The winter of my sophomore year, my parents and I made the decision for me to go abroad for a couple of weeks during the summer. I searched for days, sifting through program after program to find the right one: Lifeworks International. I would be gone for three weeks during the summer before my junior year, traveling to Peru with a group of 18 other strangers my age for a service trip.
Before the trip, I was not the person who would walk up to someone, greet them, and introduce myself. I was the person who avoided people I knew at the grocery store, not because I didn’t like them, but because I didn’t know what to say. So here I was in an airport in Miami at midnight, walking by myself to the gate to meet many strangers with which I would share the next three weeks of my Peruvian experience.
I remember walking up to them and smiling sheepishly while several came up to me with excited faces asking if I was in the group, what my name was, where I was from, et cetera. After a seven-hour plane ride (Miami to Lima), a one-hour plane ride (Lima to Cusco), and an hour bus ride, we finally arrived in the center of Cusco. Due to the altitude, we breathlessly hauled our suitcases down many stairs, up many stairs, and to our hostel. By the end of the trip, we could haul them up with no problem—lots of practice. At the end of that first day when the group was sitting around a fire, I was so comfortable talking with them and felt like I had known them for months.
The first project we participated in was Casa Mantay, a home for adolescent mothers who had been victims of sexual assault. At Casa Mantay, we built a garden, painted fences, helped cook meals and helped take care of children in the nursery. I had the opportunity to use my Spanish to interact and talk with the mothers and kids. I spoke with a girl named Maria who was 12 years old and five months pregnant. We had a conversation about how she would name her child “Andre” after her brother if the baby was a boy, or “Sofia” if the baby was a girl. She told me she hoped the baby would be a girl so she could do her hair.
Later, the group (us, the mothers and the kids) played a loose version of volleyball, hung on the swings, and played soccer together. It was touching to see how the kids there were so happy with so little. One of the little boys, about age five, spent two hours helping me pick up rocks, then went to play with an empty cardboard box by himself for another hour. Many of the kids I know here in the U.S. would have been bored after five minutes and asked for their iPad.
Our second service project was at a school in a very impoverished area of Ollantaytambo, Peru. There, our main goal was to build a greenhouse for the teachers and staff to grow vegetables to feed the kids who relied on the school food for nutrition. Instead of using pre-cut lumber, a truck pulled up to the field full of freshly cut eucalyptus trees for us to peel and build the greenhouse. We finished building the greenhouse on the fourth day there and had the chance to teach the kids English in their classrooms. Later that day there was a ceremony to dedicate the greenhouse. Every parent and kid from the school attended the dedication to thank us and tell us how grateful they were.
Our next service project was at the Mother Teresa Orphanage for special needs children and adults who have been abandoned for one reason or another. Part of their older culture believed that those with disabilities were possessed or cursed. As we walked around, I noticed this facility was lacking in funds. There was a very young boy tied to a metal crib (yes, tied—he had climbed and fallen out of his crib multiple times and this was their way of keeping him in). He was banging his head repeatedly against the railing. We learned that despite the harm he was inflicting upon himself, we should not stop him because this was his way of calming himself. Seeing the conditions of this orphanage was the most influential experience I had throughout the trip.
The fourth service project we did was a cleanup on the Ollantaytambo River via raft. If you think our rivers are polluted with trash, you should have seen what the shorelines of this river looked like. Imagine roughly 10 bottles, a ripped shirt and broken glass in an area the size of a parking space...for a mile—not to mention also collecting several single shoes, multiple toys and many plastic bags. We collected four rafts stacked three feet high full of trash from the banks in the river. Different groups of volunteers clean the river four times a year, but it’s never enough because littering is considered normal in most parts of South and Central America.
Along with these service trips, we did several hiking trips through the beautiful mountains. We walked through the old abandoned village of Pisac in the Sacred Valley and ended in a market that sold Andean crafts. Our next hike was to Cachiccata, a quarry used to carve “tired stones,” also known as the stones used for the typical construction in Ollantaytambo. Our tour guide, Ronald (who we nicknamed "Puma" due to his ability to jump), had an uncle who used to hike through the quarry on a regular basis. During a “siesta” one day, his uncle discovered a tomb in a hidden cave. Ronald told us that about 10 years ago, he came up and discovered the tomb had been recently robbed. There were still remains of the bodies, but they were no longer well-preserved and the tomb was a wreck.
The last major hike we went on was (of course) Machu Picchu. Climbing Machu Picchu was the hardest hike I have done; it was roughly an hour straight of continuous steep stairs. In the end it was worth it to take the stairs instead of the optional bus because along the way, I met very interesting people from all around the world (China, Australia and Italy), and saw breathtaking views along the way. All of the hikes were tough because the altitude makes you short of breath—which makes you tired—but every mountain I hiked was worth the trek to experience the trails, see the views, and walk the ancient ruins.
The trip to Peru opened my eyes to various aspects of the culture in South America that are different from ours. Children learn to be content with what they have, they work with what is available on the land (eucalyptus trees and tired stones), facilities try their best to provide people with the best care they have and low funding, and waste pollution is normal (even though we know it should not be). In addition, I learned more about myself and who I was, I learned to be more grateful for everyday conveniences, and to never give up no matter how hard it seems.
Below is a short video I made to document the trip:
