Project in Espinillo

Its been a while since we've updated you all on our latest activties.
We have been asking ourselves, and others, what are the needs and how can we help? Last Friday, after we had already met with several teams working with the victims of the earthquake, we knocked on the door of one Tio Emilio. We've been told he's a large man with the heart of a teddy bear. And so he is.
We met with him that Friday, and just felt something “click”. He told us, "If you are willing and able to help, then come help!". He dove straight in, talking about what work he's doing, how he felt that God was leading him to build 50 houses in 3 different village in hills surrounding Pichilemu. Tio Emilio and small group went out the Monday after the first large earthquake hit on February 27th, with a truckload of food, water and clothing to this area because he had heard the area was badly affected. When seeing house after house completely collapsed, and knowing that these people have neither the money, resources or even time (as they have to be out working their crops all day before winter comes) to rebuild their homes, he wanted to do something. He went home, started praying and planning, visiting other villages as well, and that is how he came up with the number 50 as the amount of homes to help rebuild.
He is a quiet, calm man with a heart that is completely about helping the people, and thereby showing love in a practical way, something we feel is very important.
In the meantime, we have gone out with Tio Emilio twice, both to a rural village about 40 minutes from here called Espinillo. The road there is all dust n dirt, with many bumps and curves along the way. Its an area deep in the hills going inland from Pichilemu (which sits right on the coast). Espinillo consists of dirt roads lined sparsely with the homes of small-time farmers, called campesinos, here and there. The earth is tough and the weather dry and hot, so its not the easiest land to work.
Most of the homes in these parts are old, and cheaply built out of clay and therefore an easy prey for the rage of an earthquake and despite what is said in the news, Chilean building regulations hold no value in these rural parts. However, the houses that Tio Emilio has designed a built to better able to withstand earthquakes.
As we work, we are learning, and are also delighted to meet the locals. On our first day we met Senora Carmen Ruta, her son and her mentally handicapped daughter. They now camp outside right next to where they used to have a house. With pieces of furniture and farm animals scattered around, having to cook on a open fire and living outdoors, the sweet "abuelita" still manages to have a smile on her face. She is tiny tiny, and very talkative. However, she speak with the thick accent of the locals, barely enunciating as well. We were definitely practicing our communications skills that day! We did manage to catch her wondering out loud why it was that people from other countries would come to help them.
The other house we’ve been working on belongs that of a kind widow and her daughter.
The building process is not going as fast as it should, largely for the lack of a vehicle. So Tio Emilio works by faith. This translates to every morning, getting up and making a few calls to see who might have a car available. A car is crucial to getting materials and workers out to the building sites!
More skilled workers and modern construction tools would be extremely helpful to make the work go faster, and to work at multiple sites at one time.
We were also shocked to hear that it costs only $1500 to build a house! Unfortunately, response has been slow for some reason to the need, and even if people/organizations make promises, they more often then not are falling through. Why? We don’t know. But we do recognize that things have been a bit unconventional from the start, and so it will probably will continue to be! This whole project is about living by faith, and as we tell each other, "when we work, we work, but when we pray, God works".

Our First Free Flight

Well, we finally managed get free of Pichilemu and the YWAM base, to actually go look at the reality that Chilean victims of the earthquake are living in. This happened on Tuesday. We left at about 4.30 in the afternoon, and drove well over an hour through winding roads and over bridges cracked by the earthquake. One bridge in fact a 2 horizontal splits in it, split cleanly from one side to the other. If another quake hits, that bridge will be unusable.
We went with a completely Latino team from the base, and as we drove the leader, Tio Chelo, told us what happened to some of the villages we were passing through. One place, Cahuil (which is the next town when driving south of Pichilemu), had over 200 homes destroyed. They were all fishermen's home situated along the river leading out to sea. A big wave rolled in, coming to well over 2 meters above the homes, washing everything on the low-lying bank of the river away. A church bench ended up in the toilet of nearby school, and pieces of the homes were found on in hills above.
Tio Chelo and his team are doing whatever they can with the limited resources they have, and he was saying how important it is to make sure all the school buildings are reconstructed and up and running, because the children spend their whole days there, getting food, shelter and an education. At home, their parents have enough on there hands trying to rebuild their homes, and finding food for themselves.
As we headed to the small pueblo, we passed through a small town named Paredones. There most homes we saw had severe structural damage, beyond repair really. They explained to us that this is because the homes are made of cheaper materials like mud and clay, to make them affordable. Unfortunately, this also means, again, that the poorest are also the most impacted by the quakes here.
We got a chance to see what kind of temporary homes the Chilean government is offering the victims of the quake. They consist of 3x6 meter boxes made of thin planks, hardly enough we are told to get people through the cold and rainy winter. See the picture on the left.
The looming winter is really what is making the whole relief effort so urgent. The rains will start within about a month, and will be bad enough by the end of May that the many dirt roads will be unnavigable. This means teams can't go out to help build homes for those needing shelter, and no supplies can be sent out to the families.
The picture to the right shows a sticker posted by the government to assess the extent of damage to the homes in the pueblo we went to. This particular sticker indicates a 'total collapse' of the home, making the home 'unlivable'.
We went to this particular village to give out food, clothing and school materials for the kids, while keeping them entertained with two clowns. Meanwhile the mothers were free to sit with a team from UNICEF to talk about how they were faring after the quake, to receive some tips and be given a listening ear. Some families (like Vicente and his mom, see pic) are currently sleeping outside, without tents in the cold night air of 10 degrees celsius. Luckily, they can still remain dry for now.
On the drive home, we overheard Tio Chelo calling different people, asking for basic supplies like nails and hammers. He also says that there is a shortage of cars to even get able bodies to the villages to help out.

Ness and I meanwhile, are struggling to get our Spanish up to a more conversational level. We would love to get out the villages more often, but transportation is limited right now. So instead we help sort donations at the base, and are talking with a few men leading relief teams, to get a better grip on how the work is being coordinated and where we can fit into all this.
Please, be praying for all the families affected by the quake, and for relief efforts to get coordinated quickly and for more resources!!

….the continuing story.
We thought we landed safely, and even thought we had found a great house to stay in with a Brazilian family. Happy to see my brother Marc, to have had the journeys go well, and overjoyed at the sight of a proper bed, we certainly thought things looked normal.
Unfortunately, Ness decided to ‘ask’ that we be able to feel what an earthquake felt like, “Just a small one”, she said as I rolled my eyes.
I told her I would shake her bed for her in the middle of the night. But I never ended up needing to do that. Starting the evening of the 9th we felt a few small tremors, and honestly, we were thinking it was kind of cool. In the morning Marc mentions that there have been warnings that an earthquake would hit that day. I though, “Okay”. At 11.30, sitting on the top of our bunk bed with headphones in, I quickly realized what he actually meant.
A 7.2 quake hit just 40km north of Pichilemu, and caught us quite by surprise, my bunk bed shaking uncontrollably as I decided it might be a good idea to head downstairs and out the door as bottles fell off the dresser and books off the shelf.
We were not terribly frightened, just thought it an interesting experience as one is liable to do with anything that is experienced for the first time.
The villagers were much less excited. In fact, many nervously started racing up the hill behind our house either by foot or by car within a minute of the quake hitting. All of Pichilemu was heading for high ground as there was a high chance of a tsunami hitting. An old woman walked by completely out of breath, trying to get her phone to work so she could reach her family. Cars skidded in the dirt, revving up there engines nervously has they tried to get up the hill. Women were crying, the recent trauma of one week ago still fresh in their minds. This was no joke.
As we are staying with my brother who is part of YWAM, we ended up having to set up half-tent on the base grounds next to a campfire that night with fellow YWAMers. The base is situated on high ground and some of the most solid ground in the area in case of earthquakes. Although we didn’t not particularly enjoy another night of sleeping in our clothes after much traveling the previous days, along with chilly night air and many people staying up late talking around us, we survived quite well.
The villagers (or ‘campecinos’), dragged their tents, mattresses, sleeping bags one and all up the hill behind the base. We went for a look around, and certainly their situation was much less comfortable. Little children, elderly people with oxygen tanks, and young gangs were all mixed on the same grounds. The military had already installed a convoy to the area.
In such a moment, our foremost thought was how odd it was that we consciously chose to come to Chile at this time, while there people would give anything to not be here right now. Such a paradox of the luxury of choosing a lifestyle versus learning to cope with the life given you.
Pichilemu has fared well so far with the quake, with electricity slowly coming back, a few stores opening, and no visible damage as far as we can tell on the streets. News on how other villages have fared is still not clear.
There are predictions of yet another quake, this time closer to 8.0 on the richter scale, hitting near Pichilemu in the coming days. How it will go, we don’t know! But we do regularly count the seconds as yet another tremor shakes the earth beneath.
Ahh what an adventure indeed! Thankfully we are safe. As for those that have or will fare worse in the midst of this, again, it is those that our hearts go out to and we hope we can mean something for them in this time in any way. Some basic relief work has been set up, but it is a far from a coherent system through which relief teams and significant help can be channeled. Thus that unfortunately is still a story in development.

Off to Chile! Well plans have been forming and finally I’m off to another adventure. As usual, detailed planning is not the ‘word of the day’, and instead its all about “flexibility” and “openness to serve”. Vanessa and I (a good friend of mine from Brazil) are making South America unsafe for a few months, with our first stop being Pichilemu, Chile. We originally idyllically planned this as our first stop, thinking a nice visit to my brother on the coasts of the Pacific would be a good, slow way to immerse ourselves in Spanish-speaking Latin America…In other words, we planned a mini holiday before the real work was to begin doing volunteer work in Bolivia.
Well, what do you know….I booked my flight on Wednesday, and Ness on Friday, and on Saturday of the same week we tune into the news that an 8.8 earthquake hit Chile. What??!!! Needless to say, we were as shocked as everyone else, and our plans have thus taken a quick turn.
SO, as I type I’m at the airport in Madrid, Vanessa is to be en-route shortly, and if all goes according to plan (?) we will meet my brother in Santiago tomorrow, from there heading about 4 hours down the coast. There, we will promptly be set to work I’m told, to help out however we can with relief efforts.
What a turn of events! I sincerely hope that in the coming time we can serve the people effected by the quake in whatever capacity, and that we will be put to good use. But needless to say, we are sorely feeling our inadequacy for any such task at this point. Let’s see how God choose to guide this journey, as all planning is obviously not in our hands anymore J.
I will try to post updates on my blog, so if your interested, check it out every now and then!