First official day of work in Huacho (and everything that's happened up until now)

Well hello again!

I hope you are all having a great first (or second) week of classes for those of you who are in school, and that everyone in the northern hemisphere is enjoying the arrival of fall. I for one cannot wait for spring to come - only 6 more days! - because that will mean sun and the arrival of warmth here in Huacho! I can't complain though, it is around 15-20 degrees every day, but it gets chilly at night, and as it is humid and there is no heating, there is no escaping the cold! Let me fill you in on what has happened since the last time that I wrote to you! (It feels like an eternity has passed, even though it's only been 3 days!)

Alright well Tuesday was a day full of ups and downs - I think that until now I had told myself to be strong and to carry on and not to worry too much, but Tuesday morning I woke up feeling a bit lonely and isolated. As you may have read, Monday was such a busy day and I met so many people, but I was starting to feel that I could not let my personality shine through fully and that I was much quieter than my normal self.


The morning went alright; Carlos (the person I will be working with at EMAPA Huacho, who is incredibly nice and friendly and helpful) introduced me to every single person who works for EMAPA Huacho (or almost). Essentially, for about 3 hours it was a bunch of 'hello', 'how are you', 'nice to meet you', and sometimes I would explain what I was studying (all in Spanish, of course). Oh wow. So tiring. Not to mention that I did not retain a single name (luckily, a lot of the people have the same name - for example, there are 4 Juans who work at EMAPA Huacho). Anyways. Crazy start. One of the people that I enjoyed meeting the most was an engineer named Juan - he is currently working on the plans for a new waste water treatment facility that will hopefully be built in the near future. This is a project that requires financing from many different levels of government and organizations, and so they have quite a process to follow in order for it to get approved. They are currently looking into the environmental impact of its location, as well as the social impacts and economic ones. I explained to him what I was studying (and that I have a diploma in environmental assessment!). We were both very excited to meet, and I will hopefully be doing most of my work with him while I am here. I think that I have a lot to learn, and hopefully I will be able to give him different insights, too. This was, for me, the highlight of the morning - meeting Juan.

I also got to see one of the water pumps for the region. There are roughly 150,000 people who live in the province of Huaura (which is in the region of Lima - complicated governmental system), and of those roughly 22,000 families are connected to the system. My city, Huacho, has a population of roughly 85,000, and is the centre of the Huaura province. EMAPA Huacho delivers water to all of the inhabitants of the Huaura region. They have 9 pumps that pump groundwater out of the ground. A bit of chlorine is then injected into the water, and then the water is distributed to all of the houses and schools connected to the network. Quite interesting.

I went home to eat for lunch and got to have a little bit of time alone before Liliana got home (that's the name of the lady whose house I am staying at). We then enjoyed a delicious lunch together, and chatted quite a bit - again, I was doing wayyyy more listening than talking, but that's fine. In the afternoon Carlos came to meet me and we went to visit one of the construction sites where they are putting in the plumbing for purified water and waste water. Essentially, the centre of an entire street was dug up to put in the main channel of waste water, and then a path leading to each house was dug up. Quite something to see. I think the biggest thing that hit me was that these people were being connected to running water for the first time - until now, they have had no access to a main system (some of them do have private tanks though, but they are few and far between). What do they do when they need to go to the bathroom? So many questions.... Luckily, I had a great guide who was more than happy to answer them.

Anyways, we were walking down this street looking for Señor Ortiz. Essentially whenever they connect a new neighbourhood to the water system they have education sessions. They usually try to contact one of the main people in this neighbourhood so that they can work together to bring as many people as possible to these workshops. The education sessions teach the new users how to conserve water and what can and cannot be thrown into the toilet or down the drains (essentially, only grey water and human waste can go down the drains, no paper or food or animals or shoes). The pipes depend on gravity to evacuate the waste water, and this is a pretty flat area, so anything that can impede the flow is not allowed to be flushed down the drain. Furthermore, being connected to the network doesn't automatically mean that you will have 24-hour service. No house receives water 24-hours per day, since there is not enough to go around (I am living in a desert climate). Some areas receive 3 hours of running water, others 6 or 12. It various depending on the district in the city. Luckily, the house that I am living in has a reservoir - during the hours where we are connected to the network, the reservoir fills up. That way, we almost never lack water (fiouf!). Needless to say - a lot of things to learn. And different realities to experience. A long an tiring day, but educational.

Wednesday morning Carlos and I went to the office and talked a bit about the different educational workshops and what his objectives are until the end of December. Around lunchtime we got a phone call from Sara (she is the one who accompanied me from Lima to Huacho). On Tuesday she travelled back to Lima, only to come back on Wednesday, accompanied by Itxel, another Canadian volunteer. By this point in time, I was looking forward to having another housemate, travel buddy, and person of my age to hang out with (and to practice Spanish with). We met Sara and Itxel at the bus station, dropped off Itxel's things at the house, and then went for lunch at the restaurant of a 3 star hotel in Huacho (to give you an idea, a lunch menu,  which includes an entrée, second plate, drink, and small dessert, usually costs about 7 soles in a restaurant, or 9.50 soles in this hotel - the equivalent of about $3 CAD). After finishing our meal, we walked to the large shopping centre and along the beach (pretty much the same thing I did my first day here). Itxel also got to meet all of the EMAPA Huacho employees at both locations (there is one commercial and one operational location in Huacho) - what a compact day for her! I was happy to tag along and say hello to everyone I had met the previous day. I kind of had mixed feelings about it though - I mean, it would have been easier for us to arrive both on the same day, so that Sara would only need to make one trip from Lima to Huacho, so that we could meet everyone at the same time instead of repeating the previous day's footsteps, and so that we could both be on the same page about everything. I think that by the end though I didn't mind - this way I had a few extra days to get used to things, familiarize myself with the work locations, with the house that I am living in and with directions and how to get from point A to point B in Huacho (it is not very confusing at all though). Anyways. Busy day for Itxel.

And once work was over, it wasn't done! Every Wednesday night people from EMAPA Huacho play in a soccer league against other teams. Every Wednesday at 7pm. We were invited by quite a few people to be spectators (and they all LOVED the fact that I was a soccer ref for 8 years), so we decided not to miss out on this social opportunity. We showed up... waited until 7:30pm... and when the other team didn't show, our team decided to leave. Oh well. One of the other players (Juan, the accountant of EMAPA Huacho) invited us (me, Itxel, and Carlos) out for a steak dinner. Not a steak dinner like in Canada with a big juicy steak, but a thin one - very tasty! And fries of course (no meal is complete in Peru without potatoes). We also had Inca Kola - it's essentially the traditional soft drink of Peru. It's fizzy, neon yellow in colour, and tastes like bubble gum - sounds pretty crazy but it's actually kinda good. After dinner, Juan told us that one of his good friends was a taxi driver, and offered to take us on our own private tour of the city! I think we drove around for about 1.5 hours; we got to see the port, the biggest club in Huacho (dosen't look like much from the outside, not sure how the inside is), and another district called Santa Maria (also nick-named the countryside, but it is nice because it has a lot more vegetation than Huacho). Around 10pm we were dropped off at home, super happy to have had such a great evening. I introduced Itxel to Liliana and her family, and then I kept Itxel company while she unpacked - we talked until 1am! For the last 2 hours in was in English though (yes, I am cheating), but it was so nice to have such a wonderful person to talk to. She is here for 12 months, so we will definitely get to know each other better. Our rooms are right next to each others, but that's fine since we get along great (so far, at least!).

This morning we went to the office and helped get a few things ready for a presentation that took place this afternoon. We went back to the construction site to meet with Señor Ortiz (he was out when I went by with Carlos on Tuesday). After that Itxel and I sat down with the engineer, Juan, for about 1 hour while he explained to us the plans for the waste water treatment facility, two other options that they have proposed, the location, and what it entails. He speaks very softly so we had to strain to hear him, but it was great to finally get more information. You may be wondering what they do with they waste water now - well, it gets dumped into the ocean. Hence why the beach right next to the shopping centre in Huacho is 'contaminada', or contaminated. Note to self: always check which beaches are safe to swim in. (Side note: instead, they have a driving school on the beach next to the shopping centre - not a bad idea!) I asked Juan for electronic copies of all of the powerpoints and pdfs that he showed us so that I could read up more about it (okay, so I won't get any work done tonight because I want to sleep, but perhaps tomorrow!). We also decided that tomorrow we would go together to visit the proposed location for the plant (it's on an environmental reserve - eek!), as well as Végueta and Sayán, two other cities in the Huaura province. We'll finally be getting some work done hopefully!

Itxel and I relaxed at home at lunch time and then we went back to work for 2:30. Essentially, we were supposed to attend a meeting that was scheduled to start at 2. They told us to show up at 2:30. The meeting started at 3. People were arriving until about 3:20, but as late as 4:15. The meeting ended at 4:45. Sometime partway through the meeting they served us lunch (although we had already eaten, but by the end we were stuffed!). No one's cellphones were turned off, so phones rang about 20 times during the meeting (and some people picked up the calls, too!). Quite an interesting experience. A salesman from a company that produces piping and valves came to pitch their designs to EMAPA Huacho. There was a lot of technical vocabulary used, but I managed to understand the most of what was going on. Not exactly run the same way as a meeting in Canada though!

By the end of the day, Itxel and I were exhausted (again) - days feel sooooo long here. But we are both looking forward to our mini field trip tomorrow, and I am looking forward to finally being able to start some work. Now I am off to bed because I have been typing for quite some time (sorry for the long novel again!). Hope you enjoy it. Plans for the upcoming days:
Friday: visit the other cities, like I mentioned
Saturday: visit the mall, tourism offices (so we can plan weekend trips, because Itxel loves travelling, too!), and take cuy (aka guinea pig)
Sunday: some big festival/tournament between 32 companies that work in Huacho - it's all people are talking about, so we are not going to miss it!

Next weekend we are thinking about planning a trip. Where to? Not sure. We have a few ideas for day trips (5,000 year old archaeological site, national park to do some hiking), but we may go away to visit another city. Who knows!

I hope you've enjoyed following along with my adventures - and yes, hopefully I will have some pictures soon (I am just nervous about taking my camera out around here, but I think I will bring it on the field trip tomorrow).

Ciao!
Sheila