Organization: Nexos Voluntarios

In the February of 2010 12 ASBers traveled to Urubamba, Peru. While there, the team worked at a day-care where they built a path and re-enforced a wall that had been damaged by a massive flood that devastated the region just one week before the project took place. The team also worked at two other primary schools painting furniture, tiling a floor and painting classrooms alongside community members.

The team stayed in a volunteer home with a family. We ate traditional Peruvian food and learned about natural remedies for ailments, unique techniques for organic farming and sustainable methods of building homes in Peru from our local hosts Grit and Javier.

The team was also engaged in cultural activities. We were treated to a day trek through the mountains that Peru is famous for and visited a sacred site where we learned about ancient methods of scientific inquiry and visited active salt mines. On another occasion the team took a second trip to the site of ancient ruins called Ollantaytambo which is where the Incas retreated after the Spanish took Cuzco. 

During our stay in Peru it was Carnival time…which was a cultural experience like no other. In Peru it is customary for members of the opposite sex to engage one another in water fights in the streets…and it seemed as though it was even more fun for the community members to soak a gringo….which is an affectionate Spanish term for white person or traveller. One day the entre ASB team was embroiled in a water gun/shaving cream battle with the entire town! It was absolutely sensational, an experience none of us will EVER forget!