Immersion in Peru: Life-long Friends and Lessons

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.