Greetings from Pisaq! We’ve had an incredibly busy week becoming acclimated to not only the altitude but also to daily life in Pisaq and the busy STRIVE schedule. Yesterday was dedicated to the discussion of voluntourism and our roles and objectives as volunteers in an international country (an enlightening talk regarding both the highlights and pitfalls of voluntourism). Yesterday offered me a new insight into the impact I personally hope to have on Pisaq, forming an essential new awareness and perspective leading into today-the first day of planning and organizing the service projects we will undertake this summer!

While still in the early phases of planning, we’ve already begun to address a pretty large variety of projects for the summer. The first (of course) is the STRIVE center! Today the group walked over to the center where we met not only Larissa, who manages and runs the center throughout the year, but also 11 of the students who we will hopefully see frequently throughout the next several weeks. Standing in a big circle, the STRIVE interns and leaders stood along with Larissa and the students, slowly introducing ourselves (weaving in some English in the process!). Among other lessons, English represents a large portion of what we hope to teach and share this summer. Today offered a first glimpse of the STRIVE center in its element, of Peruvian students and interns working together – an exciting preview for the rest of the summer! Today also offered me a fairly startling image of the vast spectrum of ages of students we’ll be working with (numbers that I’ve been aware of for a while now but never fully sunk in until today). It was inspiring to see how STRIVE has the potential to impact not only one age group but students up to over a decade apart. Not to mention our work at the STRIVE center will improve our ability to work in other school settings!

 

The schools Tambo de Gozo and Divino Corazon are two schools that we’ve worked with in the past and hope to spend an extensive amount of time with this summer. This afternoon a small group of us took a moto (a convenient form of Peruvian transport) to Tambo de Gozo, which for many of us was our first introduction to a Peruvian school (and it definitely set the bar high!). After entering through the gate we were struck with a breathtaking view, a bright green field surrounded by a colorful playground and classroom buildings, all highlighted by enormous Andean mountains. After taking a few moments to take in the beautiful setting, we met with Raquel, the school principal who briefly went through potential roles that we could fill during our stay in Peru. Among them was a kindergarten assistant, a role that Jenny immediately landed! We hope to meet with Divino Corazon soon, which will hopefully go as well as today went with Tambo de Gozo.

Outside of an academic setting, we are also planning several athletic/running centered projects in Pisaq. Field Day, an annual event that takes place at the local track constructed by STRIVE several years ago, is an event I’m particularly excited for! The day will center around introducing kids to athletics and hopefully getting not only students but members of the community excited about running (stay tuned for updates on Field Day!). This year we are planning on taking this project one step further by introducing a running club for students and beginning a new annual 5K road race (potentially the Willcamayu 5K?). While the road race will require extensive planning and preparation, I believe it has not only the potential to come to fruition but to also become a successful event (hopefully laying the foundation for growth in upcoming years!).

Other projects we’ve considered tackling this summer range from the streets of Pisaq to the greater Sacred Valley area. Two more local projects we’ve considered center around addressing the prevalence of dogs in Pisaq and the extensive amount of trash that can be found on the streets at times. In contrast, the last project would take place 40 minutes away (near Cusco), in a 5 kilometer long Incan ruins site. We will help clear the area of vegetation and rocks, hopefully helping the area to eventually become an educational area for Incan history along with native plants, not only for tourists but Peruvians alike. Today gave a brief glimpse into some of our many activities this summer, and few of our many adventures to come!