Report on the July 2003 Trip to Peru by the UML Crew From July 14 until July 31, 2003 we made our thirteenth trip to Peru from U Mass Lowell to serve the people in remote villages in the mountains and in the process to learn and develop professionally and personally. What follows is an informal report on what we did and discovered. Our Group Eleven of us worked together in the mountains: • Stavroula Bletsis, graduate of the mechanical engineering program at UML, whose capstone design project was the Huayash water system • Lara Thompson, also a graduate of the mechanical engineering program, whose capstone design project was the Huayash water system • Renee Michaud, a senior nursing student • Colleen Sousa, experienced nurse and graduate student, nursing program • Meredith Lewko, a graduate with an MS in mechanical engineering (third trip) • Liz Purchia, a sophomore at Hamilton College, NY • Janice Dauphinais, experienced auto mechanic and instructor of ESL (fourth trip) • Stephen Kurkoski, experienced electrician (second trip) • Juan Pablo Trelles, a graduate with an MS in solar engineering and a BS from UNI, the National Engineering University, Lima (sixth trip) • Jesús Solis, a graduate of UNI, lives in Lima (third trip) • John Duffy, professor, coordinator of the solar engineering program (eleventh trip)
[The Crew, from left to right, Stacy, Meredith, Liz, Juan Pablo, Jesús, Colleen, Steve, Renee, Janice, Lara, John] What We Did Following are some of our key accomplishments: • A solar water pump and water distribution system for Huayash (with 100 people) and a sand filtration system (Stacy, Lara, Steve, Juan Pablo, Jesús worked on this for a week in Huayash). Previously, the people got their water in buckets from the river nearby. The sand filtration system will be connected on our next trip planned for January. (More on this system in the Lowell Sun article below.)
[Girl in front of school in Huayash testing the water system, with Lara and Stacy] • Transceiver radios and antennas in the towns of Culebras and Pariacoto. They are now important links in our radio networks for Huarmey and Casma hospitals. These towns have electricity, so no solar panels were needed.
[New antennas on the clinic roof in Culebras] • We installed a complete solar radio and light system in the clinic at Pumapucllanan at an elevation of 3400 m (about 11,000 ft). As usual we worked with the local people. Now the clinics in Pumapucllanan, Cochabamba, Cipre, and Pariacoto can network with each other. Pariacoto can communicate with the main hospital in Casma with another existing short wave radio system.
[Pumapucllanan helper with solar panels on the clinic roof]
[Raising the antenna in Pumapucllanan] • Nutrition and health surveys at 2 hospitals and 12 postas by Colleen and Renee with Liz as translator. They also distributed donations of medicine and supplies Renee solicited from nurses and organizations within the New England area through an ad in Nursing Spectrum, a national magazine received by most nurses. To reach some clinics required hours of driving; one in Chipre required hours of walking, up several thousand feet in altitude by Renee, Liz, and John.
[Renee and Liz with donated medicine and supplies and soccer and volley balls at Chipre] • Installed several systems with PV panels and batteries for laptop PCs in schools: Lower Huamba, Quian, Erajirca, and Pilco. Pilco required a two-hour hike by Liz, Renee, Janice and Steve and some donkeys.
[Donkeys with our equipment and tools ready to go to Pilco]
[The village of Pilco and the connecting trail, as seen from the Malvas Posta]
[A welcome from kindergarten children in Huamba]
[A welcome from the school in Erajirca] • In Quian we made the final connection between the water purification system and the water supply system which the local folks completed after we left in January. This system was a major undertaking of cooperation between us and the town that we are particularly proud of. The town now has water from the spring about a mile away as well as a supply of purified drinking water from a couple of common taps. Most of the houses have paid for a pipe connecting the water with the main supply pipe that we provided.
[Quian water supply pipe bridge over an El Nino washout, designed by UML students and built entirely by local folks]
[A water flow limiter on the Quian water system; an example of using local materials, which we have to do a lot] • Started aquaculture systems for Malvas (trout) and San Miguel (crayfish) in cooperation with local farmers. The farmers will give back to us a percentage of the profits to help pay for the equipment and supplies. We anticipate these systems to be self-sustaining and to result in better nutrition for the villages.
• Added newer PV modules in the Molino clinic to support PC and lights and bigger controller. • We performed a lot of preventive maintenance and small repairs in many clinics and schools (in particular radio adjustments for now a more effective set of communication networks). Feedback from clinics tells us that the radios are perhaps the most useful part of our systems and save many lives. We also made adjustments to the San Miguel hydro system to protect better the inverter; the town is going to purchase in Lima a new inverter.
[Children in Quian using one of the donated laptops; we just walked in and found them using the system—a good sign; the teachers in all the schools ask for more] • In Cochapeti we installed new light fixtures in the four-hundred-old church and in the town hall, just in time for the wedding of our dear friend Ruben, who worked in the clinic there for the previous five years that we have been visiting the town, and his bride Silia, who taught school there for five years. They asked John to be the “padrino,” which was a great honor. We all had a great time dancing at the reception until 2 in the morning.
[Ruben and Silia at their wedding in Cochapeti] • Speaking of weddings, we want to wish Juan Pablo the best in his marriage to his long-time sweetheart, Susan. They were married August 9. We also want to wish Janice and Steve the best in their marriage. Their wedding was on September 1. • One last little story: At night on our way out of Huamba to San Miguel with the red pickup, we missed a turn and wound up on the road to Huayan up the Aija valley instead of the Huarmey valley. After a while of things just not looking right (when we should have reached San Miguel), we stopped to ask where we were. A woman answered the door of one of the few adobe houses grouped together along the road. After a few minutes of trying to find the village called Colca on the map (in vain since it was so small), she suggested that it would be easier to find our way in the morning. We asked if there were anywhere we could sleep. She said there was a “hotel” right next door. She went with us and yelled in Quechua to a man who turned out to be her brother. In his two-story adobe house, he indeed had two rooms with three beds each, and there were six of us. The cost each: 5 soles, or about $1.50. At least there were clean sheets,
and it beat sleeping in the truck! We asked where the bathroom was, and he informed us that “el baño es el campo” (the field out back). We thought that we could sell time share in the place to ecotourists! The next morning we asked the fellow if there were anywhere we could buy diesel fuel for the truck. He said that his sister sold it! After filling up, we proceeded to visit the clinic in Huayan, which was not too far away. We were not planning to visit this clinic, but we found out that the radio was not working. We fixed it and did a little preventive maintenance. The doctor there was very grateful. Sometimes it seems as though Providence is watching out for us on this project.
[Filling up in Colca] Acknowledgements Of course, many others were involved with the project besides those of us who actually traveled down. Father Paul Soper started the project six years ago at the request of several undergraduates who wanted to get involved with international service. Fr. Paul was the university chaplain for six years until last June. He continues to inspire us and to help with fundraising. Our benefactors include: the Lindbergh Foundation; Rotary International and Rotary of Chelmsford; William Hogan, UML Chancellor; St. Mary's Parish in Winchester; Friends of the Peru Project in Wellesley; St. Anthony's Parish in Revere; ASE Americas and AstroPower for photovoltaic module donations;
Partner’s Health Care for laptop computer donations; Continental Airlines for accepting extra luggage, and many individual donors. Without our benefactors, we could not have installed the 45 renewable energy systems in 15 towns we have completed so far. Thanks to Fr. Jack Maddigan and the Padres del Santiago Apostol for the use of their pickup for two and a half weeks. Thanks to pastor Fr. Paul Madden for letting us use the parish house in Huarmey to organize and store equipment and supplies and for the use of the parish truck. Thanks to the director of the hospital in Huarmey for arranging for drivers and trucks to take us to the medical posts. Future Work We have many requests for work that needs to be done for future trips: • Finish the Huayash water filter system • Make a road to link the village of Utcu with the main road (cost: $300). Now everything must be transported by hand or donkey along a foot path.
[On the path to Utcu with our clothes which we gave to needy folks] • Install radios for clinics in Fortaleza, Chanchan, Pampchancha, Casa Blanca, and Huanchay in the Casma network. • Make and install portable solar vaccine refrigerators for Pampachanca, Quillo, Colcabamba, Chanchan, Huanchuy, Gramita in the Casma system and other towns. • Develop more aquaculture systems in Malvas, San Miguel, and other towns. • Visit Ocros valley (south of Huarmey); clinics need radios.
• • • • • • • • •
Reconfigure or move Malvas' hydro turbine, possibly use for public lights. Develop better lanterns (batteries and bulbs failing prematurely). Satellite ground station at Cochapeti (still waiting on the manufacturer). Provide for the roof on the new San Miguel church; help fix the leaking roof on Cochapeti church. Install Huamba Baja hydro: 80 m head (601 m – 519 m) between irrigation canal and road level below; 30 m head cement tanks to road level at posta (559 m – 531 m). Solar dryers for mint, camomile, oregano, and other herbs for Malvas (Prof. Piscino Rosales). More accurate and robust vaccine fridge temperature sensor and display. Help the clinic in Trujillo that Dra. Martiza (formerly in Cochapeti) works in. Help former director of the Huarmey hospital who now heads the Red Cross in Huarmey in training of nurses
Thanks to all of you for your support, on behalf of our friends in Cochapeti, Malvas, San Miguel, Huamba, Huayan, Molino, Quian, Raypa, Colcabamba, Cochabamba, Chipre, Pumapucllanan, Pariacoto, Culebras, Erajirca, Huayash, Huarmey, and Casma. I have to say finally, however, that we have very few funds left to support the project. Any help with contacts would be greatly appreciated.
John Duffy
P.S. A recent article in the Lowell Sun about the trip, a few comments by students, and a chart of the systems installed:
From the Lowell Sun
UMass Lowell engineering majors hook up Peru village with clean, potable water
REBECCA PIRO, Sun Staff Thursday, September 04, 2003 - LOWELL Uncomfortable. Unpleasant. Dirty.
They are words that many might use to describe a two-and-a-half-week experience that involves living in mud houses, sleeping on the floor and showering infrequently all while working incredibly hard. Then there's Stacy Bletsis, who calls it the best thing she has ever done. "Before, these people had to go down to the river and grab the water themselves," said Bletsis, a recent University of Massachusetts Lowell graduate, referring to residents of a small, poor community called Huayash, outside Lima, Peru. "Now, we have water running to the school, and it's filtered, too." Bletsis, 24, a mechanical engineering major, is part of a crew of UMass Lowell students, graduates and faculty that spent two and a half weeks in 12 such communities. It is a trip that professor John Duffy has led 11 times. Every trip, the experience is different, but the mission is the same. Duffy takes mechanical engineering students, graduates and working professionals into the jungles and deserts of Peru, into the communities of the poorest individuals, to improve their quality of life. Students raise funds to pay their way, supplemented by the university. Once there, they use technology to convert solar energy and moving water into electricity in communities with little running water and no domestic source of electricity. During the last school year, Bletsis helped design a water-purification system that the group constructed on their last trip from July 14 through July 31. Installing it was a lesson in engineering and the real world. "Here, if you forget something, you just go to Home Depot and get what you need," she said. "There, you have to plan everything out. Either you have it or you don't. You improvise or you just leave it for the next trip." Duffy, the coordinator of a graduate program in solar engineering, started leading trips six years ago. He agreed to make the initial trek after a group of UMass Lowell students traveled with a local chaplain to Peru, looking to expand the university's international service work. The native people asked them for lights, running water and means for communication. The student group returned to the university and approached the Engineering Department for a solution. Duffy agreed to lead an expedition, taking students and many donated materials. Six years later, different groups have successfully installed water pipelines, purification systems, laptop computers and solar-to-electricity systems.
"Every time we go, we come back with more requests," Duffy said. "There's no end to the need. It's impressive to see that the students can make such a difference to supply them with clean water, help them survive." This past trip was the second that Duffy brought along nursing students. Renee Michaud, a senior majoring in nursing, took surveys in the Peruvian health clinics, gauged their needs and ways to improve health and nutrition. She brought with her a duffel bag filled with donated medicines. She never expected some would refuse them. "They didn't want it or believe in it, because they had their own folk remedies," she said, adding that educated doctors would accept the medicines, but it was doubtful whether even the native doctors could convince their patients to use them. "It's (one thing) to learn that you have to be culturally sensitive to people's beliefs, but it's different to go somewhere and actually experience it," she said. The days spent installing equipment and devices are a learning experience on both sides. Janice Kurkoski, an electric-vehicle technician who just returned from her fourth trip with Duffy, is still touched by the wide eyes the group attracts. "The windows and doors of the room we're working in are filled with the faces of children and men and women, just watching," she said. "We try to include them in our rough Spanish of what it is we're doing and what they need to keep an eye on. When they get on the radio and talk to other villages, their faces light up, and it's so neat." "We can learn from these people," said Stephen Kurkoski, an electrician who just wrapped up his second trip to Peru and married partner Janice this weekend. "We bring the technology there, but they bring the can-do way of getting things done. They live with it every day, so they have to make it work." Duffy, who conducts Peru trips twice a year, plans to return in January, picking up where the last group left off. But for those students who will have graduated and gone on to other things, the memory of the experience will stay with them. "I learned more in my two and a half weeks than I did in all my four years (at UMass Lowell), as far as helping people," Bletsis said. Rebecca Piro's e-mail address is rpiro@lowellsun.com .
From left, recent UMass Lowell grads Stacy Bletsis and Lara Thompson pose with a local friend in Huayash, Peru, in front of the water tank and sand filter system they designed for an engineering project.
________________________________________ Comments by students: I just wanted to thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this amazing experience. I went into this trip not knowing what to expect and came out of it knowing more than I could have ever imagined. I learned more Peru in 2 ½ weeks than I would ever have learned in a class. I came away from this trip with a greater knowledge of the language, the people, engineering, and myself. It felt great to know that I was personally able to make a difference in the lives of these people. I hope this project will continue for years to come. As engineering students, we are often limited to text books, endless piles of notes, and an overload of equations; the motive of an engineer is often forgotten: to utilize technology to make the lives of people better. To discontinue future projects would be a detriment not only to the people of Peru but also to the students and volunteers who are willing to help and learn from the experience. The Peru Project was a unique learning experience that I value very much. As a nursing student, this experience showed me first-hand how different cultures
are throughout the world and how as healthcare providers we must continue to be understanding of other people’s beliefs and values. What I learned in Peru from speaking to the doctors and nurses in the clinics was that the medications and treatment techniques I was bringing with me to implement in these clinics may not be applicable or accepted by this culture. I feel that the task that needs to be addressed is to find a culturally acceptable way to implement forms of modern medicine in these clinics. The Peru Project has reinforced information given to me in class and has demonstrated the importance of teamwork and communication skills.
UML Peru Project Installations as of July, 2003 Location Clinics: Malvas Cochapeti Huayan San Miguel Huamba Molino 50 W-ASE 12. A 20W 2-20 W for radio 20 W, 18 W 3-20W, 18W 20 W 3-20 W 2-20 W 10 W 5W 5W 2-10 W 5W 10 W 10 W 115 Ah 195 Ah 140 Ah 115 Ah 250 Ah 115 Ah 230 Ah 230 Ah 120 Ah 140 Ah LED, 11 W Lumina 15 W for charging 140 Ah 140 Ah 2, PC, printer 2, 2 PCs PC 2, PC 1, PC 1, PC 2, PC
1, PC, printer 2, PC 1, PC 2 1
PV for lights
Controller
Fluoresc. Exam light Battery
Lanterns, PC
100 W-ASE 12. A 40W 10. A 60 W-Sol 12. A
150W-ASE 30. A
170 W-ASE, 30 A Sol 30 A (fridge & Quian 100 W-ASE all share same batteries) Raypa 100 W-ASE 30 A Colcabamba 50 W ASE 15 A 100 W Cochabamba 20 A AstroPower 100 W Chipre 30 A AstroPower 100 W Pumapucllanan 12 A AstroPower Schools: Malvas School 100 W-ASE 10. A Sta.
batteries Malvas School 110 W-Sol Raypa School 200 WStation Siemens Raypa School Cochapeti School Sta. Cochapeti School San Miguel 12. A C30 20 W for charging batteries 140 Ah for charging batteries laptop PC laptop PC, printer laptop PC laptop PC laptop PC laptop PC laptop PC, printer 140 Ah laptop PC, printer
(shared 30 A array) 150 W-ASE 40 W C30 A Siemens
(shared array) 30. A
50 W ASE
12 A 10 A 6A 10 A 10 A 11 W fluor. 140 Ah 140 Ah 140 Ah 140 Ah
60 W Sol Pilco Huamba Baja 50 W AstroP 50 W AstroP Erajirca 80 W Quian Siemens Town Government:
Malvas hydro 800 W gen. 60 A, two-40 A Cochapeti hydro San Miguel hydro Quian UV H2O Cochapeti town hall Huayash Clinics: 1400 W Two C40, 48 V gen. 1400 W Two C40, 48V gen. 200 W PV20 A ASE 100 W 50 W PV for fridge 12 A C12 Controller Battery 220 V ac inverter 220 V ac inverter
5W
20 W UV 20 W
for charging batteries for town 4-140 Ah lighting town 4-140 Ah lighting 3 – 120 Water Ah purification 60 Ah lighting Water pumping; sand filter Headlamp
2 – 20 W fl 140 Ah 140 Ah Parabolic Cooker 1 Other
Malvas
250 W-ASE 30 A
320 Ah
H2O pasteuriz 1 er vap.
Cochapeti San Miguel Huamba Molino Quian Raypa Churches
250 W-ASE 30 A 200 W Evergreen 30 A
345 Ah 420 Ah 220 Ah
1
comp. fridge vap. comp. fridge fridge vap. comp. fridge
1 2 1 1 1 1
150 W ASE 30 A
200W-ASE 30 A 200 W-ASE 30 A
415 Ah 420 Ah
1 1 Lights 2-20 W fl. lights 2 – 20 W fl 4-20 W fl. Lights 20 W fl. Iight 4 – 20 W fl
fridge fridge
Malvas church 50 W Quian church Malvas school dorm San Miguel church Cochapeti church 50 W 50 W ASE 50 W 50 W Radio Systems Radio
12. A 12. A 12. A 12. A 12 A
140 Ah 140 Ah 140 Ah 140 Ah 140 Ah
Clinic Huarmey Hospital Malvas Clinic Cochapeti Huayan San Miguel Huamba Quian Raypa
Antenna Emergency Hand Radio 13-element Yagi 50 W and vertical 4-element Yagi 5+35 W and vertical RadioShack 5+35 W vertical 13-element Yagi 5+35 W and vertical Kenwood 5 + 35 W vertical Kenwood, 5 + 35 W 13-element Yagi RadioShack 4-element Yagi Kenwood 5 + 35 W and vertical Radio 5 W + 30 W 4-element Yagi Shack
7 PCs
Molino Culebras Casma Hospital Colcabamba Cochabamba Chipre Pariacoto
5 + 35 W 50 W
5 + 35 W 5 + 35 W 5 + 35 W 50 W Pumapucllanan 5 + 35 W
13-element Yagi Vertical and 4 element Yagi 13-element Yagi Kenwood and vertical 4 element Yagi Vertical 4 element Yagi Vertical 4 element Yagi
6 PCs
1 PC