Final Reflection by Joe Mansour and Hunter Pozen

Sunday, June 18th Final Reflection.

Being in Peru for almost a month has greatly impacted our lives and the other lives of those in Peru. Whether or not anyone on this trip is religious, all were greatly affected by this experience and our time here. We came here the first week not knowing much about the culture and how we would be influenced by the beautiful people here. Seeing the living situations of the people is what greatly affected us on this trip. We spent multiple days painting churches and houses, but the day that impacted us was when we painted a house in the Casitas. There was no easy clean, accessible drinking water, very little access to electricity, and no easy access to daily hygiene like in the United States. After painting all day, we took a trip to one of the schools in the Casitas, where we walked up many tiring steps to get to the school to play soccer with the kids there. Thankfully, we were fortunate enough to take a bus to the school, but it was eye-opening to realize that every day these young kids walked many miles to get to school and were still filled with joy and love. To see all those kids so happy to play and even learn was indeed eye-opening for us.

This trip has allowed us to understand one of the main Jesuit principles of walking with others, which has allowed us to experience a different culture more personally than a typical tourist. This trip has also brought a group of young men who were strangers before the trip to creating life-lasting relationships. In this trip, incorporating reflection time has allowed us to form trust between each other and a closer relationship with God. After being in Peru for a month, I (Hunter) believe I have seen Jesus in every person living here. I haven’t met a single person who doesn’t live a life after Jesus, and I feel that this love for God makes Peru so loving even amid extreme poverty. We have also realized how close the community of Peruvians is here. They all seem to have a sense of great love and care for each other because they live similar lives in the midst of poverty and have a close relationship with God.

We have observed that we can go anywhere in Peru and feel welcomed and loved by anyone, no matter what, without any judgment from others. In Circa, we were all welcomed with an amazing and heartwarming invitation to their school, and they thanked us all for our help and service to their school. They sang the Peruvian national anthem but also sang our national anthem, which we all felt was excessive but was truly a sign that they really appreciated and loved us. They showed us love and connections that no one would ever feel at home in the United States. The experiences with the Peruvians greatly formed us into the men we are after the trip. However, the challenges are what will stick with us for our lives. One challenge that I(Joe) and a few others experienced extensively was the inability to speak the local language of Spanish. Not being able to communicate with those around me was one of the most influential things I experienced. Although unable to verbally communicate with people, we always got around it; whether that be by signaling to the person or using a little broken Spanish, we know to communicate a fundamental idea. Many people on the trip had to overcome health issues causing them to be fatigued on the work sites or constantly missing out on the adventures we were taking on.

Although sick and fatigued, we came through and helped each other, bringing us closer together. Our time here in Peru has formed us into stronger men than just a month ago, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We all wish to come back to Peru someday to experience this life-changing journey again. We also hope others will have the same life-changing experience as us and leave with a greater sense of love and appreciation for others and themselves.

Dominican Nuns by Lane Cejka and Spencer Millstine

 

Today was our last day at the hostel and Peru in general. This morning, there was a little event going on at the school called Inta Raymi, or Sun Festival. Attendance there was optional, but we couldn’t stay long because we had a presentation.

Sister Cecilia, one of the nuns at the hostel, explained what exactly they do. Their organization is a part of the Dominican order. The school they are partnered with is for girls who have been violated or abused. Most of them are outcasts from their families, and this place gives them a home. It’s horrible what most of them have been through at such a young age. They have a place specifically for young moms or people who didn’t choose to become moms. The youngest mom is 13, and her child is one. In total, they have 12 moms staying with them and eight kids.

Sister Cecelia was very grateful for our donations and for being in the hostel. All the money we paid them went to the families they supported because the nuns do not have a salary. We also contributed funds to fix their machine to wax their floors. If any of you are interested in supporting these nuns and families, any of the teachers can tell you. We all hugged sister Cecelia, and she was extremely happy. The nuns are great people who help those in really horrible situations get a new life, and they take nothing in return. They also cared for us for four days, changing our beds and cleaning our rooms. They took care of all of us who were sick. They were selflessly loving to us all.

Machu Picchu by Trey Lemionet and Aiden Molitor

On June 15, at 4 a.m., we woke up to Señor Cordova blaring music. We quickly prepared, and at 4:30 am, we left for the bus and train station. After a short 30-minute bus drive, we arrived at the train station. We got our tickets and boarded our carriage.

The train to Machu Picchu was about four hours long. During this, we played card games, took photos, read books, and prepared for Machu Picchu. When we arrived at the mountain’s base, we promptly got onto another bus and drove up to the top of Machu Picchu. At the top, we split into three groups led by three different tour guides.

The tour guides were awesome and talked to us about the history of Machu Picchu. We walked around the ruins and took many photos; the views were spectacular, and we enjoyed them very much. At the top, we said, “Woah,” to express my appreciation of the history and true beauty of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains. After the tour, we walked around for a few more minutes, taking pictures and enjoying the views. After we exited the ruins, we took another bus back down the mountain, where we had a buffet-style lunch.

After, we bought souvenirs and ice cream, then hopped on the train. The train ride was similar to the way up and felt very long. We played more games and slept after having hiked for so long. At about 8:00 p.m., we got off the train and walked to a nearby restaurant called Bodega 138. We all had delicious pizzas and pasta, and afterward, we immediately went home to get ready for bed because most of us were running off five hours of sleep.

CUSCO by Noam Gurari and Taite Paradise

 

On Wednesday, June 14, 2023, we got up at 9:00 am and had breakfast around 9:30 am. The breakfast was a delicious, delicious Peruvian breakfast ( bread rolls, butter, jam, fruit, eggs, etc.). We then all got ready to tour a few churches and got into clothing suitable for a church, and left for the tour by 10:30 am. We had an amazing tour guide named Rómulo Valencia who gave us the full story of how the Spaniards came to Peru and the Incan Culture.

We first toured the huge Cathedral in Cusco and he explained to us the history of how the church was built. We learned that many of the churches were built on Incan prayer grounds (including the Cathedral) and that much of the flooring in the Cathedral was stone from past Incan Temples. He then told us an incredibly interesting story about a Jesus statue who they call the “Lord of the Earthquakes”. The story is about a Jesus statue made out of alpaca and llama skin (wooden on the inside) that was in the church while it was still being built. During an earthquake one day, the church started shaking, and a bunch of people grabbed the Jesus statue and started running to the entrance to get him (and themselves) to safety. While running the earthquake was still going on, but the second they got the statue of Jesus into the entrance, the earthquake stopped like magic. Everyone in the church started praying, and since that day, they have called the statue “Lord of the Earthquakes”. Due to people bringing candles to the statue to pray, the fire from the candles slowly turned the statue black until it got its black/brown color that it has today.

We then looked at a painting of a saint who people would go to in order to find themselves a husband/wife. People would write their names and how to contact them in small notes and leave them on the ledge near the painting. After learning about that, we went to an oil painting of The Virgin Mary that was imported from Spain. It was an extremely beautiful painting. After looking at the painting of the Virgin Mary for a bit, we went to look at a huge painting that was painted by artists who went to an art school in Cusco a long time ago. They were extremely talented, but because they were not from Spain, they were prohibited from writing their signatures on the painting. Since they were not allowed to write their signatures on the painting, they drew little cupids holding flowers in every painting they made as a “signature.” This means that anywhere in the world that you see a painting with small cupids holding flowers, you can almost guarantee that it was painted in Cusco.

We were then led into a part of the Cathedral where people would hold their weddings but were only allowed to have them on Saturdays. The room was designed during the Andean-Baroque period, which was a time when people wanted to “show the glory of God” and use lots of gold, silver, and other ornate/detailed things. The whole area was covered in gold and silver and was really pretty.

After finishing the tour of the Cathedral, we were each gifted a calendar and left to go to the next church. The second church was a Dominican Church built on an Incan Temple of the Sun, and learned a bit about the Catholic side of the church. An interesting thing that we were told was that the reason why the leader of the church wasn’t in a big painting that had many important spiritual leaders, was due to him being a different race from the rest of the saints.

We then dove into the Incan history of the Church. Rómulo (our tour guide) walked us through a few rooms the Incas had constructed. We learned that the temple walls used to be covered in all gold (about two-inch thick plates), but when the Spaniards entered Peru, they looted the temple for all its gold. We also learned a lot about how the Incas constructed their buildings in a slight slant and square doorways to help the buildings stabilize against earthquakes. Rómulo taught us how Shamans (basically healers) would go to a mountain and pray until they got hit by lightning, and when they would get hit by lightning, they would get a sort of “sixth sense” for healing. Learning about old traditions, like how the healers got their powers, was extremely interesting. We also learned that they would sacrifice llamas on an altar that we saw back then. After looking through the different Incan rooms, we saw a replica of a part of the gold wall that someone buried and went into a small museum room with cool artifacts. We were told that when the Spaniards came, they had the Incas bring them a lot (a giant, but unknown amount) of gold to them, and after they received the gold, they murdered a lot of the Incan, which was really sad to hear about. We then walked to an area outside the church where Rómulo showed us a wall built by the Incas but partially destroyed and where he told us about how in his opinion, the Spaniards did not come to Peru to help but instead came due to their greed.

After that, the tour concluded, and we went back to the hostel to rest, then went to the plaza for dinner. We all went to different places to eat with our assigned partners at the plaza. Taite and I chose to go to a burger joint called Pachachos which was absolutely delicious. For the table that Noam was sitting at, we all got some onion rings to share, and everyone got their own individual burgers and milkshakes. At Taite’s table, they had their own burgers and drinks. It was an amazing meal, and we got to say that we had the experience of having a burger in Peru. We then returned to the Hostel, got ready for bed, and the next day was a tour of Machu Picchu.

On Friday, June 16, we got up and had breakfast at 8:00 am, and at 9:00 am, we left for a tour of three main sites of Cusco. We saw an Area called Pisaq, an area called Ollantaytambo, and an area called Moray. They were all similar areas used to cultivate crops. The bus ride was around an hour, and people mainly slept on the first bus ride. The first area we went to was Moray, which was three different circles with a few layers of terraces used to cultivate mainly potatoes and corn in the past. The crops, once perfected, would then be sent out to the rest of the Andes to be mass-produced for everyone to enjoy. We then got on a bus and drove a bit to the next place called Ollantaytambo, and it looked like a gigantic staircase with different terraces that were maybe around 7 feet long and 8 feet tall. The area was huge, and it is amazing to think that people could build and use it so long ago. Across from Ollantaytambo was a big mountain with a few ruins.

One of the ruins used to be stored for different crops, and the reason for it being so high up on the mountain was that if it were too low, then floods (which were a big problem) would end up wiping it out. We were also taught that the whole area was unfinished because everyone left when they heard that the Spaniards had hurt Cusco. The interesting thing was that many of the big rocks used to make the whole area were brought from a quarry in a completely different mountain and were pulled using manpower on sleds.

The rocks were also fitted with pieces of gold in between them to keep them together, which caused the Spaniards to tear down the walls to find the gold pieces inside. Once we finished the tour in Ollantaytambo, we went to an area called Pisaq. The bus ride was maybe an hour and a half. This monument was a huge version of the first site but had some cool history to it. We walked around the big half of the circle of agriculture until he explained about the other side of the site.

Rómulo told us that this site was pre-Incas called the Pisaq’s, who had a quiet life up in the Andes mountains. He told us that these natives after someone died, put their organs into jars and then put their bodies into holes in the wall on the other side of a different mountain across from where we were standing. Their bodies were covered with gold and silver necklaces, ankle bracelets, upper pet jewelry, and design headpieces. Then we walked up to the very top of the mountain, where he explained that there is still a community that speaks their native language that their ancestors from Pisaq spoke. He added a cool fact that Nat Geo and some other news organizations found that back in 2016, they found 40 different languages besides Spanish spoken in just Peru. The community is isolated from the outside world and will not let anyone or tourists from visiting their community above the site. After the tour, we took an hour-long bus ride back to the Plaza and ate dinner there.  At the Hostel, we ate ice cream for Mathew’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Mathew!) and then went to pack.

 

Urcos/Andahuaylillas by Jacob Cereska and Teague Prokopchak

June 9, 2023

We all woke up once again to the sound of music from Sr. Cordova’s speaker. Everyone met in the dinning area. We had two loaves of bread that we could put butter, jelly, cheese, or ham on. We had hot tea and some orange juice to drink. We mostly drank coca tea for the high altitude. After breakfast, we all got dressed and headed off to the bus.

It was about a 30 minute drive up to the chapel. We stopped to pick up some supplies and donations on the way. The chapel was around farm land and a lake. There was mountains everywhere surrounding us. It was very quiet and peaceful. The chapel was a decent size. Paint was faded and chipped in most places. For bathrooms, there were no toilets, just a hole in the ground.

We masked up and started by removing everything from the chapel. We swept the dirt and cobwebs. After that we were separated into groups. There were the people who painted the inside walls blue, people who painted the alter and back wall white, and people who painted the outside white and doors brown. We prepped with tarps and tape and we started to paint. We used rollers mostly, then the paint brushers would touch up anything. The white paint crew rushed right into it without proper tarp protection, so there was a lot of paint on the floor. A few kids repainted some of the objects and pews from the church. When the alter and back wall were nearly finished and the blue painters over half way finished, it was time for lunch.

For lunch we had fish and two baked potatoes. Sr. Cordova and another group of kids went foraging for snacks at the farm next to us. We picked peaches. Everything else was not in season. After lunch and chatting with friends, we went on to finish up everything. The alter and back wall crew finished. Most of that crew took a break while others helped with the outer walls. The blue crew finished 30 minutes later. After that, we helped the outside wall crew finish up. We had Holden La Voy up on ladders a lot to reach the tall places. He was scared of falling most of the time. When all of the painting was done, the painters took a break and a small group of kids cleaned and waxed the floors. We moved everything back in and admired our hard work. We took some pictures and cleaned up our tools. We headed on back home.

We had time to shower and relax for a bit. We were all exhausted and paint covered. After showers, mostly everyone went to the square to buy snacks and look around. Everything is pretty cheap here so we loaded up on snacks to share. We all sat in the square and just talked and admired the square. We walked back home and everyone dispersed to play sports, cards, or just talking. Eventually it was dinner time and for dinner we had steak and rice. After dinner we got ready for reflection.

This reflection was special. A pastor named Micheal Riemer that Matthew DiCaudo blogged about.

June 10

We awoke to the soothing alarm of Señor Cordova’s music. We were told in advance it would be a painting day so we all brought our clothes that had been lathered in paint. We had breakfast as a team in the Comedor before embarking on our bus to the work site.

It was about a 30-minute drive to Urcospampa, a small village in the Andes. We stopped at a chapel on the side of a dirt road and learned we would be cleaning and painting the inside and outside of the chapel.

We had to remove the contents of the church in order to repaint the inside. The inside was a light yellow and the roof was made of sticks tied together with string. We started to paint the inside by lining the floor with tarps in order to preserve the wood floor. Painting was tough because of the fumes of the paint and the height of the chapel walls, but with ladders we managed to reach it all. As well as painting the chapel we applied varnish to the pews to bring out the natural color of the wood, even though it was outside we had to wear masks because of the nail-polish-like fumes the varnish produced.

We used brooms to clean out the floor and spider webs coating the inside and outside of the chapel before we ate a delicious chicken fried rice like lunch. After eating, we finished up the outside of the chapel and took a photo to commemorate our work.

With our practice with painting another chapel the previous day we finished before schedule and were able to return back to the town early. When we got back to the town we all took showers and raced for the hot water (if too many people shower at once, it gets cold). After everyone was cleaned up, some of us played “mono en la media” for about an hour before walking into the town square to get snacks and pet some dogs. Lots of us decided to go out to the court and play handball, which soon turned into poison ball which turned into infection tag. We had a reversion back into our elementary days as we were playing tag in the campus of the retreat casa.

After, some of us decided to play soccer with some locals who challenged us. In actuality it wasn’t much of a challenge, we got destroyed, but we had fun nonetheless. After we all got winded from the Peruvians kicking our butts in soccer we sat down for an hour just talking about the food we would eat when we got back, it seemed it was a common thought that we would all kill for a box combo from Canes. But as much as we wanted fast food we still welcomed the amazing spaghetti and meatballs that the casa retreat chefs made. After eating dinner we all gathered in the reflection room to reflect upon questions given the previous day. As the night winded down we all assimilated to our groups of Monopoly, Uno, and cards.

 

To be continued…–

Reflection and Update by Matthew DiCaudo

June 9th, 2023 – Tonight, we gathered into our meeting room not for a reflection for the day, but for a special speaker. He introduced himself as Dr. Michael Riemer. He said he had started in Dallas as a student at Jesuit Dallas, followed by seminary school. Through a crisis of faith by seeing the people around him live so little with so much wealth, he set out to start making a difference. He became a Jesuit teacher back at Jesuit Dallas, but had come to love Peru through an immersion he led as a teacher at Jesuit Dallas. After an introduction, we started out with a prayer he picked from Ignatian Spirituality. It was called Patient Trust.

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

The prayer detailed how we should have our ideas take shape over time, and to trust in God’s slow work. Through this prayer, Dr. Riemer introduced us to the idea of Ignatian Indifference. He told us that making a plan for ourselves without looking to God may interfere with God’s plans for us. Just like how the prayer calls us to, we should trust in God for what he has in store for us.

Next, Dr. Riemer talked a little about what he did in Peru. He detailed the Quispicanchi program that he created in Peru to make a difference in the community around him. It started with just him and one other student, but it has grown tremendously. In Peru, he told us how he finds God fast through the people he has met who live in the margins. He taught us that the greatest poverty is not material wealth, but of isolation. He told us how friends help break this isolation. We all have an inner-monologue of insecurity towards how we look to others, but when we find true friendship, this monologue goes away.

Near the end of Dr. Reimer’s talk, we were given a sheet with two passages, the Ministry of Presence and the Mission in Reverse. Read by Bruno Aldavas, the Ministry of Presence talked about a desire to help others. However, it had an important message to love the people whom you serve. The Mission in Reverse was read by Spencer Millstine, and it talked about helping others as well. It told us to acknowledge that although we are helping others, we are being taught and growing from the people we meet from our service. A motto of Dr. Riemer’s that he uses for the Quispicanchi program is to, “Listen, Accompany, Collaborate, and Sustain.” This is exactly what the passage is telling us to do. Dr. Riemer gave us some final advice relating to his program, to stand beside and sometimes behind those we are serving, but never in front, again relating directly from the readings he gave us. After a great and reflective talk, Dr. Reimer thanked us. He is still residing in the building next to us, so we still get to see and talk to him and his student helpers from time to time. He gave us a great talk that gave us great insight into not only our service in Peru, but insight into our future lives!

Mejia – A Day at the Beach by Holden La Voy and Jack Quan

Today was our last day in Arequipa, Peru. We started the morning at San Jose, then off to the beach for the day. The bus ride was about two and a half hours. It was a long ride, but everyone got through it. When we arrived, we first went to the Jesuit Retreat House, where we stayed for the day. Everyone dropped off their things, changed, and then walked to the beach.

Picture of Cesar and Grower – our Peruvian Assistants

When we got to the beach, it was so nice. The waves were big, so we had to be extra careful. Carter Bruns and Jack Bagby both did backflips to start the beach day out. The weather was pretty sunny, which was nice. Taite Paradise was the first person to get under the water. Eventually, everyone joined in and got under the water. After everyone had fun in the water, we had a football game. Everyone was so competitive.  After we had our football game, Mrs. Venberg brought us cheese empanadas that were made fresh by the cooks back at the retreat house. After our snack, we burried Jake Cereska in the sand. We made him a fish. 

Soon, it was time to return back to the retreat house. We gathered our bags and towels, and began to walk back. Once we got back, we rinsed off and changed to get ready for the drive back.

We had lunch in the retreat house’s lunch room. Teague Prokopchak and Jack Flaherty had a competition to see who could collect the most mayo packets while we waited for our food. Soon, the food was served: peaches, fried chicken, carrots and greenbeans, and Inka Cola. We were all starved from our long day of having fun at the beach. After we ate, we cleaned up the retreat house and made the drive back to San Jose. One of the busses played a brophy trivia game with gummi bear prizes and sang Karaoke. After a long time, we finally arrived at the school, to spend one last night with our host brothers.

CIRCA – San Francisco Cont. (still Brody and Charlie)

Circa Work Day 3- This work day started much like the others, with tough labor and the hot sun. One group did a similar task of mixing concrete, but the material used were slightly different, and the location changed. This time we are making concrete for the wall. We had some extra help in the form of some students from the school. This was a great boost to our morale, and the work they did was extremely helpful. The other group was tasked with clearing large rocks from the area. We were given two 20-pound sledge hammers and one 8-pound hammer, and we all lined up like a chain gang taking turns chipping away at the boulders.

The final group finally finished clearing away the mound of dirt that we had been tearing away at for the past two days. We finished the day a little early to explore Arequipa´s beautiful Plaza De Armas. 

Circa Final Work Day- Today was a day that was used mostly for smoothing out the edges that we had left from the previous days. We destroyed any remaining boulders, finished the outer wall, and cleared away any remaining debris and rubble. We were again joined by the students from the school and worked to carry up rocks to a different location.

When the day was almost finished, we were called under the school’s veranda, where the students had prepared yet another ceremony for our departure. We all took our seats, and they performed another traditional dance for us. They then offered gifts to our teachers for their hard work and dedication in putting this all together. Music started to play, and we were all called up to dance with the teachers and students of the school. It was a wonderful moment we shared that was full of smiles and laughter. They gathered us all into one classroom where they had prepared another delectable meal for us.

We also celebrated the birthdays of our Noam Gurari and Mathew DiCaudo with a cake and Pastel de Pollo. With that, we left the school through a tunnel of smiling students to end our time at CIRCA.  

CIRCA – San Fransisco by Brody Buchanan and Charlie Richards

Day 9- When we first signed up for this trip, many words were thrown around, one of which was “the ditch.” From these past few days, we fully understand the meaning of that phrase.  The Ditch refers to both the physical area but also the mental aspect of service. When we first hopped into the busses to the school we were working at, we expected a similar experience to that of PEBAL, just moving things from one room to another. Boy, were we wrong!

We entered CIRCA – San Francisco School and were met by its students’ applause and cheers. The entire student body was present that day, waving Peruvian and American flags. After taking our seats, we stood for the national anthem of Peru and The United States. They then presented two traditional Peruvian dances from different parts of Peru.

After the presentation, they led us into a classroom where they fed us a lunch of tamales and vegetables. The food was delectable. It was at this moment that we truly realized the impact that our service had on many communities. Then the work began.

The group was split into two teams. The first task was to break large boulders into smaller pieces with a sledgehammer—these pieces were used to fill in an area that needed concrete.

The other people’s job was to load asphalt into a construction cement mixer.  One challenge we faced was that loading the asphalt straight into the mixer was slow. We had to pivot and use buckets which worked a lot better. The second group was tasked with moving a dirt mountain into the nearby alley. This was a grueling task in many places. For one, the ground was uneven, and maneuvering dirt-filled wheelbarrows on it was challenging.

It was tough, but in the end, we made a substantial dent in the mound at the end of the day.

Being the first “real” work day, we never stressed ourselves too much or, as Mrs. Venberg put it, “you don’t need to be a hero.” We took evenly spaced breaks throughout the day; some took much more than others and drank plenty of water. Our backs ached as the sun beat down on us. We finished before our Peruvian brothers finished their school day, so we drove back to Colegio San Jose and relaxed a little bit before returning to our host families.

Day 10- When the sun rose, we returned to CIRCA – San Francisco with a better knowledge of what was ahead. We continued with the same jobs, but the teams switched. The concrete that Group 1 made was then used by Group 2 to craft a gorgeous and sturdy sidewalk. We also cleared the area of large rocks and discussed our five favorite and least favorite things.

The once large pile of dirt and rocks was heavily whittled down. We ended the day with karaoke, eye-spy, and the quiet game on the way back, the proper way to leave.

Reflection by Carter Bruns and Oliver Sheriff

Over the last few days, we have been through many different service locations. We started out at PEBAL. Our first impression upon going through the gates was how welcoming everyone was. We felt revered and greatly appreciated even though we hadn’t even done anything yet. We created a fence, cleared out and cleaned a warehouse, and organized a room full of kids’ toys and books. In the words of Sr. Cordova, “I love the ditch.” We believe we all have come to love the acts of cheerful service.

Being in Peru has allowed us to live in the present better. Because we do not have our phones, we don’t have the luxury of wasting time and using our time to do something productive or spend time with our friends. Our time spent together and working with each other is very fulfilling. Perú has been “eye-opening” for all of us. Not only is the environment different, from the architecture to the food, but when we worked in Lima, we could not help but notice the extreme poverty of many people in certain neighborhoods, but what was most impactful was that even though they may not have running water, electricity or other material things, they are joyful, happy and loving. 

Our Spanish is also improving as we have had to leave our comfort zone and speak.  This has allowed us to meet new people and learn their stories through our discomfort.

After we finished at PEBAL, we headed over to the hills above Lima. At the Casitas, we gained a significant perspective on how true joy works. We are all so under appreciative of what we have and do not truly experience joy. The little kids we spent time with had nowhere near the luxury we have, and we believe they were some of the happiest little kids we have ever met.

Once we arrived in Arequipa, we had another very enlightening experience. Our first day of service at CIRCA – San Francisco, in Arequipa, was one for the books. There were American flags everywhere and words written in English. All of the children were waiting just inside the gates, all in a line. They were giving us fist bumps and saying thank you. We felt so appreciated and respected. More than we could have imagined coming from little kids in Peru. They sang their national anthem and then also ours. It was very enlightening to know how much people actually appreciate what we are doing for them.

We are making memories. Writing in our journals has allowed us all to reflect and really comprehend what is going on and the impact of our experiences.