[continued]
While they labored down a street just off the town center, the irrigation team went into the countryside with new technology, such as a GPS, old survey tapes and a simple transit and rod to measure elevations along the sometimes steeply raked terraces that the Quechua farm. Led by Robbins, the team included Bugg, a senior in civil engineering, McCartney, a senior in biosystems engineering, Whitney Brown, a junior in chemical engineering, and Michael Brennan, a sophomore in chemical engineering.

The local farmers have worked the area for centuries, and have developed a sophisticated series of small aqueducts that carry water from springs and a waterfall to some of the fields; however, there are not enough acres in irrigation. The student team focused on a more complete and useful survey of the area where the irrigation would be expanded, including a better characterization of flow rates from the water sources. Another aspect of the overall project was the construction of a water tank — the local farmers had spent the past six months or so leveling a pad into a hillside, where it would sit above the fields.

While the students ran their elevations and collected GPS points, the farmers blasted rock from the mountain, and pushed, rolled and carted rocks to form a stone wall around the lip of the pad. It was much like any other of the hundreds of rock walls built into the mountains, but it was amazing to see how it went together, with few wasted moves, and men who knew how to keep sight lines level without using anything but their eyes and their experience. The rocks pieced together like a puzzle with crush runs, not mortar, between the tiers.

A few months before departure, Brown told her aunt, Melissa Herkt, about her plans, and she became fascinated. A 1977 graduate in civil engineering and retired president and COO of Emerson Process Management, Herkt asked Duke, the group’s faculty adviser, if she could join in the trip. Duke, who had already led two student teams into the area, was enthusiastic and welcomed her on board.

Herkt didn’t just show up. When she got the go-ahead, she embarked on a strenuous two-month program to get in shape. A resident of Austin, Texas, she moved to Lake Tahoe for a month and walked four miles a day at the 7,000 foot elevation to get ready for the trip. Already in good shape, she jumped into weight management as well. When she arrived in Quesimpuco, she was as ready as anyone for the challenge. “I am a construction girl, and I can show these kids how to see things in a different light — as an experienced practicing engineer,” she pointed out.

“These students have such energy, and they’re so smart. I honestly don’t remember being either when I was at Auburn,” she adds with a laugh. “It was so nice to be accepted by them.”

She had also spent a good deal of time in South America during her career, and carried with her a street-smart vocabulary in Spanish that helped her translate for the rest of the team. Back in the bunkhouse at night, she helped Robbins input data into the laptop to bring the survey into a useful model. She was quietly amazed, she said, how the student team made her a part of the everyday dialog without ceremony or boundary.

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