Every winter we make an effort to help those less fortunate than ourselves. This January and February we spent 6 weeks in Peru. The focus of our trip was to help in the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the 2007 earthquake. Pisco, a city of over 80,000 was almost totally destroyed. To this date very little has been done to rebuild, and most people are living in tents or plywood shanties. Many factors are in the way of recovery, from poverty and isolation to governmental indifference and corruption.
During our stay we dug trenches, hauled rocks, mixed cement and stacked bricks. Although at times it seemed as if we made no progress, by the end of our stay, we were able to help two families make significant progress towards completing their homes. It was a moment of great satisfaction when we showed up one morning to find that the mother of one family had moved out of her bamboo and plastic shack and into a room of solid brick walls. There is still a lot of work to be done to finish her house, but we left Pisco knowing that her life was a little less unstable.
