Peru - Teaching in Picol, Cuzco (15-27 March)
Project Overview:
Picol is a school serving a local community in the city of Cusco. We were volunteering in the nursery, which has approximately 60 children aged 3-5. The nursery has been running for 9 years.
We spent two weeks volunteering here, whilst living with a local family. The work was primarily pastoral care of the children, assisting the teachers and participating in creating activities for their learning.
We had evenings and weekends free to explore. We spent many evenings walking the cobbled streets of the old town of Cusco and the weekend in Machu Picchu – which was magic.
Key Insights:
Seeing Machu Picchu was an incredible experience. Beyond the wonder itself, we were fortunate to have an excellent guide who explained some of the elements of the Incan philosophy.
The central theme of duality which was recurrent in so many aspects of their beliefs and daily life.
The symbolic significance of the condor, puma and snake, to remind them of finding harmony in the sky and earth, the ephemeral and the physical.
The way in which they set up their daily lives to ensure that they were reminded of practicing being present in the moment and demonstrating gratitude
How they, unlike many other empires throughout history and particularly during that era, prized wisdom over strength, especially in their leaders.
There is something resonant and elegant about the three laws that guided the inca people, which were:
“Aini” – meaning reciprocity, or working in selfless service.
“Minka” – meaning to work for the good of the community.
“Mita” – meaning to work and pay tax for the communal good.
Doing the home-stay and being in the local community in the nursery was a beautiful thing. We had to improve our Spanish, and it helped us get to experience the culture in a different way. The family values and genuine care for each other in the community was special to us.
We also had a challenging time here – not just language and cultural barriers (outside of the tourist centre nobody really understood what vegan/vegetarian food meant!). We also really missed not having other volunteers with us, and Sia and I got quite ill and ended up needing to stay in hospital overnight. We were both fine in the end, but dealing with that and trying to recover – especially at high altitude and in a rural setting – was tough for all four of us.
What our day looked like
We would leave the house at about 8am, taking a short walk to the local bus (the “Batman” bus). We would reach the school by 8:40, and be with the children until they went home at around noon.
We would then commute back home, and spend the afternoon either exploring the old town or relaxing and playing games.
