Helping to Warm Homes and Hearts
On the square in Cuzco
We made it safely to Cuzco yesterday, took a short walk around and Bruce (who has been here before) pointed out the amazing stonework of some of the buildings.
ancient stones, perfect joints
That was about it for my tourism experience. I'll have to come back when I have more time. We met up with Bernardo, our contact from the NGO Grupo, had lunch and jumped into another Toyota HiLux 4x4 (remember the mud?)
Bernardo and our ride
Our mission took us to some very rugged but gorgeous terrain. There wasn't any mud this time as we wound our way higher and higher into the Andes. Our driver's name was Jehu...he drove furiously, on narrow, winding, bumpy, loose gravel roads. (Just kidding, I don't know what his name was.) Here's the view looking down from my car window:
At one point, as we skidded around a corner with a shear drop off, I said to Bruce, "There's something to be said for mud." You probably can't die getting stuck in a mud hole.
Bernardo explaining "trombe" walls to us
What was taking us here? In this remote, cold, very elevated area of Peru, communities suffer tragedies each year… hundreds of children dying of pneumonia. One official source puts the infant mortality rate (children who die in their first year of life) at just over 30%. Grupo is a highly motivated University engineering group from Lima that has a heart to help the poor and indigenous peoples of Peru.
In this project they, along with the Red Cross and Meal a Day, are providing demonstration modifications to homes in 3 communities, to show the benefits of inexpensive solar heating and of chimneys (a concept unknown here). The plastic lean-to is called a trombe wall. The mud brick wall behind the plastic is painted black and holes are made in it. Warm air circulates into the house by means of convection.
one of the houses we saw today with its trombe wall
cold air in at the bottom, warm air out at the top
As more local families follow the example of these demo houses, the combination of 15 degree warmer, smoke –free homes should greatly reduce the incidence of respiratory illnesses, aleviating suffering and saving lives.
We're off to Bolivia tomorrow afternoon. We're taking a look at a Bruce Peru project that's starting up in Bolivia, an electrification project (Arlene: this is the part where we fly in a small plane that lands on the grass...but only if it's not raining...too hard), and a Save the Children project in the La Paz prison.
Buenas Noches! (Bruce had to coach me again on that.)
September 25th, 2009 - 00:31
Yes, I am reading these, and just to prove it, I’m leaving the first comment. Sleep well tonight and stay safe tomorrow. Que Dios les bendiga y proteja, hermanos queridos. (Spellchecker having a hissy fit here.)
Hasta manana, entonces.
Cindy, still praying
September 26th, 2009 - 15:39
Thanks for posting some real interesting stuff! It’s the first time I’ve had a chance to peek-makes me want to get involved.
no spanish for me.
Sylvia