playa blanco

the main street in playa blanco

our first stop was to check on the old turbine

one of many games of football

camp with our new friends

the kids were amaaaaazing

After SEACORPS we headed 30 minutes further up to coast to the small seaside settlement of Playo Blanco. The settlement consisted of 50 families living along a cliff that drops into the Pacific Ocean. There are two WindAid turbines installed here, both on a voluntary basis. One powers 4 houses, whilst the second powers the school (but is currently not in operation due to a short circuit in the electronics of the school). There is no running water...which meant no toliets or showers. Whilst we were not here to do any work, we were able to pitch camp on a cliff about 100 meters from their settlement on Tuesday and Wednesday night.

The families at Playa Blanco are super friendly with everyone from WindAid. The turbines here are some of the oldest and volunteers have been coming back on a regular basis for years. Because of this, the kids that live here are super, super friendly, engaging and demanding of our time! As soon as they saw our crazy green car, tons of them started running along the sand towards our camp.

We laughed, we chatted, we played A LOT of football. What amazed me most was the strength, bravery and freedom the kids expressed. Health and safety is a complete joke in Peru, but we were staying atop a 20-30 foot cliff face into the ocean...these kids ran, tripped, play fought and generally caused mischief all within feet of the edge. My heart jumped on more than one occasion.

Also, while I´ve mentioned the fact that Peruvians, for the most part, are on the small side, I couldn´t get over how mini most of these kids were! And all were so young. We played a great game of football with about eight two - seven year olds on one side against 2 of us volunteers on the other. Unsurprisingly, the little mini team won!

While these families are poor, their kids are healthy, happy and free to run around and explore a wildly beautiful landscape day and night. It really made me stop and think.