Posted in Peru on December 3, 2024
Day One
Our first day in Peru was a local experience. The day started off with the assembly of our team. Our team warmly welcome the urban system foundation which together we will embark on the full experience of Peru. On our first day together experienced the metro, the local catacombs, the chocolate and pisco museums which let us observe the city from taste to sights.
During this time Peru, at this time our team had not experienced the school or much outside of the beautiful Lima, Peru! Tomorrow we will embark on our first visit to allow us to experience opportunities outside of our comfort zones, and allow us to give back a community in need.
Day one at school
Today we experience Peru from outside of Lima. Our team loaded up early ay 7:30am to embrace our first trip to the school. Upon arrival we learned about the culture and what others may be experiencing when outside of Lima. At the school our team gathered to learn about the goal and dreams of this school from the principal and vice principal themselves. This allowed us to understand how important our roles truly were. Shortly after we started construction. We shoveled rock, racked sand, chipped brick and cleared area so we are able to embark on the rest of the adventure.
Views from other
Forest:
What have you enjoyed most so far:
I have enjoyed getting to know co workers that don’t usually get to spend time with as well as getting know newer folks I can work distantly with.
What are you looking forward to:
I am looking forward to working with the group and the kids, honestly the whole experience, also able to get to know people that you eat, sleep, and spend time with. I am also very excited to be able to make an impact and really touch these kids’ hearts.
What has surprised you so far:
I originally thought my contribution would be physical (physical labour), but got most out of was interactions over construction. I came in thinking labour, but learned to value the connections over labour.
What is different from prior experience:
Being able to experience with sons. It has been a great experience and sharing it with my family is important.
Anna:
What have you enjoyed most so far:
I really enjoyed the Community feel. Working together to produce school and helping others creates such a great piece to be apart of.
What are you looking forward to:
Playing and interacting with children as well as experience culture. It will better let me experience what Peru is about.
What has surprised you so far:
The food, it’s very difference from what we eat which is interesting. How people live and the houses so far id also interesting due to the difference between cultures.
Day 2
Day two was a beautiful blue-sky day at San Jose Obrero School. A group (Elisa, Charles, Jaime, and Brynn) headed to the school bright and early to support the student bus pick up and breakfast program. We spent the morning preparing a floor area for new concrete and completing stucco work for a new bathroom and shower facility. During the morning Forrest, Tyler and Braden participated in the PE class with the kids while Josh and Anna worked alongside the students in the kiosk. During the afternoon, Mark, Erin and Charles headed off to meet some student families. Elias, Josh, and Anna made a visit to the waste container project while the rest of the team worked to prepare for concrete columns.
We had a lovely lunch at the school of quinoa chicken stew with rice and Mazamorra of Purple Corn for desert (purple corn, sugar, pineapple, raisins, cornstarch)
When chatting with Braden, he indicated he enjoyed interacting with the kids during PE Class the most on our first two days here. He loves seeing the smiles and positive attitudes from all the kids. He shared he is really looking forward to seeing the positive impact we are able to make while we are here.
Day 3
Today was another great day. We started the day off with 4 of our team members leaving early to welcome all elementary and middle school students that take part in the bus program. The rest of the team loaded up and headed out to embark on the adventures that are granted upon us on day 3. When we arrive, jobs were split between grouting tile, painting the roof, and pouring concrete. These tasks were preformed throughout the day in hope on finishing the new pastry and classrooms built for students. Although hard work was spent, a few of our teammates got to experience the connections and impact we truly had on these children by participating in P.E and more importantly embracing the raw and true reality of the home visits. Even though myself (Brynn) was able to experience this. Our teammate Charles has said it best. Charles explains that “the home visit, going beneath the dust covered veneer where the beauty and strength is exposed. Emanating from the soul, behaviours expressed deep from within the person.” These home visits allow the volunteers to truly emerge and experience that these family have to go through. He also explains that “Motherly nature prevails. Amidst a shanty of castoff materials. The minimalist weather’s defense they call shelter. Some times only drapes for a door. Inside you will find order, dignity, cleanliness (as much as can be achieved, and always).
Inside these homes you will hear all the emotions of any home in the world: joy, pain, hope, distress, anger, passion. Lives of compromise, often teetering on capitulation.” These communities understand the importance of community and help us realize it isn’t always what we have but those who surround us to make everything possible.
“Round bellies of nutritional imbalance are hard to miss, but persistence and accountability manifest energy from exhaustion. Rising with the sun, traversing dry, steep goat paths to be a part of the group. Hustling youth off to a school’s social petri dish. Where they benefit from connections and especially from well-intended parents extended their mentorship to a community of future generations.” Although all these things may be true it’s important to understand the real and true meaning of community, and understand it is so much more then most observe. “Parents make community, culture, and education a priority; kids respect the responsibility and appreciate the connections Basic necessities of shelter, water, and communication. Power is a luxury we are told, but they have it and it fits in the $210 monthly Sols, that two adults would be lucky to earn $300 a month. Haven’t bought food yet, haven’t budgeted clothes, other needs (personal products, soap -because cleanliness is belonging-, toilet paper). … why go on, they are proud, not prideful. They are not asking for more, or expecting hand outs. They love, and lean into the inter-dependence that is essentially and in more ‘civilized’ (aka Self-indulgence of western society) where we chase a fallacy of independence until we accept that we are not ever independent.” These communities prioritize the importance of each other. Each and every day we work and enjoy the presents of being in this lovely community, as well as helping the school. We are learning to understand the unique systems and ideas shared to help one another thrive.
Posted in Peru on December 3, 2024
