Though a knock at the door of Casa Goshen came a tad early (around 6:30 a.m.) we were excited to see our students return safely from their service locations. The early group, Lydia, Trevor, Laura and Shina, came in from the jungle. An hour later we were joined by Adriene,…
Elizabeth was based in Ayacucho during her six weeks of service, working at two Christian schools and an orphanage. Toward the end of her time there, she wrote this journal entry: Elizabeth poses with her host family on their porch overlooking Ayacucho. I emailed a friend that…
Shina spent six weeks serving at INABIF (Programa Integral Nacional para el Bienestar Familiar), a government-funded program in San Ramon that assists low-income families. She and Laura worked with children who come to the center before or after school to eat a hot meal, take part in activities and programs,…
During service, for at least one journal entry students pursued experiential learning through a strategy called action-reflection-response. The idea is to learn from daily life by noticing something that you don’t understand, gathering more information and responding by changing your behavior or attitude. Lydia worked each morning at Jardín…
In Ayacucho, the Andean city known for having an abundance of churches, Elizabeth and Mariah have an extra measure of family members. Elizabeth poses with her host family on their porch overlooking Ayacucho. Elizabeth lives with Pastor Dionicio Bautista Gomez and Elizabeth Huarcaya Yarasca and their five…
We arrived in Chiclayo, a coastal city about 12 hours north of Lima, on a Friday, after an overnight bus trip. We stopped at a hotel only long enough to drop off our bags and then headed out on the dusty highway that leads west to Pimentel, a beach resort…
Four of the six students who are doing service in the Cusco area are working at schools that serve deaf children: San Martin (public) and San Francisco (private). Max plays a memory game with students at San Martin, a public school that serves deaf children in Cusco.
Shina, Laura and host mother Carolina, with a cousin. We left Lima by bus in the late morning, bound for the jungle gateway towns of San Ramón and La Merced. In miles, the trip is not so far. But there is a punishing climb en route. The…
On the evening before we visited Machu Picchu, our guide, Abraham Quispe Corrales, reminded us that the chance to see this mountaintop retreat, for most people, happens only once, if at all, and we should be prepared to make the most of the opportunity. He emphasized that point as he…
If one had to pick a town in which to spend the night en route to Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo would be among the best places anywhere in the highlands. More than 500 years ago, Ollantaytambo served as an important rest stop and administrative and religious center for the Incas.
