Monday was the beginning of a brand new adventure. After finishing our work at Santa Rosa we prepared to leave Lima for good (or at least until our flight leaves to Toronto). Well, we were all ready to go fairly early in the morning, but the vans that we were going to drive to Cuzco sure weren't! We had to wait 6 hours to get the vans released to us, so we had a lot of time to kill. We cleaned out the villa a whole bunch of times to make sure everything was tidy and good enough for the university. We passed the time by watching tv shows we had downloaded earlier and playing games on Eric's laptop. When the vans finally arrived at 3:00ish we hurriedly gathered our gear and prepared to leave, but again we had to keep waiting while Brandon figured out some final details with where we would be staying that night and for the other van to arrive. They both finally showed up and we got our stuff packed up and left within the hour. Three hours later after a couple short adventures we made it to our hostel, showered and slept in actual beds for the first time in weeks satisfied that we had finally seen the sun for the first time since Canada.
Written by Ben
Tuesday 5 August 2014
Saturday 19 July 2014
Inca Sun
It is in no way an exaggeration to say that today was one of the greatest days of the project thus far. We did not work at the school, but instead piled onto a bus at 7:30 in the morning and went on a three hour bus ride vaguely south to the town of Lunahauna nestled amidst towering mountains – real mountains made of rock, NOT sand. In fact, the entire valley was relatively sand-free. The greatest part about it all wasn’t the green grass, the clear water, or the beautiful mountains though, it was that for the first time in two weeks we could see the Sun. The sky was a gorgeous blue speckled with puffy white clouds, and we adored it. The Sun alone made the entire adventure more than worth it. But as we disembarked from the bus, it just got better and better. We made our way down to the river that wound its way through the valley and began our white-water rafting adventure. The entre group, along with a few Peruvian guides, got into four rafts and headed down the river. It was my first white water adventure and it was absolutely amazing. The rapids were fairly easy, and so it was a good introduction to the activity, and it is certainly one I hope to do again. There were a few mishaps though. Mikey fell out of the raft entirely and skipped across a few rocks, and all of our rafts got stuck quite a few times. After rafting, we all dried off on an escarpment that offered a stunning view of a small part of the valley, and ate some of the best chicken we’ve ever had. We can certainly say it’s some of the best because after eating pollo just about everyday, we are practically experts. Then came another big activity – the zip line. I’ll be honest, I was adamant in my decision to not go zip lining, but I was convinced to give it a try, and I sure am glad I did it. It wasn’t at all terrifying like I thought it would be. It was just a quick zip from one mountain to the next, nothing to worry about. After we had all gone on the zip line, it was time to call it a day, so we got onto the lovely coach bus we rented (I still prefer public transit, but it was nice to actually have room to move) and started the trek home. Along the way Davison ate so much Bembo’s (think Peruvian Burger King) and engaged in thrilling conversation about Battlestar Galactica, though only Dylan had any idea what he was talking about. And thus concludes one of our most eventful days yet, and I know it will only get sunnier from here.
Wednesday 16 July 2014
More hard work and fun!
On Sunday, we woke up unnecessarily early, because we had heard that the Peruvian scouts would be starting to work at 7:00am. Given their track record we had no reason to believe otherwise, but we were misled. We woke up at 6:30 (after staying up until 2:30 doing something called the spider) and promptly waited for two hours for the other contingent members to arrive. It was an unremarkable day for everyone but Ryan Pepper, for reasons we will not explain. We finished work on the playground and planted some new trees along the side of the schoolyard, adding some green to the sea of sand. Since we were all really tired from sleeping over, we basically all crashed as soon as we got back to the horse farm.
Written by Alanna
Written by Alanna
Hard Work and History
Nearing the midway of the work part of this International Development Project we have hit a lull in the hard manual labour portion of the project with most of the major moving of rocks done and finding out that we won’t be physically building the classroom due to some Peruvian regulations. We did however learn some good information – we will be painting the classroom (and maybe a mural for the playground) and hopefully building some more shaded areas for the children in the yard – a project that we will be able to do unaided by anyone else. I’m sure that pictures of this project are to follow.
Although we don’t all enjoy picking up garbage and small rocks from the front of the school (I sure don’t!) the community has noticed with people who live and work far away from the school making comments to us such as the shopkeeper of an awesome antique/restoration/weird stuff store. Speaking of this store: we scored some awesome stuff here to bring back home. I know that I for one scored some mini army figurines, a leather bound bottle, some old skeleton keys and a painting.
After the work day today, we went to a archaeological dig site outside of Lima – the ruins of Pachacamac. Pachacamac is an active dig site with ruins from pre-Inca times to nearly Hispanic times (1500AD) when the Incans abandoned it. It was amazing to see and offers many great views of the ocean as well as of the ruins.
Overall, today was a pretty great day with part work and part play (due to the school closing in the early afternoon – I swear we weren’t lazy!) and it looks like the rest of our days this week are shaping up to be just as awesome.
Written by Tanner
Although we don’t all enjoy picking up garbage and small rocks from the front of the school (I sure don’t!) the community has noticed with people who live and work far away from the school making comments to us such as the shopkeeper of an awesome antique/restoration/weird stuff store. Speaking of this store: we scored some awesome stuff here to bring back home. I know that I for one scored some mini army figurines, a leather bound bottle, some old skeleton keys and a painting.
After the work day today, we went to a archaeological dig site outside of Lima – the ruins of Pachacamac. Pachacamac is an active dig site with ruins from pre-Inca times to nearly Hispanic times (1500AD) when the Incans abandoned it. It was amazing to see and offers many great views of the ocean as well as of the ruins.
Overall, today was a pretty great day with part work and part play (due to the school closing in the early afternoon – I swear we weren’t lazy!) and it looks like the rest of our days this week are shaping up to be just as awesome.
Written by Tanner
Tuesday 15 July 2014
On the Project Site
On our second day of working without the help and excitement of the Peruvian Scouts, we moved rocks and cleaned up the area in front of the project site. People in the community kept on stopping by and thanking us for our work. They all seemed so excited that we were cleaning up the area. With some of the rocks we moved we made rings around a few fresh-planted saplings as well as using some rocks to repair the walls for the pathways leading to the highway. We also moved a ton (no joke) of sand from the cistern pit being dug by local workers and covered the area from the school to the highway in fresh clean sand. We had a quiche for lunch full of what I think was spinach and other things that I could not determine. Overall it was a good day even if we only cleaned up a bit and moved a lot of sand.
Written by Caelan
Written by Caelan
Monday 14 July 2014
Editors Thoughts
A week ago today, a group of considerably better-smelling individuals sat in a Toronto airport, eager to embark on a great journey to the wild and wonderful country of Peru. No one knew what exactly this adventure would be like, but I have no doubt that everyone’s expectations have been exceeded ten-fold. Every member has been kept busy, whether that means working harder than they ever imagined they could, or translating more Spanish than they ever thought possible (that last one applies entirely to Alanna, as the rest of us are hopelessly lost when it comes to speaking Spanish). But as hard as we’ve worked on the project, changing a trash-strewn sandy wasteland into a safe and fun place for children to play, our biggest accomplishment has been the friends we have all made. Despite language barriers, everyone has developed friendships with the local Peruvian Scouts - Ben particularly comes to mind. In just one day of work, he managed to get three neckers, one hat, and one whole uniform shirt from the Scouts he has befriended. There isn’t a person at the worksite who doesn’t know Ben, and he has managed to make more than a few of us marvel at exactly how he gets the local scouts to give him the clothes off of their backs. We have also all grown much closer as a Contingent, rekindling friendships with our fellow Venturers from Kenya 2012 or Madagascar 2012 or quickly accepting the first-timers into our Brotherhood. Personally, it is nice to once again see my friends that I haven’t had much contact with in the last two years, but I’ve also become fast friends with the Venturers and Rovers I’ve never met before. This, of course, is the point of a Brotherhood Project – to form lasting relationships with Scouts from all across the globe.
This Monday was spent a little differently than our last day in Canada. Instead of riding a bus, we rode horses at the Club HÃpico Peruano, a prestigious horse club that just happens to be where we’re staying on the University grounds. As a first time horse rider it was an exciting experience, made all the better by being in a foreign country. After taking the horses around the field for a leisurely walk, Jenn, Jess, Andrea, Shaun and one member of the horse club went out for a ride on the beach. To quote Jenn “It was better than awesome, and you could feel how much the horse was enjoying it.” After riding and caring for the horses by giving them a good brushing and wash, we all climbed aboard public transportation for a quick jaunt to the archeological dig site Pachacamac. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you anything more about it, since we arrived to a locked gate. No matter how hard we tried to sweet-talk to the security guard into letting us in, he was adamant that ‘closed’ applied to everyone. So instead we crossed the street and frolicked in some massive sand dunes. For those of you who don’t know, Lima is essentially one giant sand box. The city is built on sand, surrounded by sand, filled with sand... it’s inescapable. After our dune adventure, we all piled onto another city bus and headed to a mall in Lima. The malls here are a lot like the malls back in Canada, and so we all enjoyed the finer points of a Western mall - that is - Pizza Hut and Chinese food. We even managed to stumble upon the Peruvian version of Costco.
The only problem with the mall was that its churros were less than satisfactory. But that’s a small price to pay for another fun adventure into the crazy city of Lima.
Written by Ryan
This Monday was spent a little differently than our last day in Canada. Instead of riding a bus, we rode horses at the Club HÃpico Peruano, a prestigious horse club that just happens to be where we’re staying on the University grounds. As a first time horse rider it was an exciting experience, made all the better by being in a foreign country. After taking the horses around the field for a leisurely walk, Jenn, Jess, Andrea, Shaun and one member of the horse club went out for a ride on the beach. To quote Jenn “It was better than awesome, and you could feel how much the horse was enjoying it.” After riding and caring for the horses by giving them a good brushing and wash, we all climbed aboard public transportation for a quick jaunt to the archeological dig site Pachacamac. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you anything more about it, since we arrived to a locked gate. No matter how hard we tried to sweet-talk to the security guard into letting us in, he was adamant that ‘closed’ applied to everyone. So instead we crossed the street and frolicked in some massive sand dunes. For those of you who don’t know, Lima is essentially one giant sand box. The city is built on sand, surrounded by sand, filled with sand... it’s inescapable. After our dune adventure, we all piled onto another city bus and headed to a mall in Lima. The malls here are a lot like the malls back in Canada, and so we all enjoyed the finer points of a Western mall - that is - Pizza Hut and Chinese food. We even managed to stumble upon the Peruvian version of Costco.
The only problem with the mall was that its churros were less than satisfactory. But that’s a small price to pay for another fun adventure into the crazy city of Lima.
Written by Ryan
Sunday 13 July 2014
More hard work and fun!
On Sunday, we woke up unnecessarily early, because we had heard that the Peruvian scouts would be starting to work at 7:00am. Given their track record we had no reason to believe otherwise, but we were misled. We woke up at 6:30 (after staying up until 2:30 doing something called the spider) and promptly waited for two hours for the other contingent members to arrive. It was an unremarkable day for everyone but Ryan Pepper, for reasons we will not explain. We finished work on the playground and planted some new trees along the side of the schoolyard, adding some green to the sea of sand. Since we were all really tired from sleeping over, we basically all crashed as soon as we got back to the horse farm.
Written by Alanna
Written by Alanna
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