Mini FBT

Week 5 we got to get outta Chalcacyo and venture down south of Lima about 2 hours to Canete, an awesome city where a couple current water and sanitation Peace Corps volunteers are working. The first day we visited a site where a volunteer is working on wells and management of a water treatment plant. We toured the wells and water treatment plant, then we practiced cleaning a water reservoir by emptying the tanks and scrubbing the inside walls and disinfecting the system with a concentrated bleach dose.

Breakfast day 1 in Canete

Visiting a water treatment plant

Sedimentation basins

Water storage tank

Sopa seco for lunch (a traditional dish) - yes food here is always this big...

Water reservoir that we scrubbed clean with hand brushes and bleach

The next day we practiced building cocinas mejoradas (improved cookstoves) out of mud bricks, mud, and donkey poo. The whole stove needs to be level, sturdy, and built with care, or it may not turn out very well. It was a full day of hard work!

Mixing donkey poo into our mud

Starting the base for the cookstove

Working on the air passageway with insulating bricks that transmit the hot air

Laying out the pot placement on the top of the stove

The rebar supports the pots and also transmits heat

Pouring the smooth cooktop out of concrete

All done!

Celebrating Ian's birthday after a day of hard work

The next morning we gave small informational sessions on how to properly use the improved cookstoves for the families that received the new the stoves. Advantages of an improved cookstove: uses less firewood, cooks faster, you inhale less smoke, kids cannot burn themselves as easily, and you don't need to bend over to the ground to move around your cooking pots.

Improved cookstove lesson

Completed stove and a happy user

Another project that a volunteer was working on was a tree nursery, which is an awesome idea since most of the Lima coastal region is a desert and lacks shade. The project is funded by donated recyclables that are sorted and sold. Families that consistently donate recyclables will be eligible for a tree. They are also growing small flowers that they are planting in the community centers.

Tree nursery

Recycling project

Two volunteers were also piloting biodigestors with goat and cow poo. The biodigestor below decomposes raw cow poo and creates three usable by-products: liquid fertilizer, solid fertilizer, and methane gas for the family's cookstove. The fertilizer is used for the family's grape vineyard.

Biodigester

Stove powered by methane gas from the biodigestor

The last day of our mini FBT we visited another volunteer site and saw two wells that he has been working on (a large-scale one and a small-scale solar powered one) and an archeological site that he stumbled upon that is currently unprotected.

Large-scale water pump for a community well

Heading into the archeological zone

Hiking up to the archeological site

Ancient grave site

Some pottery is thought to be from the Wari people, who lived in the region before the Inca (around 700 A.D.). The reddish pot has a narrow bottom so that it can stand upright in sand.

Colorful cloth

Old wall

Housing region

Our last stop was a goat farm where a volunteer built a solar-powered well and a biodigestor for the farm. The farm was right on the beach on a beautiful piece of land. We got to try fresh goat cheese and goat yogurt, both were delicious!