Choosing to study abroad in Cusco, Peru with IPSL was the best decision I have ever made. Study abroad itself is such a transformational incredible experience. Cusco is really the perfect place to go. It's not overwhelming, but there is still so much to see and do. I really loved being surrounded by so much history. IPSL really made the experience worthwhile. Their small staff is so caring and well-versed in the many programs they offer.
Some detailed notes on all aspects of the semester-long experience:
Service Experience: My service placement was with el Santuario Animal de Ccochahausi. I loved it so much! Our choices were the animal sanctuary, a health clinic for disabled children, an orphanage for mentally challenged children (Hogar de las Estrellas), and an orphanage (Remar-an NGO). I absolutely loved the animal sanctuary, but if you really like working with children, the other organizations are amazing as well. For service placements, you may be the only person assigned to an organization or there may be a few of you that are. IPSL places you depending on your interests.
Classes: For our group, classes were all day (9:00-7:00) Monday & Tuesday, which was not bad at all. Then, we had a class or two on Wednesday and Thursday. We only had to purchase one textbook; it was for Spanish class and was 30 soles. The rest of our classes were based on lectures. Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola is a very small beautiful building (Spanish with Incan foundations) right in the center of the city. The classes there are all in English, so don't freak out if your Spanish isn't excelente. You are required to take a Spanish class, and there are 3 separate ones for different abilities. My Spanish was dreadful when I got there, but the basics (3 years in high school & 1 semester in college) got me by, and I improved tremendously! I took History of Incan Civilization, Contemporary Culture & Society of Peru, Inca Architecture, Institutions in Peruvian Society, Photography, and Spanish. You don't have to take that many-it all depends on what your university requires of course, but they are fairly easy and pretty fun. In Architecture and Photography, you take field trips! Your professors want you to experience the culture more than anything.
Free Time: You are with your program mates all the time, and they will become your close friends. You may also make friends with Peruvian students and Israeli tourists. There are great restaurants, nightclubs, and markets for shopping. There is a festival at least every other week in the main square, like Semana Santa, The Lord of the Earthquakes. You can ask your professors what all is going on each week, and they'll tell you!
Excursions: The excursions that were pre-planned were Machu Picchu and Incan sites close to the city. It’s easy to plan other trips to Lake Titicaca, Nazca, and the Amazon with the help of the school. My friends and I planned a trip to the jungle, which was extraordinary. You'll get your fill of hot weather you miss in Cusco, and it's just gorgeous. On several weekends, we took small trips to Incan sites nearby like Moray, Las Salineras, Ollantaytambo, Pisac (make sure you go when the market is happening-it's the best!), and Chinchero.
Money: You can use any ATM there just like you do here. They are sprinkled throughout the city and in grocery stores. There is a fee of 10 soles (~$3). To avoid this, I would withdraw 300 soles at a time. I never had any issues. Most places in Cusco only take cash, so you might not even want to carry your debit/credit card (which should be MasterCard or Visa). I brought $100 in cash and $300 on my debit card originally. And then you'll need extra for excursions, like going to the Amazon (~$300) and Incan sites (~20 soles each)!
Water: You can brush your teeth with the tap water, but you should not actually drink it. Your family will have a purification system, and you can buy bottled water at the store. Make sure you buy "sin gas” unless you’re a fan of bubbly water. The tap water is turned off at about 2am until about 6am, so make sure you do anything that requires water before then. I also kept a few spare 2 liters of water on hand for when that happened and I desperately needed to wash my face or hands.
Laundry: The norm is to own a washing machine but no dryer. You hang your clothes out to dry.
Phone: You'll want to buy a local cell phone. The staff at the school will help you with that. They're about $30 US, and you reload minutes on them at shops around town. You should also purchase HolaPeru calling cards at the local grocery store to be used on a landline to call out at your host family's house. It doesn't cost them anything. It works really well and is not expensive. And of course you can Skype/Google Chat where there is an Internet connection.
Passport: You should not carry your passport with you everywhere just in case. Make a few copies of it before you go and carry a copy with you everywhere. But take it with you when you go to Machu Picchu and the Amazon because they'll give you a cool stamp!
Transportation: If you live in or near Santa Monica (a suburb) like I did, it is about a 30-minute walk to the school. So my group usually took a taxi. You'll have other students living near you, so you all can meet every morning to ride together and split the cost of a taxi (which should never be more than 4 soles (~$1! Pretty sweet!)). You'll always want to take the certified cabs with the checkered flags on them. My first week, I had two really great, kind cab drivers, so I saved their names and numbers, and I called them all the time throughout my trip. I worked at the animal sanctuary, so we would take a van up into the mountains and then catch the bus going back. You might also want to take the city van/bus, and someone at the school can show you what to do.
Food: Peruvian food is delicious! Meals mostly consist of meat, rice, potatoes, and veggies. In the rare case that you don't love something your host family prepares for you, you can go to the grocery store or market and pick some things up for yourself. (They have Oreos!) There are a lot of great restaurants with a variety of foods like Mexican, Italian, and seafood. There are British and Irish pubs in the main square. Lunch is the big meal in most of South America, and dinner will be light.
Packing: The weather is cool most of the time. It rained a few times a week, so bring an umbrella. I recommend packing jeans, long sleeve shirts, jackets, flats, rain boots, hiking boots/running shoes. You won't need a heavy coat. Bring ibuprofen, Tylenol pm, Dayquil, and Pepto Bismol. And plenty of it! For other toiletries, don't over pack. The only items I had trouble finding were face wash, makeup, and feminine products. Adaptors are not necessary. South American and North American plugs are the same.
Please contact me if you have any questions! I really loved this experience and would love to share more.
Response from IPSL Global Engagement at Westminster University
IPSL appreciates the feedback and the opportunity to respond. We hope that this talented individual has the same opportunity to provide such feedback to their home university and, in particular, to their home university’s advising team.
IPSL is familiar with this participant's feedback. With every participant, we request an evaluation upon completion. We received these comments in writing a few months after the request and shared these in a meeting with our team. So, while the content of this review is familiar to us and was/is being addressed, we appreciate that this participant is sharing her ideas more broadly and for the opportunity for IPSL to respond.
As with all under-resourced organizations (and our partner in La Boquilla is one of those), priorities can, and do, shift daily. Our partner has limited human resources to accomplish their mission. The members all have full-time jobs and other obligations to sustain their lives. This is the nature of nonprofit/NGO/grassroots work across the globe and provides an excellent training ground for individuals interested in entering the field of nonprofit work. That said, the organization where they did their service was somewhat new to IPSL and there were/are kinks to iron out. All that said, our partners reported that the student, on more than one occasion, did not show up to pre-scheduled meetings; that is likely part of the reason there was increased room for ‘misinformation’.
The observation that the organization has a ‘leadership’ issue is excellent and accurate. We have encouraged them to work on this which we all believe could potentially help them accomplish more of their mission.
Regarding excursions, ideally, they are spread out throughout a program – or during the period a course is being taught. That said, IPSL never promises when excursions will happen and, in fact, we mention explicitly that excursions can change due to circumstances beyond our control (closures, roads washing out in rainy seasons, etc.). But we always replace a cancelled excursion with another, complementary one. We have spoken with the leadership at our partner in La Boquilla and we addressed issues around communication and the Orientation Tour. But as mentioned above, ‘no-shows’ on the part of students/participants send a message that the participant is uninterested.
IPSL does an excellent job of preparing students/participants for the differences in cultures, including gender and race relations in different program locations. What a participant interprets as misogynistic may, indeed, be misogynistic through their own cultural lens, but it may also be a cultural issue or, again, a function of not having the capacity/time to address an issue in the moment. IPSL’s community-based organizations abroad are routinely some of the most resource-scarce groups addressing the most pressing needs in their communities. There is plenty of opportunity to observe, assess, design interventions/programs, present findings, and/or simply bear witness and serve. It is the participant’s particular framework through which they view the situation that contributes – or not – to the support of the organization’s
mission. We are not sure how the air conditioner issue is an example of misogynistic behavior, but we do know that the AC issue was addressed to the satisfaction of the roommate.
Any successful project and/or placement in an IPSL partner requires that all three legs of the three-legged stool do their part. IPSL never promised a formal course on project management. Indeed, the course/fieldwork was the sole responsibility of the participant’s home university.
The participant was approved and selected for this placement precisely due to their military background in managing people and projects. A key piece of what was missing from this participant’s academic experience was the home university advisor who was completely missing-in-action from the student’s entire fieldwork placement experience. There was no support from the very individuals responsible for the required outcomes. IPSL did not (and cannot) assume the role of a participant’s home university advisor in such situations. Yes, there were issues with some of the on-the-ground experiences that were IPSL’s responsibility, and we did what we could to address those issues as soon as humanly possible. What IPSL cannot do – and won’t take responsibility for – is a home institution’s lack of support for their own student.
The participant’s statement that IPSL as a company only wanted their money and fooled them into their participation is sadly untrue. The participant was approved and selected, for this placement, precisely due to their military background in managing people and projects. All the necessary preparations were made in advance and when the inevitable issues arose (as they always do), IPSL did what it could to address them. IPSL is pleased that the participant acknowledges the contributions of our Veteran staff member; we appreciate this. Lastly, IPSL is a nonprofit organization; we are not a company and over 80% of our revenues are reinvested in the various communities we serve.