A Change of Pace

This past weekend was an eye opening experience, to say the least. I traveled to the south of Peru with el Padre, Marlith and Felix to help some of the schools in the area and observe the progress of the Coprodeli rebuilding project. The charity organization I am working with, Coprodeli, is currently constructing large communities that have a church, a school and an area for entrepreneurs to practice their business. The entire encampment is surrounded by houses with running water and electricity (which, at times, is considered a delicacy down here).

When I first came to Peru, I noticed that the majority of the houses did not have rooftops. Naively, I just thought it was the norm here, but the reality is that these Peruvians endured an enormous earthquake in 2007 (and a smaller one this past year, which desimated Chile) and many of them do not have the funds to repair their houses. So this Coprodeli projoct may prove to be a vital lifeline for many of the locals.

Sooo, we ventured south to Chincha, Pisco and Ica and I witnessed some of the grave effects of the earthquake. There was rumble and debris everywhere and I saw plenty of abondoned buildings with cement windows and dilapidated walls, waiting to fall apart. We arrived at one of the sites and Padre Miguel was greeted like a celebrity. He would slowly pace around the courtyard of the school as a line of people patiently waited to ask him his opinion of the construction and the status of the project. Typically, he would give an long, inspiring lecture and then we would all eat together...the teachers, the volunteers and el Padre.

During the Padre Miguel's speeches, Felix and I would fix anything in the school that needed fixin'. We installed new desks for the teachers, touched up doors that wouldn't shut properly, fiddled with desks and chairs of the students so they could sit upright...you know, mens' work. However, Felix is a difficult person to work with.

Allow me to paint you a picture of the situation I was working with. As I have said before, Felix is a 50 year old Spanish guy who talks waaaaay to loud. He is stubborn, uncoordinated and he has a lazy eye that I can't help but stare at. I compare working with Felix to doing chores with my Dad on a Sunday...if my Dad happened to be hammered drunk all day. He screamed directions at me, when he truly doesn't have a clue what he is doing. He rushed through projects that we have all day to complete. Being pretty stubborn myself, I would discard his orders and do things my own way.

Here is a small list of examples: he broke a drill bit, he stripped plenty of screws, he drilled to large of holes in the walls so they screws would fit. One time I had to take the power drill from him because he wanted to make a hole in a wall... right above an electrical outlet. I explained that there was a chance he could get electricuted, but nonetheless, he snatched the drill and tore into the wall. Definately a frustrating experience, but after a couple mishaps, we completed all the jobs at three different sites and all the teachers thanked us thoroughly for our work.

After doing physical labor all day, you would think I could sleep like a baby, however that was not the case. I was paired up with ever-annoying Felix as a bunkmate and he continued to bother me even while he was sleeping! This guy would be resting normally for 5 minutes or so, and then without hestitation he would erupt like Mt. Vesuvius with a thundering snort. I seriously considered punching him in the face serveral times. My solution was to sleep on the couch in the common area, but still I could hear him. If I did not have my iPod I would not know what to do, it was truly my salvation for the weekend.

After this experience I came to the conclusion that once you get past the age of 40, you pretty much get worse at everything. You can't see as well as you used to, run as well, hear as well...shit you can't even breathe as well as you used to. However, one thing you DO get better at is sleeping. I watched Felix and the Padre fall asleep in the car in a matter of 30 seconds and they were both in the most uncomfortable positions I can think of. So I guess I have that to look forward to.