?) grazing in the fertile, healthy grass and the perfect terraces that delicately carved the earth made it feel like such an escape, a sort of bliss in the most unexpected place.

On a quick side note, Berta, our knowledgeable guide through the back alleys of Peru, grew up in the mountains, and she saw a llama being sacrificed when she was very young. I will probably never be able to understand what seeing that meant to her, or to her people, but I was happy she felt comfortable enough to share an insight to her culture.

We continued to wander through the sanctuary of the Incans, seeing things like tombs, their homes (the stone base with a straw top), and old sewage systems, all while the clouds decided we were becoming more and more worthy of seeing the beauty surrounding us. Maybe it was a good thing the clouds receded slowly--let me explain.

Think of someone you love, and looking at them after a liaison. They are golden, perfect, and the overwhelming emotion in your chest ascents to your smile. But, if you saw them a little at a time, you could have time to appreciate everything-- the mole on the side of their face, the curve of their body, the depth of their eyes--and they are infinite. Witnessing the golden pieces of them unify allows you to have time to treasure everything about them.

And as the entire structure had so much beauty with the mountains, the terraces, the structures, and the great people around me--Macchu Pichu was infinite too. And I'm thankful the clouds let us focus on little pieces before admiring the bigger picture.

This is actually the view from the overlook that was foggy earlier in the day

 

And since the clouds cleared, we could climb Wayna Picchu! A mountain at an altitude of 2693 meters (8835 feet) above sea level (compare that to an 838 feet right now in Ann Arbor in my apartment)...this is Wayna Picchu below!

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And so the climb began! I'll do you a favor and leave how much I sweat as I trekked up the mountain. It was a rough climb in the thinning air, but we climbed and climbed...

And it was worth the pain! The mountain's peak we climbed to was only jagged rock, and we were rewarded with a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountain range, with Macchu Pichu casually resting on the mountain in front of us (below).

If the hike up was like trying to pass a calculus test blindfolded with a pen as a writing utensil, then walking back down was like drinking a juice box. But after the climb, it was maybe three in the afternoon. Most of us were starving and thirsty, and the energy from the omelet had faded at about 9AM.

Worth it.

We left the mountain sanctuary and went out for Jamie and Leif's birthdays--Sellvy arranged for some pizzas for us along with cheesecake for dessert.

And we did a little last minute shopping (aka I bought chocolate for the train ride), and departed. During the journey home, I witnessed the end product of an evolution. We began the trip, all of us getting to know each other with questions like, "What is your favorite Disney movie?" (Mulan obviously) and "Do you have any siblings?" On the way back to our homebase (about a 4.5-5 hour trip by train and bus) our questions had grown to, "What are the two or three things in your life that are most important to you?" and "Could you date someone with a different religion from you or your family?" We answered each other with uninhibited honesty, and I think this goes to show how much we matured as a community.

I am thankful to be a part of EGL. I am thankful I was challenged by all of the fellow EGLs to push my body for six hours a day. I am thankful to have seen something purely wonderful. I am thankful to Sellvy, Maria, Angelica, and Ramiro....I am so thankful, and I won't forget this day.

"I know already that I will return to this day whenever I want to. I can bid it alive. Preserve it. There is a still point where the present, the now, winds around itself, and nothing is tangled. The river is not where it begins or ends, but right in the middle point, anchored by what has happened and what is to arrive...There is no way to find a word to fit around this feeling. Words resist it. Words give it a pattern it does not own. Words put in time. They freeze what cannot be stopped."         -Let the Great World Spin

I'll miss my time in South America...and even wringing out my heart wouldn't be able to make words for how happy I am to have gotten this chance.


Best,

Katelyn Rowley
Junior in Biomedical Engineering

The Final Days (PERU)

Hello Blog Followers!


My name is Nikhil Patel, and in a couple days I will be starting my grad year at Michigan!
EGL finally returned to the USA last Tuesday after a riveting Volunteer Abroad Experience in Peru. The last week of the of the trip consisted of completing the greenhouse with the final mud-bricks and roof frame, a breath-taking experience at Macchu Picchu, a soccer game against the local Peruvians in the mountains, and a rewarding time teaching children about hygiene, sports, and education. 

The greenhouse was completed with the help of worker's from Peru's Challenge, and as some of us laid the final mud-bricks for the roof, a separate group lifted logs from the top of a hills down to the work site. These logs were used to create a roof frame that was used to hold transparent plastic of the greenhouse in place. As the house got closer to being finished members or the community joined us and helped us make the last push! Once it was completed, all of the mothers including Maria (for whom we were building the greenhouse for) expressed there tremendous gratitude for our group's work. Following tradition, the mothers adorned us with flowers they grew, large and colorful string necklaces, and confetti they called pica pica. Vicki, Gina, and I were also invited to break a bottle of champagne as a groundbreaking ceremony of sorts. 

The day before the house was completed, the local Peruvians who worked with Peru's Challenge challenged EGL to a soccer grudge match. Its no secret that soccer in South America, is equivalent to football in the United States.  The game was first team to 8 points. Let's say it was Team Peru vs. Team EGL. Team Peru eventually got to a 6-4 lead; however, Team EGL roared back and scored four consecutive goals to win the match! Simply running in such a high altitude proved to be a very humbling experience. The MVP of the game was probably Vicki, who scored two goals: one of which should have made SportsCenter's Top 10. 

On our final weekend we began our journey to Macchu Picchu, one of the original seven wonders of the world! A city hidden by clouds, proved to be a majestic, and awe-inspiring experience.  Be on the look out for more blog posts from other EGLs about their experience at Macchu Piccu!

Personally, the most valuable learning I acquired is the understanding of the importance of exceptional education geared toward the development of children's ambition and opportunity. Never before had I realized the value of a teacher like the way I did in Peru when I saw children blossoming in a community without internet or clean water.