When I thought of the things I was expecting to do in my time abroad, building a house in a TINY village and peeing on the side of a mountain side looking into an incredibly beautiful valley while a donkey literally stared at my bare booty and working into the night under the absolutely incredible southern hemisphere stars and being able to see the Milky Way definitely would not have been on that list. But, oh man, am I glad that it worked its way into my experience down here!
Not only was it an amazing experience to be able to help out these people who literally have almost nothing now, but I met some really cool people and had a blast (an exhausting, muscle aching, tiring BLAST). We slept in a school and luckily, our group was able to walk to the location of the house we were to build. Our group built a house for a little old man who spoke such strange Spanish I had no hope of understanding him but he brought us snacks and drinks, as did the neighbors including Camila, my new favorite little Chilean girl who was 3 years old and adorable. This town was literally shacks on a hill, and to be quite honestly this mans new mediaguas that we built him is probably way nicer than his house that was damaged by the earthquake, it was one of the nicest on the hill by the time we finished. Chile outside of Santiago is a completely different world. Whereas within Santiago you could almost be in any developed city in North America (almost like a huge LA really), outside of Santiago is a whole different world and way more what I thought about as South America before coming here. It was so incredible to be putting together a house, from the holes for the foundation to putting on the roof, while looking out at an incredible country valley with hills and Andes and listening to the sounds of donkeys and chickens all around the hill.
Our group consisted of myself, Lindsey, Gina, Alma (UCLA EAPer), and then 3 Chilean engineering students Alan, Tomás, and Chotito. Basically, our cuadrillo rocked. Not only did these three guys really know what was going on and how exactly everything needed to be done, but they were hilarious, awesome, super nice, and really fun. These guys have gone to construct almost every weekend since the reconstruction started and are incredibly caring and dedicated 24/25 year old guys that were really a pleasure to get to know. We were the first group to finish our house and we had lots of fun doing it! From climbing the walls to hammer in nails for the roof, to playing baseball with wood pieces and apple cores, to digging 17 deep holes alllll day on Saturday, it was all fun because of the people we got to do it with and the reasons we were doing it for.
How exactly did I actually build a house you ask? Logistics: The Chilean government drops off somewhat ready-made houses that we just then assemble. That sounds way simpler than it was however. Our house was on a hill, which mean in order to make the floor level we dug 17 different holes which we then put these wooden rod-like pieces (called pilotes in Spanish, I'm not sure what that translates to) at different levels on the hillside to result in levelness. These wholes were pretty deep, all over 2 feel and lots of the holes were conveniently right where there were tons of rocks so we used a chuzo (again, not sure of translation, a big metal rod, to stab the ground repeatedly. That took all day Saturday. Then on Sunday, we placed the floor panels on the rods and nailed them together, placed the walls and roof, and finally attached the windows and the door. Yesterday consisted of a lot of hammering and measuring. In the end, our little old señor had a new house with a great view!
So all in all, it was a great experience through which I met some really cool people and was able to help out all the people that suffered from the earthquake a little, even if it was just one house for one little old man. I wish I could do more! The sore muscles and bruised knees are reminders of a great weekend!
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