Monday 28 July 2014

The end of the beginning. Orientation wraps up for UniBreak volunteers in Peru.


COUNTRY: Peru
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Construction
WRITTEN BY: Kymon Mansfield

With orientation settled, hugs had and altitude sickness subsided, the first week of our antrips journey seemed to bring with it some sort of overwhelming emotion as the realisation that I was here - I was in Peru - really kicked in.

My journey began in Lima, the coastal capital of Peru. Arriving at night, the most important thought in my head it seemed was the idea of culture shock - something I was warned about weeks earlier - but which turned out to be almost completely reversed as I was driven to my hotel. It felt as though I was looking for Peru, without even knowing it, and on several instances I had to take a moment to collect my wandering thoughts and just say to myself, 'wow, I'm here. This is Peru.' To me, personally, the last three months of my life had all been leading up to this moment, and stepping through the doors of Lima's international airport seemed to finally break the seal of this anticipation; it seemed to finally let me live 'in the moment' again, with no care for preparation or foresight.

Skipping forward a few days, Cuzco, the local city my group is placed in, is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I spent two days In Cuzco by myself, in an effort to acclimatise to the high altitude and low atmosphere before meeting with our in-country partner, Nico, and the rest of the Cuzco UniBreak and GapBreak groups. This is where the actual Antips story starts, as I wake up with a highly erratic sleeping schedule sometime between 4am and 6am to return to Cuzco airport at 10.45 to find what I thought would be a needle in a haystack - another person wearing an Antips shirt.

Instead, it seemed this trip was destined to go smoothly, for me at least. Within a minute of arrival I was found by six people waiting patiently with Nico for the final three members of the UniBreak placement to arrive. After being taken to the hotel where the GapBreak members would spend their first week of placement, I was introduced to five of the friendliest people I've ever met: my host family.

Monday and Tuesday of week one were relaxed, as we spent time together and apart allowing ourselves the opportunity to explore Cuzco outside of its main square and primary tourist concentrations. This included our first introduction to the school we would be volunteering at, and an uncountable amount of hugs from more than one hundred mini Spanish speakers, as we 'amigos' were welcomed into their life for the next month.

It seems that in this community, Antipodeans Abroad is held in high regard; we all experienced somewhat of a celebrity status even in our first day on the job. What was even more humbling it seemed was the story behind Antipodeans' reputation, of the twelve years spent building a relationship of trust and assistance with the community. But, of course, the satisfaction of seeing the beaming faces of the students here, all very responsive to what Antips volunteers have done and are doing to their school, cannot be expressed in words. Wednesday, as a break, was spent as a group exploring the Inca ruins dotted around Cuzco. This included riding a horse, which for me was my first time, and was definitely the highlight of the week.

Thursday was the first day of work at the school. In our own mini groups, we were assigned tasks related to fixing and managing the six green houses. We de-weeded, turned soil, and even attempted to fix one of the roofs. We also spent time with 'hygiene', which involved giving soap, hand moisturiser, and dry towels to each kid at the school so that they can wash their hands and be clean before they eat breakfast.

Friday, similarly to Thursday, was spent at the school. We were effectively split in half, with one group working on making fruit salad as breakfast for the children, and the other half working on the green houses, doing essentially the same things we had started the day prior.

After only about half an hour of this, we fell into what is shaping up to be our general routine for the next few weeks: everyone participates in hygiene, and then in our groups we either began classes, or worked on the green houses. My group took an art class, where we taught Peruvian kids in year 3 who spoke no English the names of four animals and four colours in English. Amazingly, despite our insanely limited Spanish, this lesson went smoothly and was both really satisfying and a lot of fun. Then, my group taught a year 6 PE class, which turned out better than expected, again despite our combined 10 word Spanish vocabulary.

The week ended as a welcome to Peru, Cuzco, and Antips. Nico, our in country contact, took us all out to a restaurant for dinner, where we had fantastic food and cheap drinks, and all had a chance to wind down. I suppose I end this where I began: noticing just how much I am really enjoying Peru. It's been introduced to me somewhat as a home. I've never felt unwelcome, even considering the language barrier both with my family and on the street with the locals of Cuzco, and even though I really didn't have any expectations of Peru prior to leaving Australia, I feel incredibly satisfied with everything here in an indescribable way.
And that's orientation settled.

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