Past Projects
Casa de Tito
After the earthquake Tito began saving money to rebuild his mother's house. He heard about M.A.D. through his cousin, Jesus, whose house we are still helping to build. Tito is a Maestro (which basically means he can build anything) and he needed help with his floor and roof. He had already laid all the bricks and made the columns for his mothers' house. He had all the materials to pour concrete for his floor and roof, but not enough money for labor or renting a concrete mixer. This was our first opportunity to pour concrete with our new mixer so this was an exciting day. Since this pour we have helped pour multiple roofs, floors, columns, and foundations for countless families. By helping Tito rebuild his house, he has in return helped us on numerous occasions when we needed an expert to show us what to do.
Smaller Jobs
We tend to get asked to help out with all sorts of random jobs. We helped build and hang a door for one of the first billiard halls to be rebuilt in La Playa, which is the area of Pisco that we live in. In doing this, we have helped not only the owner, Jose Carlos, make a little extra money we have also given people in the area something fun to do in their spare time. We have knocked down walls and through this made a contact with a local welder, so any time we need anything welded/repaired he is more than willing to help.
Leveling land is another thing we get asked to do quite often. Sometimes it is as easy as shoveling dirt into wheelbarrows and spreading it out. And then there are other times where we have been lucky enough to run into some guys with heavy machinery that were willing to help us out.
Our friend, Manwell, wants to set up a little restaurant in the future on his property which was completely destroyed after the earthquake, There were these HUGE chunks of concrete that needed moving along really hard dirt, so we helped some guys do rubble removal (by shoveling tiny debris into a Bob Cat) and they helped us level Manwells land.
San Pedro
San Pedro is a larger community within Pisco where a lot of people moved following the earthquake. At the time, people were just moving wherever and setting up tiny esterra (woven bamboo sheets) houses anywhere they could get land. Now, after more than a year an a half since the earthquake, tiny communities, all over Pisco, are trying to organize themselves by evenly redistributing the land. Which means that a lot of people have to move these houses that have been patch worked together (with cardboard, tarp, esterra, etc...) over the last 18 months to a plot right down the street. And with none of them having enough money for a concrete floor, all these families are still living on dirt.
The first house we took down in San Pedro we ended up being able to put it back up that same day. We had some help from the owner of the house and some of his family, so everything went pretty smoothly. As soon as we got the house back up you could immediately see the pride in the owners face. He finally had his own land with his own house for his wife and children. The owner of the house drives a moto taxi for a living and whenever we see him he honks, waves, and yells, "Mocho for Presidente!" (which is just another nickname for Pisco Billy).
The second house we moved in San Pedro was a bit more difficult. It was for this older woman, Irma, who is in very poor health. There was no guidance for how the house needed to be put back together. As long as it was roughly the same size and the doors were close to where they were before she was happy. In total it took three days to rebuild her house. We took down the entire house one day and organized all the materials (cardboard, eucalyptus and PVC poles, string, esterra, and tarp) into certain piles.
The more we thought about it the more we realized how difficult it would be to put together a house made out of cardboard boxes. So we all put our hand in our pocket and bought Irma one sheet of esterra a piece to build all the walls for her house. We don't normally ask volunteers to use their own money for building materials because, as an brand new organization we cannot afford to purchase these things on a regular basis, but in this case everyone was really enthusiastic about being able to build this woman a better house. Irma will eventually move her bed into this house and has offered us a place to stay any time we need it.
Malecon
The Malecon Miranda is a cultural and historic symbol of the coastal front of Pisco. In the years of maximum commercial exportation activity in the city which took place across the Fiscal Peer ('Muelle Fiscal'), it served as a luxurious beach resort. However, in the past 30 years the river Pisco has been accumulatively depositing sand in its estuary because of deforestation along its banks, creating a larger distance to the shore line. This geographical event, along with the gradual displacement of commercial activity towards the city centre made the city gradually turn its back towards the coast and left the district of Pisco Playa, where the malecon is located, lacking in services and any commercial or cultural activity.
After the earthquake, the few important institutions and business which remained in the area, such as the Grand Hotel, the Coastal Guard Centre and Faculty of Fishing Engineering and Food Industry have decided to relocate elsewhere, creating a greater sensation of abandonment and a lack of iconic services and references in the area of all it once used to be.
The Malecon Miranda represents the wasted potential of a great public space which we are trying to recover. This sector possesses extraordinary environmental qualities in its marine landscapes, wetlands and diverse marine and terrestrial fauna and flora. All qualities which could be enhanced with appropriate conservation and urban regeneration projects to allow local citizens and responsible tourism to enjoy the historic patrimony, the diverse nature and a potential culturally rich public space.
M.A.D. has been working closely with another NGO based out of Lima, Espacio Expresion, with the Malecon being their primary focus. Claudia, one of the women running the organization, has been trying to build a play area for children at the Malecon. In the last years it has become drug infested and not an area safe for families. Through Claudia's efforts it has improved a lot. However a few months ago she came to us and asked us if we would be interested in building a slide for the children. After brain storming for a while about how we could make it, we decided we could also build a climbing wall, and fix up some of the damage that has occured over the months (vandalism, wear and tear, etc...). It was a lot of fun. Claudia taught architecture in Lima and she brought some of her students down for two days and we taught them how to lay bricks and we worked on the climbing wall and the slide. There were dancers that came to the opening of it and the kids were playing on the slide and the wall before we had the things completely installed.
De Calle A Calle
De Calle A Calle is a Peruvian led NGO, and is the second of three NGO's that we have worked with since beginning in October 2008. Their primary focus is on the children of Pisco. In this city there are basically three ways you can make money, either by learning English and becoming a tour guide, working as a laborer, or selling drugs. De Calle A Calle is mainly run by teenagers whom are aware of these circumstances and do everything they can to keep younger kids off the streets by giving them projects that better this community.
When they asked us for our help it was in conjunction with a school project that one of the girls involved in A Calle de Calle was doing for school. They had raised money to buy a bunch of little gifts for this area of Pisco that is the poorest of the poor and were going to give it out to all the children for Christmas. In the beginning we were supposed to dress up as Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and some elves, but the group couldn't raise enough money for the costumes, so instead we just ran around all day playing with the children and their new toys.
Carnival
Okay... so this technically is not a project, but it is something that the entire community is involved in and living here you can't help but go a long with it. Every Sunday in February (and random other days people feel like soaking you with water) people, young and old, kind of hide in little grooves between houses, or since a lot of the roofs are flat they will just stand on the roof and dump buckets of water on unsuspecting victims. At first it started out as water balloons. You might get attacked by a few, walking around but you could usually get them back. Recently, however, it has escalated to monumental proportions. Almost war like feuds. Last week we suffered 2 kidnappings, in which the volunteers were dragged into our neighbors house and had paint wiped all over their faces. So in return, we stole their buckets so they had nothing to throw water with, and then just nailed them with mud and water. I am not sure if it always gets this ugly during Carnivale in Pisco, but it was some of the most fun I have had. There were people watching on the streets because we were mainly fighting against this one group of kids, and then this family next door just ganged up on us. Out numbered, suffering casualties, and covered head to foot in paint we had a joint truce... which lasted for about ten minutes.
