Five Feet, Nine Inches Above Ground

Pucallpa, Peru has become a destination of choice for myself along with 67 volunteers organized by Pure Art Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the living conditions of the desperately poor in the District of Manantay, Pucallpa. For details regarding the Foundation, please take the time to visit their web site, http://www.pureartfoundation.org,  and explore their mission and accomplishments for more than a decade.

As volunteers with the Foundation, we get to stay at one of the bet hotels in Pucallpa, the Aguila Adorada a striking contrast to the living conditions of the people in the slums where we are working. I was the last volunteer to arrive making my appearance on Sunday, March 8 which was the first day any of us got to work on the houses. Most volunteers arrived on Friday and Saturday and experienced a tour of the Pure Art Hub in Manantay that serves as our centre of activity.

There are four houses under construction this  year. All of them are entirely paid for by the fundraising efforts of the volunteers. For example, my friend Louise Gauthier and I organized a choral concert at St Thomas Church in Hudson in early November. We were happily shocked and surprised to raise $13,000 CND to build Luis and his family a home. Thanks to the donations of money, time and talent from more then 350 people in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area and further afield, the largest family home ever built to date by the Pure Art Foundation is nearing completion.

The foundation, frame and roof were built in advance on the site of the family’s former shelter.

The contractor takes care of the trickier bits..

while the rest of us get organized…

figuring out who is good at what..

and including the local children who are eager to help.

Weather is always an issue in this tropical paradise. At one point in the late morning, the heavens opened and the water pored out. It was an instantaneous sea of red mud instead  of the usual hard packed earthen roads. People and motorcars got stuck in the sticky, sucking, heavy red clay.

The roads and paths became a sea of mud…

that slowly began to dry out…

creating a patchwork of mud holes to negotiate.

Most of the homes in this area have dirt floors, leaking roofs, and walls that let in the wind, rain and dirt. The net result is utter misery in the rainy season. There is a severe lack of nutritious food and proper sanitation that only adds to the difficulty.

Fortunately, progress is happening in Manantay. The municipality is gradually installing a sanitary sewage system complimenting the already available electrical and potable water services. It’s a high end slum but there is beginning to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

To welcome the volunteers, the children and adults from the Pure Art Hub demonstrated their skills in dancing and story narration. It was a wonderful way to end the day.

And one can never forget the incredibly durable and energetic children that love any attention coming their way.