Living in a foreign culture — getting to know a new host family and figuring out how to accompany the people they work with each day — is a challenge for our students during these six weeks of service. They are stretched in new ways as they leave the…
This morning the students, all 21 of them, boarded a bus for the central region of Peru to begin their six-week service assignments. Three will volunteer in Tarma, a beautiful city located in the Andean highlands, teaching in a Catholic school and working with children in a program sponsored…
We said goodbye to our Lima host families by inviting them to share an evening with us. We played games and enjoyed a program of drama, dance and song. We also shared American-style refreshments prepared with delicious Peruvian ingredients — sandwiches, salads, kettle corn, cake and passion fruit juice.
As we approach the end of our study time in Lima, we deepened our perspective on what it is like to live and work here by listening to speakers who have migrated here from other places and then traveling to the edge of this sprawling metropolitan area. Father Jeff…
Lima — the City of the Kings — was founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro. For almost three centuries it served as the political and economic hub of the Spanish Empire in western South America. In 1821 Peru gained independence from the Spanish crown and Lima became the capital…
During our first week in Peru’s capital we began learning about local criollo culture. Celia Vasquez, our study coordinator, described Limeno greetings, habits and cuisine. James Plunkett, an American businessman who migrated here 48 years ago, taught us about Peruvian politics and economics. Father Eduardo Arens spoke about Jesus’…
We returned to Peru’s capital after our time of study, service and travel in the Andes and were greeted by Celia, our study coordinator, Alicia, our program assistant, and twenty-one eager host families. We introduced the students to their new family members, shared coffee and sandwiches, and snapped photos before…
Machu Picchu is one of the “New 7 Wonders of the World,” a list that includes the Great Wall (China), Petra (Jordan), Christ the Redeemer (Brazil), Chichen Itza (Mexico), the Colosseum (Italy) and the Taj Majal (India). Scholars believe that Machu Picchu (“Old Mountain” in Quechua) was a refuge…
The Inca culture is known worldwide for its epic architecture. Temples, palaces and fortresses were assembled from massive stones cut from nearby quarries and fitted together like a puzzle. We visited two classic examples: Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo. Sacsayhuaman is a huge complex perched on a hill overlooking the city…
Our theme this semester is, “A Changing World; A Changing Peru”. In order to appreciate where Peru is going, we need to know where it has been. If we had a time machine we could travel back to the era before the Spanish Conquest to see how Andean people…
