Huamani, Peru

Where to begin, I don't have the words to express all the emotions our classd felt today.

We woke very early in Ica Peru and met Claus who helped our class purchase the earthquck materials that will be used in the small village of Huamani. We crammed in vans with the bags of school supplies that our class purchased form the villages scholl house and we also strapped the wheelchair on the top of the van that we purchased for a young girl who could not walk. We drove through the city of Ica- which was in pretty bad shape still from the earthquake years ago. There was so much poverty in all directions, it really made me appreciate what we have. We are very spoiled in America.

Driving to Huamani we took a windy dirt road up into the mountains. The mountains are devoid of any vegetation, with the valleys very lush due to the intricate irrigation canals. We finally arrived at our destination- Huamani. We first walked up on the mountain, overlooking the village. It was much as we expected. We could see the etchings in the dirt of a basic rake- these people were very excited to have us here and host us for the morning. We learned about how the village will be rebuilt using our purchased materials. With the help of many donations our class raised $12,000 dollars which will rebuild approximatly 30 homes in this 70 home village.

We then visitied the school for the village. We were greeted by the head of the small school which had no supplies at all. We took the bags of supplies in to the school that our class purchased and placed them on a table (the only table in the school). It was absolutely overflowing with goods. We took out the soccer balls, inflated them and passed them out to the children. One of us actually brought a football and was soon showing the boys how to throw a perfect spiral. It was very overwhelming for the children... they didn't know what to say or do.

After we met at the school, it was time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We walked down to the south side of the village where adobe bricks were being constructed. There we had a quick overview on the construction process. Before we knew it, we were working with villagers and helping mix the adobe mud and form bricks.

We cleaned up as much as we could and headed to the central meeting area of the village, which essentially is just a large concrete slab. We had a formal presentation of giving the mesh to the villagers. We thanked the villagers for the opportunity and thanked Claus for assisting us in this process. The village leader spoke a few words back to us- she talked about how fortunate they were to have us come there. She said that since the earthquake, things have been very hard, as many of the homes were destroyed. She thanked us for helping them at a time where everyone else has forgotten about them. They expressed that anytime we wanted to come back, we would always be welcome with open arms. We concluded the ceremony with a toast.

It was just starting to drizzle, in an area that gets absolutely no rain. The villagers were smiling, we were smiling but we had one more important duty. We got the wheelchair for the village girl who could not walk and we went to her house. You could tell she was nervous, yet excited. We presented her with the wheelchair. Her mother was there and the tears streaming down her face touched everyone in the group. She was picked up and placed in the chair, and you could see her trying to hide her smile. It was overwhelming for her to have 26 Americans staring at her in her new chair. She spent much of her time in a plastic chair, she now was able to get out and move around the village almost like any of the others.

From this we all went back to the vans and squeezed back in. The villagers lined the streets and waved to us as we left the village, smiles from ear to ear.

Cheers
Adios, Huamani.