On Friday Nov. 18, everything started out on schedule. Patty took me to the airport, I got through security very quickly and then went to the United Club at the Phoenix airport. My flight to Houston was a few minutes late but I still had an hour to get to the gate for the 4:20 p.m. flight to Lima, Peru. I was meeting Julie, another Fuller Center volunteer who had flown from Denver but was on the same flight to Lima. After walking from the C terminal to the E terminal, I saw Julie walking towards me as I approached the gate. United had just announced that the flight was canceled because a LATAM flight was taking off in Lima and had collided with a fire truck and the Lima airport was closed. We both used our phones and rebooked for the same 4:20 p.m flight on Saturday. We then both used Hotels.com rewards to book rooms at the Sheraton North IAH hotel. Since we had plenty of time, we stopped at a bar in the airport and had a beer and chips with queso.
We took the hotel shuttle, got checked into our rooms and then had dinner at the hotel. The next morning, I discovered that my shower did not work, so they comped my breakfast buffet. At 11:00 we left for the airport on the hotel shuttle. I went through TSA precheck and Julie went to go through Clear, but she was just far enough behind me that her boarding pass disappeared because the Saturday flight was canceled. She texted me and the same had happened to my boarding pass. We went to the Premier Desk for United at Terminal C and got rebooked on the Lima flight at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday. This time we booked rooms at the Marriott that is at the airport. We checked in to our rooms, left our luggage there and then went to explore the airport to see where we had to go in the morning. Julie also wanted to get a tee shirt for her daughter. The Houston airport is very large and at times awkward to transit inside when you are past security. It is much easier when you take the subway and the distances are straight and easy - and you don't have to go outside in the rain which you do to take the sky-train which is beyond security.
We explored both the subway and the airport, then had an early dinner. We met at 3:45 a.m. Sunday, walked to Terminal D, went through security and then walked to Terminal E to get coffee and a bagel. Our 6:00 a.m. flight was delayed about 45 minutes but we finally flew to Lima. Charlie, one of the Fuller team leaders met us and we waited for Danette who was on the United flight from Newark. We then went to the bus, met the rest of team and then went for a late lunch at the same restaurant as my prior two trips to Peru. Then it was a three hour drive to our hotel in Imperial. We settled in our rooms, then back in the bus for dinner. Four years ago, breakfasts and dinners were in a building that was a two block walk from the hotel. But Zenon has converted that to his factory, and we now rode to the new Fuller headquarters in La Florida. Four years ago, they had just started building the new headquarters, but now it is partially built. In addition to a large walled in area without a roof, there is a second floor on the front end - it houses the office space on the second floor, and bathrooms and a kitchen on the ground floor. At the back end of the building, there is a below ground storage area, an above ground dining room and bathrooms, and three bedrooms with a bathroom upstairs - the plan is to have a third floor with more rooms so that teams can stay in La Florida and eat all meals in La Florida. Our team would eat all of our meals in La Florida, so rather than the five minute walk it was a 15 to 20 minute ride each way. For the rest of our time, all meals were in La Florida - that meant leaving the hotel at 7:30 each morning and not returning until after dinner and evening activities.
This is the back end of the new Fuller center in La Florida, storage room below ground, dining room above ground and rooms upstairs.
These posters were in the dining room.
After dinner in La Florida, it was back to the hotel in Imperial. This is the view from the hotel in December 2018, with no other commercial development.
This is the view now, with a hotel across the park and one to the right.
On Monday, I was part of the crew that spent the entire day mixing gravel, cement and water to make concrete, and then using a wheelbarrow brigade to pour the footings for the walls for a two bedroom home.
We did have one minor injury. Fuller had sent a large first aid kit, but it was at one of the other two houses where our team was working - I used my personal first aid kit in my backpack.
There were nine volunteers at this house in the morning, but only five in the afternoon. We added rocks in with concrete and it took all day to pour the footings.
We finished, then cleaned up and walked back to the Fuller Center for dinner.
Since we were south of the equator, it was summer and many of the homes that were near the hotel have plants in bloom.
On Tuesday, Sandra (the homeowner) and Felix worked all day with the five of us volunteers. Because the ground was sloped, we had to dig out dirt and cart it away in a wheelbarrow - I did much of the wheelbarrow work and managed to walk more than ten miles doing so.
At little before 11:00, we boarded the bus to ride to Nuevo Imperial for a reception by the mayor. La Florida is a part of Nuevo Imperial, so this was a big deal complete with media coverage and certificates for each of us, a talk by the mayor with snacks and drinks for all of us. The speech was translated for us by Tommy, one of the volunteers who is originally from Argentina but is now a US citizen and a graduate student working on his MBA in Florida.
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| Here is Tommy translating the Mayor's speech for us |
Then it was back to the Fuller Center for lunch, then back to digging and moving dirt by wheelbarrow for the afternoon. We finished just before 5:00 and walked back to the Fuller Center for dinner. After dinner, we had music by Miriam. The local Fuller employees (who prepared all our meals) and Zenon joined in with the music, including singing some of the songs.
On Wednesday, the full team went to mix the concrete and poor the floor for a house that was planned to be finished by Friday.
Maestro Arturo finished the floor just before lunch.
After lunch, we headed out for an afternoon of relaxation. We headed out to Lunahuana on the Canete River. Along the way, we stopped across the road from the Incahuasi ruins that are only open on the weekends (we had stopped there in 2018). There is a small, unofficial museum that we visited briefly.
When we got to Lunahuana, several team members went whitewater rafting on the Canete River and the rest of us hung out in town.
Thursday morning, we learned that one volunteer had a temp and did not feel well Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, he tested positive for Covid. Everything stopped for the team. We all tested negative for covid, but we stopped working because we did not want to expose the locals as many of them had not been vaccinated for covid. We mostly took it easy for the day. In the afternoon, we took a walk to the two houses where we had been working.
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| This was a pipe I had broken and which had been repaired by Thursday afternoon. |
Thursday was Thanksgiving, so we had rotisserie chicken, yuca fries, vegetables and pasta for dinner, followed by more live music with Miriam. As with all our meals, we ate outside in the center courtyard of the Fuller Center instead of in the dining room - and we tried to space out as much as possible.
I wandered the neighborhood before breakfast and again marveled at the flowers kept by homeowners - I had to stop and smell the roses.
Since we could not build Friday morning, after breakfast we took the bus to the town of Quilmana. Several people visited the Parque zonal Chavin de Huantar, which was sort of a zoo with llamas and other animals. The rest of us wandered the town. As I had seen previously, Peruvians respect the dead and the cemetery is often one of the nicest part of a town, especially a poor town.
We returned to La Florida for the dedication of the house where we poured the floor on Wednesday morning.
The dedication included breaking the bottle of champagne over the door.
Everyone got certificates and gifts. Our gift for Zenon was this helmet shaped like a cowboy hat and which we all had signed.
And then it was on the bus - we stopped about an hour away for lunch at the El Piloto restaurant.
Then it was on to Lima and Hotel Santa Maria where most everyone was staying Friday night. We all bade goodbye to Zenon and Jose, then went out for our last dinner as a team.
At 9:00 p.m., Sarah and I got our cab to the airport. Security inspection (their version of the TSA) was very quick and orderly, but there was a very long line at Immigration. Without my asking, I got sent to the preferential line because of my age and Sarah was able to accompany me. Immigration also went quickly. Then we both spent time shopping in the Duty Free shop - I got some quinoa chips. And then we went to our separate flights and it was an uneventful trip home on Saturday.
