We May Have Just Met the Father of the Year

When we met Lucero, we also met her father.  He was quite a talkative guy, and by the time he was done talking, we were totally amazed.

For starters, he worked in zinc and silver mines for years, until all the toxins and pollutants in the mines made his health so bad he was forced to stop.  I've visited a couple mines (no longer functioning) in the last few years - enough to appreciate the difficulty and danger of the work, and have tremendous respect for the guys that do that kind of work.  

 Like most folks in Chosica, Peru he could not afford a well-built house, and so be started with a house like the picture below.  This is still part of their house today, but he's been slowly transforming it as he's been able.  Note the piles of cardboard - he collects recyclables that he later sells for money to help support his family.

There is no running water in Chosica, and it only rains 1-2 months per year.  So he built a water tank on top of his house to hold water.  A water truck visits town periodically.  He buys all their water from the water tank, which is then delivered to a tank below his house.  He then pumps the water by hand up to the tank of top of his house to supply "running water."  They have no water besides what he buys and pumps in.

Notice the house walls in the pictures above and below.  As he has been able, he has purchased bricks and has replaced the corrugated siding with the bricks.  He then covered the brick with concrete to make the smooth walls.  This not only looks nicer, but it makes the house more structurally sound to withstand the annual storms and also earthquakes, which are fairly common in this area.  

Below is the bedroom which he constructed for Lucero and her mother 2 years ago. It has a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling - it took him about 10 years before he was able to run electricity into his house.  (Lucero's father still sleeps in lumpy bed in the corner of the main room of the house, near the plastic kitchen table.)

The back of the house runs directly into the side of a mountain.  As you hike up the path of bricks and stones, he has created various small farm areas, so he can provide for his family.  

Below is one of his two chicken coops.

He also grows a few of each type of plants, including spices and corn.  Since it doesn't rain very often in Chosica, he has to water his plants himself - pumping water into buckets, and then carrying them by hand up the mountain.

We couldn't get a picture, but as we walked through the "farm" we suddenly came upon a little old lady sitting in the shade of the plants. This was his 82-year-old aunt, who is in poor health.  She spends her day here sitting in the shade, and Lucero's father cares for her without help from outsiders.  

Below is a sink he built in the house - he was very proud of the pump he installed to provide water from the tank beneath the house to this sink.

Last but certainly not least, go back up to the picture at the top of this post.  This is Lucero's father standing next to a pay phone - his very own pay phone that he had installed in the front of his house as a way to earn more income.  Nobody in this town has a phone, so he called the phone company and asked them to install one in the wall of his house. When neighbors use the phone, he gets a percentage of the call fees.

We were amazed at the ingenuity and hard work we saw in this humble father in Chosica. He is a tremendous example of how hard folks in poverty work to improve the lives of their families with the resources they have available.  On top of what he has done, his work ethic has clearly been transferred to his children.

We were so very impressed with this man, and wanted to share his story!