Oxapampa sounds like a made up place, but it is in fact a beautiful jungle oasis in the centre of Peru. It is quite an unexpected sight after driving for hours through mining towns across the central mountain range of the Andes, where mining companies have raped the land and contaminated the towns. Continue reading
Category Archives: Service Projects
Oxapampa: a place of surprises
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Filed under Peru, Service Projects
Tierra de Niños : blossoms in a desert
During my visit to the shanty town of Comas, in Lima, I felt that any moment my heart would burst. 
I constantly had a lump in my throat from the moment I stepped out of the taxi to meet a bunch of cheerful, excited youngsters aged 4 – 11, eager to take me on a tour of their own personal little gardens. I had come to see an example of Tierra de Niños in action and the experience was very moving. Continue reading
Filed under Lima, Service Projects
Tikapata School in Huayoccary
My friend Harry from Markham College arranged for me to visit Tikapata school in Huayoccary in the Sacred Valley. It is about 20 minutes from Calca and 10km before Urubamba. It reminded me a bit of both the Green School in Bali and the Montessorri school that I attended in primary school. It is in a beautiful setting, the kids are all happy and they get to plan their projects and have a say in decision making in the school. Continue reading
Filed under Cusco, Service Projects
Las Palmas: Shanty Town
Las Palmas is a shanty town on the outskirts of Lima that is a stark reminder of the harsh reality of Peru’s extremities of socio-economic disparity. The community has over 300 families but does not have a water or electricity supply. Water is bought in on trucks, and electricity wired in from neighbouring communities, resulting in the actual cost of water and electricity being much higher than in wealthy areas such as Miraflores. Continue reading
Filed under Lima, Service Projects
Great River Amazon Raft Race 2012
No time to write about this right now, as off on another adventure. Here is a short video thanking people who so kindly sponsored me.
All donations will go towards helping ACRES establish the first Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre in Lao PDR. The centre will mainly house bears rescued from bear farms. Continue reading
Filed under ADVENTURES, My Videos, Service Projects
RSIS: Final stage of greenhouse
After a wonderful 3 day break which included a visit to Machu Picchu, we returned to Quishuarani for the second stage of the project. We completed the greenhouse and had the blessing ceremony. Then we split into teams to build smaller greenhouses for individual families. This was also hard work and we were spread throughout the valley.
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The blessing of the greenhouse:
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Working on the “cold frames” – mini greenhouses for families:
RSIS: Greenhouse building stage 1
The whole aim of the Round Square International Service Project in Peru 2012 was to construct a greenhouse for the Quishuarani community in order to improve their monotonous, carbohydrate rich diet, by providing a way of growing vegetables in the harsh high altitude climate. The local people of Quishuarani are known as the “Huayruros” in reference to their bright orange & red ponchos. The project aim included working together with the local people in the construction of the large greenhouse in the school grounds and then later assisting in building smaller “cold frames” for individual families. All the materials were purchased by Round Square.
It was hard work, especially the first day when all the rocks needed to be carted down the hill to the site. Walking back up the hill was a battle due to the altitude. However it was pretty cold so the work kept us warm and whenever we stopped for a break, we soon were reminded of the air temperature!
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The slides show the projection of the project but perhaps not just how physically hard the work was. Despite some frustrations that were beyond our control, the first stage went well and everyone grew fitter and stronger, as well as more skilled as each day progressed.
Alongside the actual greenhouse construction, a small group led by Duncan, dug a long trench from the creek to the site in order to bury a hose to provide water. We were all very inspired by this group’s endurance and the speed of their progress. The first use of the water was for “burro” = mud! This was needed to build the rock wall. Making burro entailed first digging up soil. Not as easy as it sounds as either strong grass roots conspired against being separated from mama pacha or rocks! The next phase was to actually remove all the small rocks from the soil. Only then could the soil be delivered to the highly skilled burro-makers! Soon shouts for “burro” could be heard all across the valley as the rocks began to pile up……