Our First Day in Carnachique

By Arielle Rivera

The team in Carnachique! This is the team’s first time back in Carnachique since a visit with the prospective community in 2015.

The moment we’ve been waiting for has arrived -- time to visit the community of Carnachique for the first time! Our day started with getting situated in the kitchen at the Maria Madre de Buen Consejo house. Then, we all piled into Julio’s combi and held on for our lives while he backed up half a mile downhill to reach the road. The drive was a bit bumpy through the rough terrain on the mountain, but the community was a lot closer to our house than we expected.  

The community itself was not what we pictured. We began our assessment of the irrigation system in Carnachique in early 2021 but besides a few photos from our partners, Working for a Smile, we did not have a chance to see the community or the townspeople until today. Julio dropped us off by the source capture so we could take a look at where the water is coming from and how it’s distributed to the different irrigation groups in the community. Then, we were met by Santiago Gamboa Zavaleta, the president of the Comité de Regantes (irrigation committee, or the community-based organization), who gave us a tour of the 2.5 km canal that provides water for 18 farmers and finally led to his house. We were finally able to see key features of the system, such as ‘control boxes’ that allow farmers to take turns channeling water to their crops, as well as how dangerous it is to walk all the way along the side of the canal next to a steep drop-off (and luckily our team only had a couple slips). Our MVP Daniel was gracious enough to carry our huge water container throughout this whole trip. Once we reached Santiago’s house, we were met by a couple of dogs who were eager to listen to Santiago explain to us how he maintains his system. We took plenty of pictures and are excited to begin a technical walk-through tomorrow! 

Ellen Su (left) showcasing our MVP Daniel Trujillo (center) as Lucy Levenson looks on (right).

We decided to head back for lunch, this time with Santiago joining us in the combi (which meant for some real squeezing / team bonding in the backseat). Julio took us to a restaurant in El Central in Otuzco, which served a variety of Peruvian cuisine. Some of the team members wanted to try cuy (guinea pig) much to my despair, but Julio ended up ordering pollo frito for all of us. 

After eating our lunch, we headed back to the Maria Madre de Buen Consejo house and we did a recap of what we learned from our tour. We were able to make a game plan for tracing the system in detail from start to finish to help with our future implementation trip. After that, we headed out to grab some tape to mark trees along the way, but the hardware store only had bright red tape brandished with ‘PELIGRO.’ We decided that it was perfect.

For dinner, we went out to try pollo a la brasa (Peruvian roasted/ fried chicken) and the team easily demolished an entire chicken. After a long day at work we were satisfied and finished our day off by resting up at the house for a big day ahead.

Prompt: What’s your favorite livestock that you saw today? 

Scott: Oveja (sheep)

Ellen: Burro (donkey)

Bryan: Vaca (cow)

Daniel: Oveja (sheep)

Vivian: Oveja (sheep)

Lucy: Oveja (sheep)

Arielle: Cerdo (pig)