Volunteering north of Cusco

I've always wanted to volunteer abroad, but one way or another, either by the multitude of choices or a lack of motivation never got close to actually doing it. But traveling changes a person, it gives you power, a belief that you can do it all, that everything is in your powers. On top of that, in the first hostel I've been in I met this girl from Australia that actually organizes volunteering opportunities in Peru. In particular, in about 1 week time she was organizing people from different countries to build a hospital in Cusco. Although there were no more spots open in her team I was truly inspired and empowered that indeed everything was possible, and more so – easy. At any rate, she told me about this organization in Peru, Proyecto Peru, that might have something available for me and was located literally 3 blocks from my hostel....i had to check it out. In general there are tons of volunteering opportunities abroad tailored to whatever you prefer to do, a lot of them deal with teaching english, or working in orphanages essentially providing love to homeless kids … trust me, they need it. I was particulary interested in applying my skills as an engineer, something that I'm good and passionate about. It turned out that Proyecto Peru knew about this yoga school, situated north of Cusco in a small village called Tika – Tika. I checked out their website : http://www.sembrandosemillasconyoga.org/en/our-intention.html  to find out that it was essentially a project of Marisol and Christian, a couple very interesting in them seleves (that I later found out), with the idea being providing after school activities and teaching children in the form of yoga and meditation practice. The idea is quite interesting, since the entire world now sees a sort of spiritual awakening, yoga and meditation techiques are employed more and more in all parts of the world. The other good thing about this sort of teaching, is that it at least keeps children out of boredom and mindless (computer games) activities after school. In one word I liked it and decided to give it a try, after all how many of us feel completely useless sitting at work and doing some job that maybe someday, in some form would benefit society, possibly, who knows? But we just shove this thought in the back of our mind and continue doing the things that we do, almost mindlessly, mechanically... The human psyche craves a result driven work, something that you can see the results of tomorrow and now, not in 20years. Besides I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do something noble, in a country that invited me with open arms and that I could actually visibly change the state of something. At first telephone call, Marisol answered with a somewhat perplexed voice regarding who I am and how I found out about them. That soon passed away and she invited me to come see the place for myself the next day. That I did gladly :)

The village of Tika-Tika is situated 20min north of Cusco, where you have to take a collectivo to get to (a small micro bus that locals take, you would not find another confused gringo in those except for myself). The collective immediately reminded me of  “marshrutki” in the village sense. The local people on it are simple, carrying vegetables for sale on the market, or building materials, everyone doing their thing. They are extremely friendly and nice though, with even old ladies offering me to sit by them with my huge backpack that didnt fit anywhere :) Once you get off the collectivo, you have to   follow the railroad tracks till you get to a big farm house on the top of a hill, which is the yoga school. This is the view that emerges from the yoga school, pretty incredible!

Christian and Marisol welcomed me with open arms and immediately put me to work on laying a stones on the road leading to their house :) This was a bit unexpected but very much needed, so I took off my traveling clothes, put on something more dirty and got to work :) At the end of the day we had thrown pebbles on the country road as well as dug out a trench for water drainage in the rainy season. The weather here has to be mentioned, in the rainy season it has a mind of its own. It usually rains every night, however during the day it's a random toss. Once the sun is covered by clouds the temperature drops immediately about 10 deg (im not overstating here) such that in the evenings you have to put on every layer of clothing that you had and during the day hide from the sunshine. At any rate, after the work Marisol cooked us all a lovely meal with fresh vegetables from their greenhouse garden. In short, I decided to return for a 2 week volunteering opportunity to help Marisol and Christian prepare to a new scholar year.

Due to some scheduling conflicts with my Inka Trail, when I returned to the yoga farm, I found 3 more volunteers there already: Gavin (an England native electrical engineer, who got fed up with life like myself and decided to drop it all and travel :), Elisabeth (a Danemark lovely girl, one of the most fearless and open people I know that got to latin america by hitch-hiking a sailboat from Canary Islands … with 0 prior sailing experience :), and Valeria (an Italian girl who now lived in Lima and was an Italian language teacher).  A little info about the farm. 

This is the view from the garden. The building with the hay roof on the left is the yoga temple, that we had to put a new roof on, this time a more modern one. The greenhouse on the right needed improvement in its construction.

Our living quarters:) Chrisitan tries to keep the farm a self sustaining entity. The water used for drinking, showering washing is rainwater collected in this huge 1100L tank. They are fully vegetarian, growing the veggies to eat in their garden and having chicken for laying eggs. The toilet is a dry one, such that you can use the excrement as soil nutrient after some composting time. Obviously, organic composting and recycling is included as well, just like you would expect. 

Proceeding to take the hay off, Gavin and Christian are hard at work.

This is all happening with the backdrop of snow capped mountains in the background. The scenery is truly amazing over there, I am truly impressed of the Andes. The schedule of the working day was the following: every morning we would wake up at 630 to sing mantras, practice yoga (for about 1 h), and afterward meditation (for another hour). Around 10am we'd have breakfast and commence on working until the sun set, around 6pm.

Working on the roof. I was in charge of cutting, fitting and mounting the dark red pieces on the roof. It was somewhat of a challenging affair since, the temple has no symmetry structure whatsoever. Mostly held up by long eucaliptus trunks (very hard wood) that weren't exactly straight, this is not the type of beams you'd get from Home Depot :) but, hey, who doesn't like a challenge

Some more pics of the roof coming together

In about 1 week of work, this is the final result of the temple. It's got a new roof and mounted windows for protection against the wind.

Typical day in the life of Slava :) In the following week, we finished a bunch of smaller projects. In partucular, me and Sammy (a new volunteer) restructured the greenhouse and strung up a new roof to it, built a new roof over the walking and washing areas of the farm (unfortunately pictures of which I do not have). Gavin meanwhile set up electric lighting in the temple, for late night practice :) and throughout the premises of the farm. The new set of volunteers, consisting of mostly girls, laquered all the floors in the living quarters, repainted and revamped the toilets and cooked delicious foods for all of us :)

Final group picture of everyone before departure. Overall it was a marvelous experience, and I am more than glad that I did it. Slowly but surely, you realize that if you really want something, you go and get it yourself, and who knows what other opportunities may find you meanwhile.

If you're in the Cusco area and in the mindset of volunteering, I strongly suggest giving Marisol and Christian a look, they do great work and are awesome people, influencing the upcoming generation in more ways that we can imagine.

One more thing regarding Cusco area that I simply cannot not mention. Right before taking the bus to La Paz, Bolivia we all got together in this great Indian restaurant near Plaza de Armas called Maikhana, in particular it's address is Av. Sol #16, 2nd floor. The lady who's the owner is litteraly like your mother, so nice and caring and prepares amazing food as well. The place is so cheap (15soles) and so nice that I simply had to mention it. Besides, it's nice to help out nice people with our funds and appreciation, it's not much to us but a lot to them. So go and visit this place!