Update 3

Hello to all! I hope that you are ready for the third update, I tried to put this up a week ago but for some reason the internet Gods would not let me. Let´s take a look!

Also, I have been told by fellow volunteers that my spelling is very poor in my updates. I will not apologize - I take it as the highest compliment towards my Spanish fluency. All I can say is that I will try to do better, haha.

An update on the map:

Take a look at an older version and you will see that I have included some other roads that run through the community. We have decided to make a few small additions to the project so these extra roads will be important at the end of this blog!

Up at the tube area of the project we have come a long way. We have poured cement over the road and added more wall on the sides to make it stronger. The bus now passes through the road as it did earlier. We still have to construct the legs that extend out towards the landslide but the progress has been impressive.

A look through the newly poured cement box.

A look at the cement addition the extends from the box area out.

Branching out from the cement cover over the road we have also replaced the original road, removing old rocks, placing in new ones and then compacting them. It is weird that I know how to make a road out of rocks.

The guys getting rid of the cement tubes that have been sitting on the side of the road.

We used tree branches to do it.

A pic of the cement drainage box from where the landslide came.

A true gentleman.

Freddy telling me that the order has not arrived yet....

Miguel.

New drain system - it is wide and very long!

Repairing the road near the water station and the small wall. This is so that the water flows away better. The road was very beat up and there has always been a lot of stagnant water in this zone. We tore the rocks out, put new ones in, and then compacted them with more dirt!

Here are a few more additions to the original map. This part of the project is centered near my house and the church, the zone marked.

This is a shot from right outside my door up towards all the construction. The boulders that we took out of my house after the landslide are still there. The long pieces of metal that you can see once were part of a latrine.

A shot from the same zone only downwards towards the heart of the community. The area highlighted is important in terms of new construction.

A closer look and one can see that it is a latrine. Directly to the right of it we will be constructing.

I have now walked to the road, the church is now behind me and this shot is to the left of the latrine, as you can see. Notice that directly next to this latrine there is a natural drainage system, like a dried river bed, that runs from this road down and out of the community. We will be using this to push the water out of important community zones. A small wall on both sides of the dried bed will do the trick.

The water will then flow down though the bottom half of the community towards the second zone of new projects.We have now gone to the next road below and are looking up towards the church and the first zone of new construction.

Here we are looking up at the church towards the second road. This is a great look up the river bed that we will use as the drainage system.

This is a shot from the same zone, I just turned around. So, behind me is the church a ways up and we are looking towards the bottom part of the community. The green square highlights where the river bed continues, there is a break in it because of the road - this bed kind of cuts to the left so we will put a wall here so that the water follows the path of the bed.

It will be a beautiful thing.

A new map of the project. In this one I have tried to draw a 3D version of the landslide zones and have marked all aspects of the project, including new builds - as you can see it is quite the experience. I hope that I am explaining myself enough - I realize that it is hard to get your head around it never having been in El Chile. Any questions - please send me them!

That is all for now!

Jimbo