Trenches are everywhere in Pisco. A five minute walk down any street proves this. Be careful not to fall down any of them. But it would be wrong to think of them as merely holes in the ground. They represent the very beginning of what could later become a home, a shop, a school, a community centre. They are generally the first stage of any construction project. They are also a big part of many of PSF’s construction projects.

Earlier this week I went with an energetic team to assist a local resident, Felix, who had asked for volunteers to help him finish off digging trenches on a plot of land for his new house. Digging trenches is hard work. It is back breaking. And there are no shortcuts. Once the trenches are marked out, there is nothing to do but dig. And keep digging. If you are lucky, you will get a nice, soft and sandy patch of land which comes away easily. If you are not lucky i.e. most of the time, you will be faced with masses of rocks which you have to pick out by hand. It is slow work. It is exhausting. With the added handicap of the roasting Pisco sun from above, a day’s digging trenches could be deemed a tough, filthy and thankless task. But there is nothing quite as satisfying as pulling a tape measure down to the bottom of the hole you have just dug and seeing the magic number: “100cm”. Hours of bending down, standing up, crouching, reaching, pushing, pulling, all seem worth it. The pain of the hard work is replaced with the joy of what would come next. Felix’s house was one step closer to being finished.


I was part of another team this past week which went to help at Martin’s house. Upon arrival we saw beautifully dug trenches and rebar columns already in place. Phew, no digging. Instead, we were there to carry out the next stage of a trench’s life: a concrete pour. A concrete pour is an intense day’s work. You are lucky to get a break. Once the cement mixer is turned on it will be many hours until it is turned off. Pour in water, pour in cement, shovel in aggregate, put wheelbarrow in place, empty concrete into wheelbarrow, push wheelbarrow across plot, pour concrete from wheelbarrow into trench. And so goes the process for hours and hours until all the trenches are filled. At around 3pm it looked like we would have to come back the following day. But as the sun finally came out and the sweet smell of the nearby chocolate factory drifted across, we felt determined to finish the pour in one day. Our pace picked up, walking turned into running the wheelbarrows over to the trenches, three aggregate shovelers turned into four, and as the sun was just beginning to set we had managed to fill the final section of the trench. We were all covered head to toe in dust, dirt and cement. We were shattered. But we looked across at our work and knew that Martin now had beautiful, strong trenches. His house was one step closer to being finished.

I am very proud to have been able to contribute to building someone’s house. There are not too many places where someone with absolutely no construction experience can come and do this. But this is exactly why PSF has been able to do so much great work around Pisco. I would normally take something as simple as a solid and flat floor for granted, but now it represents so much more to me. Solid foundations mean someone can have a solid house, a house turns into a home, and a home is the bedrock to a man and his family. PSF volunteers will no doubt continue to help many people create the home, shop, school or community centre they so desperately need. And these projects all start with the humble trench. Pain and joy. 

 


Comments

Maggie Ronan
02/11/2010 6:24pm

love seeing the spotlight shine on an aspect of building so decidedly unglamorous as the trench. while it's easy to see the positive impact of your work when you're building things on top of the ground, this post does a nice job of highlighting the importance that taking matter *out* of the ground can have as well. sometimes you gotta dig before you can build.

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