The Scoop

So it’s officially been almost two weeks that I’ve been here in the Sacred Valley of Peru… and I can’t begin to describe how much this experience has already blown my mind.  Rolling hills and snow-capped mountains, the warm welcome of local villagers, a newfound friendship with my fellow MIIS students; I could have never predicted the full glory of all of these things.

While I could probably already write an entire manuscript detailing all of the trials and tribulations of our journey thus far, I’ll just stick with a few highlights to share what a whirlwind it’s been:

• The Bubble Lady– Danielle busts out some bubble time for the kids of Ccachin.  Awe and wonder ensue.

• A “thank you” ceremony for Team Peru– The Major of Ccachin (the tiny town where Team Peru will build two new greenhouses this summer), along with the faculty and students of the local primary and secondary schools present traditional dances, music, and a delicious bonfire in our honor.

• Carmel Highschool win– The ladies from Carmel High gather ’round a bonfire to celebrate their experience in Peru.  We were so lucky to have them!

• Kung Fu Brian–  Brian teaches martial art moves to the kids of Ccachin.

• Apples to Apples: Battle to the Death– The whole fam gathered ’round the dinner table for an epic game, complete with lots of Gato Negro drinking (boxed red wine.  From Chile.  Don’t hate.)

• A hike around the block– No big deal, our neighborhood backdrop scenery is the Andes.

• Workin’ the greenhouse– The primary school kids of Pampacoral show us how it’s done.

• Snickers break– Not sure why, but since we’ve been here everybody’s craving sugar…. all the time.

The Projects

As a newly-initiated member of Team Peru (more formally and legit-ly monikered The Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development), I came down to South America in hopes of developing (along with my colleague and fellow MPA student Danielle Johnson) a Community Savings program for each of three local women’s textile associations.  But there’s so much going on in addition to our wee little project:  The Greenhouse Team, The NGO Network Team, The Women’s Empowerment team… not to mention the internal Organizational Development team for The Andean Alliance itself.

Each of us is a part-time member of at least one or two teams aside from our primary, and this definitely gives me flashbacks (good ones, I swear) to the Advanced Nonprofit seminar all over again.  Team meetings transform into mega mind melds.  You’re into teaching kids’ how to harvest veggies from the greenhouse for a well-balanced lunch AND want to help local organizations build a collaboration platform?  No worries!  Just hang with Team Peru and you can make it happen.  And then some.

I can’t wait to find out what the rest of the summer has in store… this is going to be the adventure of a lifetime.

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