Oaxaca Trek, Days 1 and 2

ADO-BLOCK PRODUCTION

Tuesday Aug 17th and Wednesday Aug 18th, 2010

Introducing Guest Blogger, David Chen.

Youngest member of the 1st ever Esperanza volunteer group

in Oaxaca, Mexico this past week, August 16-24, 2010!

¨Today we arose bright n’ early for our second day of work en la comunidad de Rio Grande. Choosing to rebel against global influences, Rio Grande does not participate in day light savings. Therefore, we got to the worksite just after seven; Aimee was worried that our lack of punctuality would make a bad impression on the people of the community, who pay small fines for being late, however, all seemed to be fine. Reflecting on the past two days, it does not seem like we have been in Rio Grande for just two days. It seems much longer. Perhaps this is because of the connections made, or because of how much we accomplished, or maybe just because it was a very long day. Whatever is the case, here is an overview of the worksite.

Everything is centered on feeding the block-making machine, ¨la maquina.¨ The three ingredients it eats are mud, sand, and cement mix. The mud is the most laborious ingredient to harvest. It is chopped from the mounds, hand-sifted through a makeshift-iron-window-cover-like device, dug out from underneath and dumped onto the sand.

¨La Luz de Jesus¨ y ¨El Corazon del Virgin Maria¨
These sisters, named Light of Jesus and Heart of Mary, helped in the sifting of mud.

Erin and Santos sifting the mud, ¨el barro¨

Angel dumping the sifted mud onto the pile of sifted sand.

The rest of the ingredients are relatively simple. The sand is dumped near ¨la maquina¨ from a truck, and is easily wheel-barrowed after sifting the rocks out,

and the cement is usually carried by Eduardo (anyone who has been to Tijuana knows Eduardo) to the place where all is mixed.

Eduardo and Juan hauling cement bags.

Aimee dumping cement and cal (lyme) on the pile.

The mixing process is to shovel each mound, montun, into a new mound, and then, into a new mound.

Edgar, Andrew, David and Katrina on mound patrol, while Pete supervises!

And after shoveling into one more mound, it is ready to be fed to the machine.

David feeding ¨La Maquina¨

The machine then intakes its food through the equivalence of its esophagus and compresses the meal in its belly. It is then burped up in the form of a perfect block for construction. And here is why everything is centered on this final step. The machine produces one block at a time, about half a minute per block. Not counting problems with the machine itself, if any one step of harvesting mud goes awry, the process of making the blocks is threatened. Without a constant supply of fully-mixed mix the machine cannot eat, and no blocks are produced.

Keda carrying the final product to a location to dry.

It takes 2,400 blocks to make a home. The goal is to make 1,000 blocks/day. We made 1,200 blocks each day we were there!

The other main component of our day is visiting and learning about each other. This component includes lunch, and with the famous Southern Hospitality, the Esperanza families in Rio Grande made sure we were well taken care of. Day One they served steak, carne asada, beans, frijoles, tortillas, tortillas, salsa, salsa, more salsa, mas salsa, and cactus salad, made with a certain type of cactus and things like tomatoes and onions. There was a juice made from local fruit that one can only compare to what they could hope might be served in heaven. There was also starfruit. Day Two, the main course were flautas, an incredibly delicious fried tortilla filled with potatoes and topped with lettuce, tomatoes, and crema (what sour cream would be without the sour). This was accompanied by horchata, a drink made from milk, rice, and cinnamon… And perhaps a little bit of sugar.

Community member making fresh tortillas for us at the work site!

Besides the food, another reason some of us may have been interested in Esperanza is for the human connection. We have all had different experiences as we all worked in different areas. And perhaps rather than explaining the way we appreciate certain individuals that we have had the opportunity to speak with, it is better to leave it to the imagination. However, it is clear that the people, at least those we have met, have lived incredible and profound lives, and are well deserving of every ounce of respect and appreciation that we can give.¨ -David Chen

Aimee and Keda = Friendships formed.