A personal reflection of my time in Cusco

COUNTRY: Peru
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching, Building & Construction
WRITTEN BY: Lydia Searle

Hola amigos!

Our Antipodeans Abroad placement in Cusco has come to an end, and the time to reflect on it is beginning. The two months have been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, but I am so very glad that I took his opportunity and came to Cusco to volunteer. Thinking back over the two months, I can’t believe how differently I feel about the trip now to how I did as I was leaving Australia. On my flight from Sydney to Santiago I sat next to an older man from Lima, who was very interested in what I was doing and why I was headed to Peru. When I explained to him about our Antipodeans group and that we were volunteering in a school, he told me that we all must have strong characters and good hearts to do what we were doing. He bolstered my conviction that I could do this.

That feeling disappeared when I landed in Cusco, and all I could think about was that I was here for two months, in this foreign place without my friends or my family or anything that I knew. As someone who is naturally quite shy and introverted, I often wondered during that first week of introductions and group activities if I’d made a mistake- if I’d gone too far out of my comfort zone and set myself up for a hard, unhappy two months. As it turns out, it was a hard two months- but definitely not unhappy. I didn’t expect when I left Australia that I would come to think of Cusco as a second home, or that I would find a second family and a new group of friends who I could spend my evenings laughing and joking and having so much fun with. I didn’t expect to feel such a strong sense of pride and care over the children in the school, and the skills that they developed in our classes. I didn’t quite know what to expect of construction, but I was sure it would be hard work- that I was right about!

As well as being an amazing learning and growing experience for us personally, our two months in Cusco were definitely well spent work-wise: we built a tank and irrigation system to supply the school’s six greenhouses with water, we taught the children in the school basic English that we could see them demonstrate every day, and we ourselves became confident enough Spanish speakers that we were able to have conversations, book our own tours, and come away with skills that will serve us well into our futures.

Looking back, the placement wasn’t exactly what I expected. It was so, so much more- one of the best experiences of my life.