Techo para Chile

I don't have a lot of time, but I figured I'd put up some pictures from last weekend. We went down to Las Cabras to build mediaguas (emergency housing).  We're still not allowed to go down to the most affected areas; they are still officially "unsafe for travel" as far as our exchange group is concerned.
(Note: all of these photos are the work of my friend Mari; I forgot my camera at home (oops).)

 Las Cabras is the little red "A" in the bottom left corner.

Some pictures:

The building site, with work already started (and a school bus in the back).

Mediagua construction is not rocket science.  You dig some holes, put wooden posts down (pilotes), make sure they're level, then start building the pre-fab "house" on top.  It does help to have a little previous know-how or some leadership if you've never done it before, though (especially if you have a building site as difficult as ours).  The first day, we had neither (just diagrams, materials, and ganas (motivation)).  What we DID have were the remnants of a 200+ year old house, and the nastiest foundation I have ever seen.  Cement.  Bricks.  More cement.  Boulders.  Needless to say, we spent a lot of time digging the first day (actually, we spent the ENTIRE first day digging.  Lots of rocks.  Lots.)

Sadly, this rock wasn't even one of the big ones.  We were unearthing small planets in this yard, no lie.

Leveling the pilotes.

Remnants of the house.  That covered-over, patio-looking part?  That used to be their indoor kitchen.  If you look closely, you can see that the only room left of the house is separated from outside by cardboard (CARDBOARD.  I think about 6-7 people were living together in the one room they had left, protected by CARDBOARD).

More cardboard.  You can kind of see where one of the old walls used to be in the back there.

Two of the kids, with the remnants of their house in their "front yard" (which all used to be house, not yard).

The second day, a helper/leader showed up, and revealed that (almost) all of the instructions we had been given were wrong.  He was great, though! Very patient.

Our friend Colin, with the grandpa of the house (sweetest old man ever).

Gettin' down on the roof.

The ladies of the crew (from left): Jules, Ryann, me, Cintia, KK.  Some bad-ass, strong women here.  (Quote of the weekend? "We don't need no man!")

Anyways, it was hard work, but good work.  I really hope I get to go down again before I leave.  This weekend some of us are heading to Mendoza, Argentina (visible on the map above in the top right corner).  The limitations of our tourist visas require that we leave the country every 90 days, so we're heading over there for a couple of days.  Hopefully we'll come back with some quality wine and leather goods.  Until then, take it easy! Que les vaya bien. ♥