Rainbow Mountain

Thursday

All the staff go to Ocongate on Thursdays which is about an hour away up the mountain. We had to be in the square for 8 o’clock and we waited with the psychologist who told us that every Thursday they are late. About half an hour later the boss finally came to pick us up and I had to sit next to two men who were taking advantage of the spare seats to go to Ocongate. Probably was one of the worst car journeys, bends the whole time and the guy sitting next to me refused to hold on so every time we turned right I got completely squashed. Also, because of the altitude it can make you feel quite sick. Another problem is on these bends as nobody has any patience they just take over the car in front with no visibility, so that was a fun experience. The views were pretty awesome though, you can see Ausangate on the way up which is a huge snowy mountain.

The lawyer who usually deals with the legal cases in Ocongate wasn’t there so we tried our best to help those who came. Also, we had a lot of work that day due to one of bosses who is entering a competition to win money to carry out workshops for the kids that come to the association. We spent the afternoon creating a budget, so basically what we would spend the money on and how much we’d need. The problem was they have never done a project like that before so we had to make very wide estimates. During this creative session of budget estimation, the psychologist brought us provisions in the form of chocolate, carrot cake and coffee. Very yummy.

We ended up heading back to Urcos at around 6:30, so pitch black on that crazy road. It was fun though and we drove back listening to a mix of traditional music and reggaeton.

Friday

The day of the Fight Against Human Trafficking event that we had organised on Monday at the network meeting. However, none of us went as the budget from the day before had to be given in, so we were working against the clock. I had kind of disconnected from it the day before as they had carried on working through the night but in the morning I was called in to help by typing out what was dictated to me as on Monday while writing a document the boss had discovered that I type fast.

Around lunchtime there was supposed to be a march around the square in support of the human trafficking fight. The teachers at the organisation had made very elaborate banners but when they finally decided to take them down to the square for the march the boss received a call that it was too late, it had already taken place.

Later on we went out for a meal in Cusco with other volunteers and discovered that some of the business students from our university were working in the town next to ours. After we went out for drinks in a bar that looks over Cusco, it had amazing views. We went to another bar and tried “macho tea”, hot tea with alcohol, it tasted very strange. Then we met up with people from the organisation and had an amazing  and fun night.

Weekend

On Saturday we went up to Cusco to buy a tour to the RAINBOW MOUNTAIN!! Which as you may be able to tell I was really excited about. Downside is that the bus comes to pick us up at half 3 in the morning, this wouldn’t be so bad but it is winter here and the temperature isn’t too bad during the day but once the sun goes down it is freezing.

So, we went to the square at 3:30 am and waited for the bus which arrived an hour late, also we had booked the tour with another girl who wasn’t on the bus when we got on which we thought was strange. We later found out that they had put her in a different group and we only saw her at the end of the day.

We stopped off for breakfast in a small town in the mountains and after, we carried on our journey to the beginning of the trail to rainbow mountain. It is long 3 hour walk uphill to the top, I am definitely not in shape and found it extremely difficult so half way up I decided to get a horse to take me up the rest of the way. (I was tired but mostly I just wanted a ride on the horse).

Where we stopped for breakfast they had left the sprinklers on all night which froze the grass

We made it to the top and it was beautiful, very cold, but still beautiful. At the top, you are about 5000 m above sea level, so the altitude affects your stamina a lot also. It was just amazing and well worth the hike up the mountain. We had been told that down the right side of the mountain is a little trail and that the mountain on that side is red and makes you feel like you are on mars. It was definitely worth the extra walk down the side. However now we had to walk all the way back and there was the slight issue is that we hadn’t seen anybody from our group for a while. We walked all the way back down without stopping once but we learned that they had already left without us. Great.

A policeman was helping us try to find a way home when finally our guide appeared without the van saying that they had miscounted. I don’t know how you can miscount when the bus was full and you must notice that there are two empty seats but anyway she had come back on her own so now we had to try and hitch a ride with another company. The woman was nice about it though and kept apologizing, we had lunch and headed back to Urcos.

After an eventful trip and a bit of stress it was still worth it all and an amazing experience that I won’t be forgetting any time soon xx

Open Cases

Monday

It is my turn to go to a town near to where we are staying called Huaro. I went the square in the town and caught a collective taxi, this basically means you get in a taxi that goes to and from Huaro all day and wait for it to fill up (literally fill up, boot included). When I got to Huaro I had no idea where I had to go so I walked down to the square and saw a lady sweeping up in front of the church. I decided to ask her where the organization was. Luckily, she was the one who has to open the doors to the building where the organisation is based in Huaro. So, I sat inside and waited for people to come having being told to be there at half 8, nobody came until about half 9. I met the teacher that works there and the lawyer who I had met previously and who I am going to be working with. She showed me around the building which has the same set out as the one where we are staying except for one room, the “lutería” where they have a project with a famous opera singer making instruments. After we went to the office and she told me about a case she was dealing with where an 18-year-old girl was pregnant by her father and this happened when she was underage. She told me all the details of how she is trying to help this girl but the justice system doesn’t want to do anything. Throughout the day lots of people came asking for help and telling their story which was interesting but very sad at the same time, I had to hold back tears a few times.

The organisations building in Huaro

Instrument workshop

Tuesday

The next day I was able to go with the boss to a meeting at the town hall to create a network against human trafficking. Lots of different organisations came from all over the province and after hours and hours of discussion they created the network. We also went to the RENIEC which is a state institution that deals with identification cards, they transferred us a case of an old lady who is trying to access a state program that gives money to those over 65 but they need this card. In order to get the card, you need your birth certificate and other documents to corroborate. This ladies birth certificate didn’t coincide with her christening certificate, the date of birth actually reads “4 days since birth” instead of an actual date. The plan is to get hold of the vicar who initially wrote this certificate and see if he will modify it.

My seat at the back of the meeting

Wednesday

We stayed in Urcos scanning acts during the morning and in the afternoon the piano player we went to see in Cusco the week before came to do a workshop with the kids. He had some of them help play different songs and as many had never even seen a piano before it was really exiting for them. We also met the psychologist who helps in the organisation, he is Spanish and has been here since February, he gave us some tips on what to do during the weekends.

Workshop with Juan José Chuquisengo

 

The Lagoon

The rest of the week turned out to be uneventful workwise, as there are protests and strikes happening now in the Cusco region. What we thought was a procession in the main square the other day was actually a protest. No teachers are working and  transport services are also on strike. So, the second half of the week nobody came to work, no children came because the schools were closed and well I´m not really sure why nobody else came. So, we decided to visit the lagoon in Urcos, lots of people had told us we should go and we didn’t have anything else to do.

The lagoon is beautiful, and as no one was working there were lots of people there, playing volleyball and having picnics. We started to make our way around it as a family stopped us and asked if we wanted to play volleyball with them so we joined in. After that we played dodgeball and when we were tired and sweaty we decided to carry on our walk around the lake.

On the Saturday, we decided to plan our future trips and look around all the different travel agencies and compare prices to see what things we can do. We decided to ask if there was anything we could do on Sunday on such short notice and one company said that we could go do rafting and zip lining on the river Urubamba, so we decided to do it. It was amazing as you can see from the pictures. On these type of tourist trips you meet interesting people from all over the world and it was fun to chat with the others while doing the rafting. At one point, we stopped at some rocks and the guide asked us if we wanted to climb up and jump off, I was definitely up for it, the water was absolutely freezing. After doing rafting we had dinner and the vegetarian option was some type of soya meat, not really sure if I liked it or not, it had a very strange taste to it.

We are hoping the issue of the strike gets resolved soon so we can get to work but also so the kids can get back to school as they have already missed more than a week xx

Work Begins

Work starts at 9 am so we went downstairs to the main area to wait for everyone to arrive, one of the bosses Elmer arrived and showed us around the different rooms at the organisation. They have classrooms, a playroom, a library, an ICT room and a huge dining hall. He explained that lots of children come from all the different schools in the town to eat everyday but they don’t just give them food they also try to teach them values, so everyone has to wash their hands before eating and they also have a toothbrush to brush their teeth after eating and they have to wash their plates also. He explained to us that many years ago when they first began all the children in the town used to come, even the Mayors son, but now they go through a filter and those that come are the ones who need it most. Those that come from poor families, broken homes where the father has abandoned the family and doesn’t pay child support or even children that have been completely abandoned. by their parents.

After giving us the tour Natalia the other boss took us to Andahuaylillas, another town about 5 minutes away where the organisation has another base. 18 students had come from Texas to volunteer for a week so she took advantage of the situation and presented to us all together more in depth about what the organisation does. After the presentation, she took us aside and told us about some cases she has had to deal with, we were utterly shocked. Human trafficking, rape, teenage pregnancies (incest being a major issue), kidnapping children for prostitution and child labour and the list goes on. The worst thing is that the authorities deny that there is a problem and that any of these things happen when obviously they do as she has people coming in her office everyday trying to find their loved ones.

In the afternoon, we sat down in Natalia’s office and sorted out our timetable for the next few weeks.  Then she gave us some concert tickets for that night in Cusco, all payed for and gave us a map so we could find the venue. We decided to go and when we finally found the place we discovered it was a piano recital. The pianist is called Juan José Chuquisengo, he has played in concerts worldwide and every year he comes to schools in Peru and shows his piano skills to children who have never even seen this instrument before. He was amazing and played music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and a Peruvian composer A. Ginastera.

The next morning, we started work, we agreed that at least two days during the week we would help scan and order the paperwork they have dating back to 2004. This paperwork is what they call acts of conciliation, when two people have a conflict these acts are a way to reach an agreement before going to court. The issue is when one of the parts breaks the agreement they need a copy of this agreement, so it is really useful for the organisation to have them all in order so they are easy to find. We found how necessary this was as that same morning a girl came in saying her father had stopped paying the child support that they had agreed on when she was younger so to prove this she needed a copy of the act.

During the afternoon, Elmer asked if we would like to go with him to the judges office, he and the heads of other organisation are creating a document to help people understand the new law about domestic violence and they needed the judge to clear up some points. After that we attended a meeting at the town hall of Urcos, all the organisations in the area and the town hall are trying to organise an event for awareness about human trafficking. The meeting was a bit hectic though everyone talking over each other people walking in and out, also a little boy kept coming in with a toy car making revving noises. As you can imagine not much was agreed on and the meeting dragged on for nearly 3 hours.

So, our first few days of work were very interesting and entertaining. I´m hoping that we can start with the other side of the job, looking at and helping with real cases but we´ll just have to see as the week goes on xx

Cusco

The next day I felt so much better, we went for breakfast at one of the neighbours’ house who was nice enough to take us in. After breakfast, we decided to visit Cusco, we walked up to the centre of Urcos where you catch the bus. The square in the centre has a beautiful small church and lots of stalls selling food and clothes. We caught the bus to Cusco the only problem was we weren’t sure when we had to get off so when we saw signs for Cusco we got off the bus, BIG mistake. We definitely weren’t near the centre of Cusco so we began to walk and walk following signs that said historic centre for at least an hour until we decided to ask somebody who told us to catch a bus to San Francisco.

Finally we made it to the centre, Cusco being a main city is very different from Urcos. Lots of tourists around but so beautiful at the same time. The buildings are amazing, we decided to walk around and discover what the city had to offer. We found a pizzeria to have dinner and then carried on looking around. When we finally decided to head back there was kind of the issue of where to get the bus back as we had got off way to early before. Luckily, we had a map that told us there was a specific stop for Urcos. It took us ages to find the bus stop as it was really hidden but finally we found it as it was getting dark. When we got back we went for tea at the same place we had breakfast and then we went back to our apartment. I must mention how cold it is here, during the day it is really hot, I burnt my face and neck on our walk into Cusco but once the sun goes down that’s it, it can go down to 0 degrees.

 

The main square in Cusco

On Sunday we decided to venture to Cusco again as the day before we didn’t really do much there as we were tired from all the walking just to get there. This time we got off the bus on the right stop but you still have to walk a bit to get to the centre. Most of the main road had been cut off and there were loads of people riding up and down on bikes. When we got to the main square it was packed full of people it seemed that there was some sort of parade on. We decided to walk up to Cristo Blanco, a statue kind of like the Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, that looks over Cusco. Now, walking up to this statue isn’t the easiest thing ever, you have to walk up lots and lots of stairs and I had to stop and rest at least 5 times but once we made it to the top the views made you forget all the suffering. After taking pictures and taking in the views we spotted some ruins not so far away so we decided to walk over and we found some llamas, they didn’t even care we were there so we were able to get really close to them.

We had a great weekend and can’t wait to get started with work on Monday to see exactly what we’ll be doing as we still don’t know what to expect xx

On our way up to Cristo Blanco

The statue

The ruins we saw from far away

Llamas!!!

17 Hours on a plane

The day before leaving for Peru I was at Manchester airport scared that my plane to Barcelona was going to be cancelled. There had been a bomb scare at the airport in the morning leading to it being evacuated and the chaos from this carried on into the afternoon. My mums flight was supposed to leave after mine however my flight was delayed 3 times and I ended up flying an hour after her. If my flight was cancelled I don’t think I would have made it to the flight to Peru the next morning.

First was a 10 hour flight from Barcelona to Miami, next a 6 hour flight from Miami to Lima and finally an hour and half flight from Lima to Cuzco. When we arrived at cusco we were offered coca leaves because of the altitude.  We collected our cases (yay they didn’t get lost) and headed out to find Natalia the lady from the association that was coming to pick us up.

On the way to miami

She was very nice and I noted that contrary to Spain they only give one kiss here instead of two. We took two taxis to get from Cuzco to Urcos where we are staying, it took about an hour. I do admit that I kept falling asleep in the car as I was so tired but of what I did see was beautiful, the mountains, lakes with steam coming off them. And the not so beautiful the houses, half built, most abandoned or falling down. I must comment also on the driving, everyone trying to take over each other, I swear we drove over what seemed like a motorway at some point and there wasn’t a road sign in sight the whole car journey.

When we arrived at the organisation’s headquarters where we are staying there was tea waiting for us and we were told we could rest until Monday. At 1 o’clock we were called for dinner, we met all the team that work here. They seemed really nice and told us all about what we’d be doing here. We ate rice and vegetables. After that I didn´t feel very well, I’m not sure whether it was the altitude or the tiredness but I slept until the next day, didn’t even wake up to have tea. So not the best first day.

View from our apartment window

My Story

My university gave me the opportunity to spend two months in summer doing volunteer work in South America. Without knowing which country or what exactly I would be doing I signed up. I believe that it is a once in a lifetime experience and also my university has scholarships that help you out with financing the trip so it was a win-win. We had to go through months of extra classes sometimes finishing at 10 pm to prepare for the trip but I knew it would be worth it. Finally we found out that we would be going to Peru, specifically Cusco which is near Machu Picchu (YAYY!), it is the first time that anyone doing this volunteer program has gone to Peru so it is all new, we had to organise most of it ourselves (one of my classmates is going aswell) and had no idea what to expect. We talked to the organisation that we would be collaborating with and were told that we would be helping with some law cases dealing with issues like domestic violence, human trafficking, etc.

I have created this blog for anyone who is interested in what I’m up to and to be able to look back on the experience when it’s over. Hope you enjoy xx