12 weeks at Hogar Juana de Aza in Cusco
Ratings
Review
I spent 12 weeks in Cusco working at the Hogar Juana de Aza and living with a super lovely host family. Together with my host family I was able to get to know and explore the Peruvian culture and the country and I am grateful for this experience.
However, my work at Hogar Juana de Aza was different than expected. I had the idea of working more with the young mothers, but in the end it was more like childcare. I spent my time playing with children between 2 and 6 and looked after them. Nevertheless I really enjoyed my time and took both the children and the mothers very close to my heart. I'm happy with my decision to stay for so long, because it obviously took some time for the children to develop a bond with me and for the mothers to fully trust me with their children. After the first few weeks, I realized that I could make an important contribution to the Hogar and that I was greeted with a big smile every day and said goodbye with a heavy heart after work. Even though I expected something different I was happy to be there. I would recommend going to this program but it's important to know that you will be working with children most of the time.
I loved the fact that I was living in a family that had more volunteers than just me living there because like this I had someone at home who did similar work.
As feedback, I would like to say that the program description is very misleading and led to disappointment at the beginning of my time in Cusco. I would have liked the description to be more in line with the actual work and so I could have decided whether the work suits me or whether I would have chosen a different project.