This last weekend, I spontaneously joined a volunteer group and headed to the region of Pullay, south of Santiago about 8 hours. We were there to help reconstruct houses for those that were affected and victims by the earthquake of 2010. This region lied on the coast of Chile, so it also had some Maremoto...Tsunami damage as well. We left around 5 on Friday and we returned at about 2am Monday morning.
This trip was actually quite fun. I did know a few people that were going, girls from Denmark, a girl from Switzerland and a guy from Brazil. These were people from my intensive month class that I took in January. There were a lot of people travelling or also on exchange programs and a lot from Spain. Also I did get to meet 3 other people that were from the States.
We set up our tents when we got there...and all cuddled together for a cool evening before our first day of work. Umm it is a little cold at night in those tents...ahh dang, but I am alive and so it is ok. Saturday morning up at 8:30 am to get some grub. We made a bonfire and has some toast, with cheese, butter or manjar. It was good enough and then we got started on our work. These houses are similar to the adobe style houses of the Native Americans. So we made the material out of things that you can pretty much find anywhere so it kept the costs low for the team. We mixed dirt/soil with some sand mix and flour/water mix and straw. It was quite comical to watch the people mix this 'barro' and some who fell into it!
We then had fun where we would literally throw the barro at the walls of the house and then smooth them into the previous layer. It was fun when you can throw stuff at a wall and that is actually what you are supposed to be doing. We did 4 sides of 4 houses in the 2 days we were there. We got to visit the beach...a long way uphill on the return :(...and I saw black sandy beaches. It was so serene out there and I loved it. Water is such powerful thing that I do not underestimate it. Also there was an asado--BBQ with a bunch of meat and just some chit-chatting! Practicing my spanish was a goal this weekend and I believe that I did a fair amount of it. Also the fun part is that we all had fun doing this job, we would laugh, get each other more dirty than the inevitable and belted out songs...baby got back could we say ahaha.
I had a good weekend, and it was nice to do something for people who were affected by this natural disaster. One of the families, whose house was one of the 4, made us lunch the two days, helped a bit, and just watched us do our work. But again it is a good feeling to be doing something for others and not receive anything in return. Love it!!
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