ISA Service-Learning in Lima, Peru

Amidst the hustle and bustle of Lima, children often go unnoticed - especially in low-income neighborhoods. ELAP provided me with the opportunity to assist a teacher in a low-income public school classroom of 35 students. Yes, 35 third graders and 1 teacher! It was quite a challenge at times but so rewarding. What I enjoyed about ELAP was the staff's dedication to making sure I was able to be autonomous but still guided. They listened to my concerns, and helped me fix any issues that would come my way. I felt confident navigating the city, but at any point I knew that help was only a phone call away. It was a great experience, I made a lot of friends, learned a lot about Lima, and enhanced my Spanish skills.

Although I walked away from my placement learning a ton about the lives of children who were previously living on the streets suffering from various abuses, I was hoping to walk away feeling like I made a bigger impact as a volunteer. My position was just a small part of the program. When I arrived in the mornings, I would sit and wait for the boys to go through their morning meetings, duties, psychology, and sometimes a whole movie before I was able to work with them.

ISA is amazing, ELAP's administration is awesome as well. All and I had a great experience and learned a lot at my ELAP placement, but the organization I worked with wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

I worked in a children's hospital teaching for 6 of the 8 weeks I was in Peru, and had an amazing time. It was so fun and I could see the direct impact I was making every day through the smiles of the kids and appreciation of their parents. With the other 2 weeks, I did a trip to Machu Picchu and another to Huaraz, where I backpacked in Huascaran National Park. These were bar none the most astonishingly beautiful places I've ever been to. Peru is a great country and I hope to go back asap!

The ELAP website had a lot of incorrect or misleading information, and I did not end up having a very active role in most of the volunteering that I did. For one of my placements, I was at a preschool in which my biggest jobs were taking students to the bathroom and observing the class. Another placement involved sitting around with a group of 12-15 year old girls in their youth home, playing games or watching movies. These activities were not a waste of time, but I do absolutely think that my time there could have been better spent both to help the organizations and individuals with whom I was working, and to learn from my experience.

Lima was incredible. I really enjoyed the city. It is very easy to get around, although it is a little terrifying because the drivers are all very aggressive. The "taxi" and "bus" systems are fairly simple and very cheap! I put those in quotes because taxis can be owned by anyone with a taxi sign and sometimes the buses are more like vans, but are official. The city is divided into sections, I was with a host family in San Isidro, a pretty nice part of the city. There are some dangerous areas of the city but mostly they are on the outskirts where you wont be going. I never had any safety issues. I really loved the city. There is so much to do and so much to see. You will never be bored! The tourist section, Miraflores, is super nice, with a large mall and parks and shops, and the government keeps it that way intentionally.

The human rights organization I worked for was La Casa de Panchita, a refuge for mistreated household workers. I was teaching English, working on some data entry, managing the social media, and other administrative things. Sunday was the big day for the organization and that's when all the people would come for classes, events, and other things. I would work in the lobby playing games with the young girls and boys or just chatting making everyone feel welcome and helping anywhere I could. It was amazing to get to know some of the women and hear their stories. It was very fulfilling and I got to work on my Spanish a LOT. We also worked at hosting an international forum on child domestic labor and an awareness festival. Some days it was a little frustrating because there was little direction given or I wasn't really doing anything beneficial but that's something you have to accept when working with non-profit NGOs.

The ELAP support was pretty good. There was a young girl my age in charge of it, Lucia, who was extremely helpful, supportive and friendly. Sometimes hard to get ahold of but overall she was awesome. I am still in touch with her actually! The head of the ISA office, Maria Elena, in Lima was also supper friendly and helpful. I would go in and visit the office a couple times a week. They would always be there if I needed help getting somewhere or finding something to do.

My overall experience, as I'm sure you can tell was life changing. I made some real life long friends in Lima. ELAP, in my opinion is the best way to really get to know a country. There were other students who were taking Spanish classes and they barely met any Peruvians. In my volunteer setting I was working almost exclusively with Peruvians. I truly was immersed in the culture and language. It was super stressful in the beginning and there was culture shock like I have never experienced but it turned out to be the best two months of my life. I would highly recommend ELAP, but know the actual volunteering may not be exactly what you expect and you may be doing some grunt work or menial tasks.