I don’t normally write blogs or anything like this because I have never been very good at it, but since I have been at PSF I have been doing a lot of things that I didn’t think I would ever be able to do, so I thought why not try this as well.

I spent three weeks at PSF and worked on two different projects. The first was a multi functional sports field fundraised by 3 volunteers, named Super Fun Town. I spent a week and a half working on this project, which 15-20 volunteers went out to a day to pour the 50 concrete slabs necessary to make the field big enough to be a football/basketball/ volleyball court. The community that we were building it for  showed us awesome hospitality,  feeding us a delicious lunch every day .


After this I was involved in a really special project that I am so happy I was a part of. We built a house ‘extreme home make over’  style for a family that has been living in a tent for almost 3 years, ever since the earthquake.  We had 7 days to pull down their tent, lay a concrete floor, build the house, paint and furnish it, so that we could surprise the mum of the family who works as a nurse in the mountains for 3 weeks out of the month.  It was a great project to work on and a lot of people were very passionate about it. Every person that was involved in the project  worked really hard to get the job done in time. It was such a great experience to see a project from start to finish and realise what a bit of hard work, enthusiasm and team work can do.

The day that we revealed the surprise house to the family was definitely a day that I will never forget. We spent the morning running around putting the finishing touches on the house, furnishing and putting up curtains. At around one o’clock in the afternoon we were told that she was here and it was time for the surprise. When she walked around the corner and saw her new home she just stood there in amazement crying. Even just writing about this now I have a tear in my eye, it was so emotional for her and her family. After a few moments of staring at her new home in amazement she was ushered inside to see the rest of the house. There was not a dry eye in the house, it was an emotional experience for everyone. The entire family said some very nice words to thank us for what we had done and their very brave son sang us a beautiful song that set the tears running down our faces again.

To see the transformation of a very dirty tent with holes and a dirt floor turn into a wooden house with a cement floor where they could be safe and warm, where they could cook and sit together at a table for family meals, was an awesome experience and I am so happy that I was a part of the project.

PSF is a great organisation that is doing a lot of good things in  Pisco for people who really do need a lot of help. It has been almost 3 years since the earthquake and there are still people living in tents because they have no money to rebuild their homes and lives. I am proud to be a part of this organisation even though it was for only a short time. Thank you to PSF for making me feel so welcome and for everything I have learnt while I have been here.

Lisa
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BRICKS 25/06/2010
 
Author: Will Smith

 Seemingly easy to the untrained eye, a professional bricklayer will tell you laying bricks involves a lot more than simply stacking one brick on top of the other. As the Incans did hundreds of years ago, people all over the world are continuing to use this ancient method of structure formation to build houses and alike. Combining fine sand, cement and water at the perfect mix will develop your basic brick ‘mortar’ which acts as bonding agent from one brick to the next creating a strong and construction friendly structure – in other words a wall, door or window frame.

From this foundation many people have developed creative and practical ways  to live their lives. For example, working with bricks gives you the flexibility of being able to easily shape a design to either one’s needs e.g. environmental or building constraints or their wants e.g. a uniquely shaped storage facility.

Once you have created the desired formation there are also possibilities to improve the aesthetics for both practical and imagery purposes. One common practice following brick laying is known as rendering, which involves placing a relatively thin layer of a plaster like mortar evenly on the edge of the bricks so secondary items such as tiles and even floors can be laid.

At Pisco Sin Fronteras the skill of brick laying is passed down from one volunteer to the next. Arriving in Pisco with very little skills, you can expect to leave with the confidence to begin your own project and one day pass your skills on too. 
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Set off from York early on Sunday morning by bus, got to London at about 3.30 pm, where I met up with Sam and later David (some old school friends for those who don´t know!!). Went around Piccadilly, saw Buckingham Palace and St. James´Park (thepark not the football ground!!!) which was pretty good, then went for some drinks around king´s cross before saying my goodbyes. The next morning I set off for Miami, had a bit of a mix up at the airport because of the ESTA thing you were supposed to fill out beforehand (which I obviously didn´t!!), but i was soon on my way. After a hectic transfer at Miami International, I was on my way to Peru. I arrived in Lima at 10pm and after a rather scary taxi drive, I got to my hotel. The owner was very helpful and friendly, and helped me find a bus station to Pisco the next day. One 4 hour bus ride later I arrived in Lima at about midday and after another equally scary taxi ride I arrived at the Pisco Sin Fronteras HQ.
My First Day
The main house was full, so I was shown to the overflow house called Timberland. This wasn´t quite as nice as the other house......Am on the waiting List for the main house so fingers crossed for hot water, internet and a toilet that you don´t have to refill manually!! After chilling out for a bit and meeting some of the people, I spent the afternoon at the "Ludoteca" which is a child daycare facility operated by a local teacher. The kids there were great, there were lots of activities for them to get involved in. It was tiring stuff, but well worth giving up my afternoon up for. From what I could work out the kids seemed to love two things: taking photos from my camera (which I now have hundreds of!) and being lifted up or swung around (guess its like being on a rollercoaster, yeah i definitely see the fun in that!!)
When I got back the rest of the house had returned from their hard labour and after meeting some more people (by this point I could only remember about 10% of the people´s names!) we had dinner at the house, then had a game of football where we were coredially thrashed by a group of tour guides. Afterwards a fire was lit and we sat around drinking and chatting. One of the American girls was branding herself with a nail poking out of a plank of wood, which was kind of freaky! A few hours later and after meeting most of the remainder of the volunteers, I headed back to Timberland to sleep.
My First (full) Day
The next morning I got up at 8ish (which wasn´t so hard after getting up at 6am to catch my flight/ bus for the last two days) and headed to breakfast. Shortly after we had the morning meeting where we were told of all the news and announcements. Also all of us "newbies" had to stand up and tell the group about ourselves. Next we were told about all of the projects that were available, which ranged from building houses and fishing centres to producing bio-fuels and soap from fat. I opted to help out at "Super Fun Town" which is a project that hopes to build a concrete football/ basketball/ volleyball court for the local kids to play on. I spent almost all of the day shovelling pebbles and sand into the concrete mixers which were then taken over in wheelbarrows and poured into square moulds. This was very sweaty and labourous work, but again was well worth the effort and was great fun. We had lunch at a local family´s house and left a few hours later. After a long overdue shower, I headed to the house and bought a "Pisco Sin Fronteras" hoodie and had chicken burgers for tea as well as some home made pie some of the volunteers were selling to raise money for the charity. Then, having failed to get the internet working on my laptop, I headed to the internet cafe to write my blog, which pretty much takes me up to now!!
I have had a great time so far, managed to use a fair bit of my albeit shakey Spanish skills and have met some thoroughly nice individuals. Really looking forward to the rest of my stay; can´t wait to get involved in some of the other projects and meet more people!! Will be uploading some of my photos tomorrow as i forgot to bring my camera today!! Thanks for reading,
Tom x
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