We thought nothing of the spreadsheet until the morning when, over clumpy powdered milk, we discovered that the group had been divided into teams of four people per mediagua (the pre-fabricated temporary housing we were there to build). There were 16 mediaguas sitting outside the school where we were sleeping and the plan was to finish them all by Sunday afternoon.
“That can’t be possible,” I said. “The guys in Retiro said 12 was the ideal number of people to build a mediagua.”
The 16 mediaguas in waiting
We were not in Retiro anymore! Still recovering from the 3:30 a.m. arrival in Pencahue and the 6:30 a.m. wake-up call, we all piled on to a bus that delivered us each to our worksites. Unlike in Retiro where the worksites were all within the “downtown” area of the town, we were each at least a mile from each other, most of us on family farms.
My team, luckily, was comprised of three Chilean students, each of whom had some significant construction experience. I was able to help a lot in the first phase—digging holes for the foundation pile-ons with iron rods! As we got into the more complicated building stages, I became an expert wall-holder and nail-hander-to-er. On Sunday evening as the sun set and the boys finished the roof, I was “in charge” of taking pictures.
Our team, plus a few members of the family, working on the foundation
The land around our site was absolutely beautiful, with mountains visible in the distance 360 degrees around us. As we worked, we were surrounded by cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, cats, dogs, sheep and horses. At one point on Sunday morning, we saw the stream of run-off from the house flow red after the mother slaughtered one of the turkeys for lunch.
The best part, by far, of the weekend was getting to know the family for whom we were building the mediagua. Because all of us from the group were all so separated throughout Pencahue, we didn’t meet back up for lunch or breaks, we simply ate lunch with our families. When I told the family that I didn’t eat meat or gluten, I became an instant topic of conversation. I was presented with a beautiful bowl of lentils instead of the turkey soup everyone else was eating, and the mother cooked a batch of potatoes for me on the second day. Throughout the course of the weekend, each of the couple’s four daughters showed up, two with their children, so I got to explain my fascinating dietary requirements each time.
The welcome they extended was so warm, I didn’t notice until the end of lunch on Saturday the condition of the family’s house. It seemed to be combination house and grain barn, and I’m still not sure if they were only living there because their house collapsed in the earthquake or because they had been on the list for a mediagua and their time finally came. The house was put together with various materials, in some places just plastic sheets, and was thus incredibly drafty, so once the sun went down, they all huddled around a bowl of coals from the oven to keep warm. They were incredibly generous with us and incredibly appreciative, offering us hot coffee and tea and fresh homemade bread (an egg for me) each evening so we could take a break from the cold.
The father helping out with the foundation
The matriarch, looking adorable as usual
Handing up the zinc roof panels
In the end, our group of forty-eight people completed twelve mediaguas. A smaller group was planning on staying until Tuesday to finish the remaining four. Although I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Retiro, I feel incredibly content to have gone on this trip, which felt infinitely more productive, and to have met that family. Hopefully they’re enjoying the new addition to their home!
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