Press Releases and News
Carlos G. Cusco, Peru - Feb. - April 2006
Stepping Outside… to See Inside Cusco , Peru
Carlos Gonzoles
In the early months of 2006, I spent 10 weeks in Cusco , Peru coordinating service-oriented trips. My time there helped me acquire a renewed perspective for life and the many things I take for granted.
My time in Peru was spent with Globe Aware, a nonprofit organization that offers “Peace Corps-like” vacations that focus on cultural-awareness and sustainability. During this time, I helped immerse U.S. and Canadian volunteers into life, work and day-to-day activities at Hatun Soncco Wasi (House with a Big Heart in Quechua) . Children from rural areas live at Hatun Soncco Wasi in order to attend school in Cusco , because schooling beyond the third grade is not offered in their communities. During each trip, volunteers go on field trips with the children, organize educational and sports activities, and do improvement projects at the home/school. Each group also builds a stove/chimney in one of the children's homes. These projects a to improve living conditions and give volunteers an opportunity to see first hand the children's community. In Globe Aware trips to Cusco and the work with the home/school focuses on accomplishing tasks…
However, an emphasis and major component of each trip is to interact and connect on personal levels. Hatun Soncco Wasi staff believes that exposure to another culture and another way of life can create a change in consciousness and perception, which in turn can serve as a catalyst for change, heightened understanding and improved quality of life for volunteers and children at the home/school. In a country where there's much poverty, I saw human warmth, felt joy and experienced tranquility in the day's rhythm. Here, like everywhere, beauty, wealth, joy and their opposites coexist. From my experience in Peru , joy and warmth seem to emerge and be present often, despite poverty and hardship.
It took me a trip to Peru , to step OUTSIDE in order to see INSIDE.
My time in Peru gave me a renewed perspective, a thankful sense for the wealth I have, and clarity to follow my life's path here forth. Once again, in giving I received much more than I ever expected or imagined.