On Thursday morning, the health and wellness team, the ag team, and the newest addition to AASD, the photography team, set out at 5:30am for Pampacorral. The road to the rural Lares region of Peru is under construction, and therefore only open for two hours a day, at 6:00am and 6:00pm. Although this doesn’t compare to the 405 shutdown, it does cause for some inconvenience to Team Peru and the many people, trucks, and tourists that utilize the road each day.

Having bought out tickets the night before, Natalie and I had the honor of sitting in the very front of the truck. This little detail was important for two reasons. One, neither of us got car sick, which is a feat in and of itself. Two, we had the best view of the whole bus. Over the past couple of days we have watched a beautiful full moon rise over the mountains, but watching the sun come up from behind the morning fog and glisten off the snow at the top of the pass was something completely different and awe inspiring.

Just prior to arriving in Pampacorral, the bus picked up a few of the numerous children who were walking to school, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I was amazed to see such small children walking so far, but even more startled when I later found out that most walk upwards of two hours to school everyday.

Pampacorral, one of the first communities that built a greenhouse, is a beautiful, quiet community nestled between the Andes Mountains next to the beautiful river. The streets are lined with indigenous women threading yarn, chickens, cows, laughing children, adobe houses, various rocks left over from a recent land slide.

While waiting for some veggies to be picked from the greenhouse for the nutritional class, the photography team and I made friends with a small group of rosy-cheeked seven year olds. They informed us their teacher was out of town and since the director was running around with ag team, they were left unattended. Without even thinking, we walked straight into the classroom with the kids and asked them to show us what they learning. For the next thirty minutes, we read their workbooks, practiced writing our names, drew on the whiteboard, and practiced adding. Then the director came to retrieve the photo team to teach their class, and I was left alone with a class of first graders.

I passed out some blank paper and asked them each to draw their houses. We did the exercise together, the kids drawing on the papers, while I drew the various objects on the white board. To practice writing and spelling, we also labeled everything in the picture. As I walked around the classroom, asking questions, learning Quechua, and complimenting drawings, I began to realize that many of the pictures looked the same. Sure, there were small differences in the size of the mountains, but the sun was always just peaking the range. Some of the fish were smiling and the cats were in the choclo fields (a local type of corn), but the river always split the page in half. I thought perhaps the children were influenced by my drawing and didn’t question it.

After we had finished drawing and coloring, we sang a few songs in Spanish and Quechua, and the director returned. I told him about the fun drawing that we had collectively decided should be gifts to their parents. He responded by saying, “of course, they can take them home as soon as we grade them.” My original intention had been to constructively occupy their time, but I left having taught my first ever classroom lesson.

I returned to the photo team and was surprised to find that the eighth graders had been drawing as well. With a slightly different prompt, they had each drawn a smiling sun peaking out behind the mountains with a river cutting the page in half. I can only assume they are taught from a very early age “how” to draw their community and surroundings. Seeing that many of the children don’t know anything else for much of their lives, it seems fitting that the school would make sure they had a clear understanding of what’s around them.

My final interaction with the kids was purposefully playful and what I now consider to be my signature gift to the kids: bubbles. The primary school children and I blew and popped bubbles for thirty minutes of uninhibited, purely joyful fun. I’ll never get tired of hearing the laughter and seeing little hands bob up and down as they attempt to pop the vary highest bubbles being carried up by the wind.
When the jar of bubbles was gone and the children had returned to class, a few of us decided to take a beautiful hike down to the town of Lares to catch our bus. That final hour and a half in extremely rural Peru was a wonderful reminder to all of us the importance of being grateful for what we have, enjoying nature, and perhaps to be grateful for what we don’t have.

For more information on the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development, check out http://blogs.miis.edu/teamperu/

The opportunity to go work in the Sacred Valley of Peru with the Andean Alliance and the Becky Fund was unexpected and extremely exciting. In just a few short weeks, I was subletting my apartment, storing extra furniture, and packing for the mountains. When I was asked to write about my expectations for the trip, my initial reaction was somewhat anxious and nervous. During the course of my education at the Monterey Institute, I have had the opportunity to participate in many organizations as a consultant. However, in each of these opportunities, I had the safety net of a professor and professional for quality control, reassurance, and instant feedback. This summer is to be my first completely autonomous project. Upon further reflection, I realized that I am surrounded by 18 other students, each of whom bring a wide range of experiences, expertise, and knowledge to the table. Although my colleague and I have been given the creative freedom to carry out our project, we are doing so with the love and support of a new found family. There is nothing more uplifting and motivating than that.

Upon our arrival in Cusco, I laughed at how different this summer will be compared to the previous, when I worked in the heat of Alabama during the Deep Water Horizon Spill as part of the avian rehabilitation crew. Now, some 11,000 feet above sea level, I wear many layers to protect from the south hemisphere's winter cold and I listen to the people to know how I can help them.

My first opportunity to do this came shortly after my arrival in Peru after a four-hour bus ride through the windy, mountain roads to the small, indigenous community of Ccachin.

A crew of excited, pink faced and snotty nosed 5 year olds, all dressed in the traditional garb of the Andean Indigenous community greeted our team. Hand in hand we walked through a giant soccer field where one hundred more children anxiously awaited our arrival. They ranged from 3-11 years old, until the secondary school students, who are 12-17 years of age, later joined us. This was our reception celebration, a cultural exchange chalk full of native dances, poetry, songs, and speeches of gratitude for what Aaron, The Becky Fund, and The Andean Alliance were doing for the community.

The event started with a bridging of cultures by means that I felt were most appropriate: Bubbles. When we heard we had time to play before the event, I invited a few children to join me for a gift; it was only nanoseconds before all 150 students were surrounding me with anticipation and curiosity as to what I would pull out of my bag. I have been told that many of them had probably never experienced bubbles, and I can’t express how grateful I am to have participated in this simple joy that children, around the world, share. The next thirty minutes were full of giggles, screams of joy, lessons on how to blow the most bubbles, throwing hats to pop the bubbles carried high above by the wind, and seemingly endless excitement. The children made short order of the two containers of bubbles I brought, but the long-lasting memories we created together, I will never forget.

After a colorful reception, we were all touch by the sincerity of the Mayor of Lares, when he took a moment to thank each of us personally for our contribution to the community and to express his excitement for our partnership in the future.

The next day, after an extremely productive meeting with the entire Team Peru group, we began moving the forty-pound bricks from the school, where they were made, down to the garden where the green houses are to be constructed. An assembly line of over forty people covering a few hundred yards between the two areas passed almost 500 bricks in a matter of hours. Tired as we were, caked in dirt and mud, not a single person complained of bruises on their forearms or the weakness of their legs. Together, we worked as a team and made a huge contribution to the final product. We finished the weekend by moving two truckloads of heavy rocks and one hundred more bricks. Not everyone is cut out for heavy lifting and manual labor, but each of us involved in the work this weekend is proud to say we worked hard, we worked long, and we contributed to the nutritional development of the Ccachin region.

For more information about the current projects please visit http://blogs.miis.edu/teamperu/

The holidays have come and gone and as I return to school, I reflect with my friends the highs and lows of the season, mostly, regarding presents. For a few years now, all my friends and family have received a card in the mail or under the tree. That card includes a heartfelt message proclaiming my love and appreciation in the first part. The second half goes into detail about the girl or woman that I have sponsored for that year. Whether it is for a fistula surgery, educational fees, vocational training, or a micro-loan, my family and friends receive the specifics and personal story (impact) of the life I hope to change in their honor. This year, mostly due to my readings, classmates, and exposure to new organizations, I have come across more opportunities for consumer philanthropy. While reading "The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing," I began to question consumer philanthropy and really look at my why I would buy a Feed Bear for my 6 year old nephew.

Some of Angela Eikenberry's comments resonated with the part of me that recognized that not all citizens are as driven to 'do good' in the same sense that my colleagues and I may be. Perhaps there is some truth to the argument that cause marketing makes philanthropy 'too easy' and is only enabling citizens to continue to disconnect from their humanity and render a false sense of virtue and good. I also recently read an article on Change.org that there is a potential for corporations to take advantage of the consumer philanthropy 'fad' to increase profits and not actually contribute a proportionate amount to the cause that they advertise.

Alas, I think that there is opportunity for exploitation in almost any good idea/cause, therefore I choose to pick my battles, and the battle against consumer philanthropy is not one I can get behind. I explained to my mother recently, that I support consumer philanthropy even though some of the money goes to a commodity, for two main reasons. One, I believe it is increasingly important to expose the younger generations to the world outside of their Facebook friends, classmates, and most difficultly, themselves. Therefore, I think the value of purchasing a bear that represents a cause, idea, child, and issue that is greater than the bear itself has a higher value than a set of legos or Paper Jamz. My nephew may only be 6 years old, a.k.a. not yet the age where he recognizes a world much larger than his immediate community and daily routine, but simply generating a conversation with his mother about why the bear says, "Feed the children of the world," could plant the seed for the future understanding of the plight of other children. When his friends, or his mother's friends, visit the house they will ask what the bear stands for and he will be able to spread the message. Leading to the reason number two, flipping the funnel. When my mom uses her Girl Effect mug that I made at work, she is able to tell her colleagues about the importance of education in developing countries and encourage them to visit the site. I truly believe that solutions, changes, and societal shifts have to come from grassroots social movements and greater awareness. So if that means I am going to spend a couple extra dollars for a philanthropic gift in order to educate my family and their friends, that is worth the value of the product to me. Of course I would love to just give money, tell a story, and have that be it, but in our material world, my strategy is to advocate and utilize consumer philanthropy.