Evie Price, who has been an employee of CXCS for 9 years, tells us more about her recent volunteering trip to South America.
On 9th August 2022 I left Heathrow Airport to embark on the trip of a lifetime – a 2-week volunteering holiday in Peru. The trip was made possible by the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs, of which I have been a member for the past 9 years, and volunteering organisation Projects Abroad.
I was part of a group of 20 other Young Farmers from around England and Wales, the majority of whom I had never met before! We were all split into smaller groups so we could each stay with a Peruvian host family, in the city of Cusco – about 3000m above sea level!
It is currently Winter in Cusco, so mornings were quite cold, around 4 degrees Celsius, but by midday temperatures could reach the mid 20’s – a few of us definitely caught the sun.
Our days were filled with a mixture of volunteering and sight-seeing. We started off by assisting teachers in the local pre-school each morning, which consisted of a lot of sign language and Google translate, since they only spoke Spanish and most of us only spoke English.
Despite the language barrier, the children were clearly excited to have us in their class, and we were soon greeted with a hug each morning.
In the afternoons we then visited a local old people’s home where we started work cultivating outdoor and indoor gardens for planting. The majority of the time was spent replanting strawberries, which was tiring but rewarding to see it all complete.
Sight-seeing included a trip to Pisaq Market and ruins (a great opportunity to haggle for gifts & souvenirs), a hike up Rainbow Mountain (the summit was higher than Everest Base Camp at some 5000m plus), and of course travelling to Peru wouldn’t be complete without visiting the famous Inca site, Machu Pichu.
Most of our journeys to areas outside of Cusco, such as Rainbow Mountain and Machu Pichu, consisted of long journeys on a bus. I think we all experienced a bit of travel sickness with the windy roads, huge speed bumps and hairpin bends up the side of mountain – don’t look down! However, it all made for good stories to tell when we got home.
I will certainly never forget coming across a landslide on one of the roads and seeing the roadworkers sweeping up soil and stone with a broom, by hand, as small rocks continued to fall down the side of the mountain…
What we saw of the agriculture was also interesting. Areas of land right up the side of the mountain had been cultivated to grow maize and potatoes (the two main staple foods). There are apparently around 300 different varieties of potato just around the Cusco region of Peru, with a total of about 4000 different types in the whole country.
We also saw ox ploughing in action, and where tractors and machinery were used, there were definitely no brand new John Deeres or Fendts to be seen!
Myself and the 5 other volunteers I stayed with, Amy, Louise, Laura, Jenny & Jenny (yes, 2 Jennys!), felt very lucky to be placed with such a lovely host family, but we soon learnt that the staple diet consisted of chicken and rice, and marmaleda de fresa (strawberry jam) and bread. We think the marmaleda de fresa started to be rationed when they realised it was a firm favourite!
From the altitude to the stray dogs, it was a bit of a culture shock upon arrival, but equally an amazing experience with plenty of great memories. It also reminded me how much we take for granted living in the UK. Yes, we are entering what will be a tough winter with the energy crisis and rising inflation, but it’s easy to forget that what we class as a necessity, like clean running water, is still a luxury in many parts of the world.
We often went to wash our hands or shower in Peru, only to discover the water had been switched off due to works in the area, and drinking water was only available if you had a special tap to filter the water.
All in all, it was a trip I shall never forget, and I would urge anyone who gets the chance to travel with either NFYFC or Projects Abroad, to take the chance. Now the question is, where to next?!
