Medical Post in Qquencco

Medical Post in Qquencco from ascendcuscoperu on Vimeo.

On behalf of all of us here in Cusco, we are very happy/surprised at the progress of the medical post in Qquencco. This project has and will continue to help this community in so many different ways. Besides the fact that the people of Qquencco will have access to basic health care (instead of a three hour walk to the nearest hospital), it has brought a sense of unity to the community that has been absent for some time. Political strife split the community into various sections, which made it very difficult to get anything done in a community, let alone a project as big as a medical post. After some time, and much conversation, the people of Qquencco were once again able to clear their vision, and realize that their children and their health were more important than a few minor political ideals. It was good to see everyone treating everyone with respect, and to see them talking with each other again.

This project is not only really cool, but has also taught me a very important lesson. We need to persistently try to do what is right. More often than not, our good actions come with various other unintended positive consequences.

Five Days in Cusco

Two weeks in Cusco, and I find it hard to describe my life working with Ascend. Luckily this week, an awesome friend came to visit, and she takes fotos increíbles! and as the saying goes, a picture can tell a thousand words. So, we have five days worth of pictures, and hope they can tell a story better than we can. ¡Enjoy!

Create Connections with Ascend Perú

The marshmallow and chocolate had solidified under my nails and in the creases of my mouth. With no electricity and a faucet with water running at the pace of one-glass-filled-per-hour, I stood without solution in the bathroom at Faustino’s Hostel. I heard the swish of grass as two tiny feet illuminated by yellow candlelight crept beneath the door. There I discovered Faustino’s five-year-old son with an old t-shirt and a glass of water in hand. He smiled with lips that had been glossed by the remnants of s’mores marshmallows and chocolate, dampened the t-shirt and said “Así!”, as he helped me scrub my dirty-sticky-sweet-hands.

Everything starts with a connection. Many successful businesses function through professional networking; my parents had one conversation and 28 years and three kids later they are still married; I roasted s’mores at a bonfire with a Peruvian boy on an Ascend Expedition and everyday I think of the marshmallow lips we shared. The ability to make such a connection, one that reminds us of the human bond we all share with a person who lives thousands of miles and hundreds of goats away, is what makes the Ascend experience unique. Participating in an Ascend Expedition to Perú allows one to create these human connections with others and also with the traditions and culture of Cusco by working side-by-side with locals on projects designed to help them improve their quality of life. In working on these projects an expedition participant can directly see the positive impact created for Peruvian families through their volunteerism and support, while simultaneously improving their own quality of life through helping others.

Ascend Perú is currently in pursuit of this mission to help others through several projects taking place in both Cusco and the Sacred Valley. We are presently working in three communities in the Sacred Valley on reforestation projects and the construction of hen houses for the raisingof over 800 chickens that will eventually be sold at local markets. These projects will expand the economic potential for over 600 families. To ensure an improved quality of life for these families, we furthermore provide business courses and medical campaigns that include general medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, dental and obstetric services for all 600 families and will increase the likelihood of project sustainability. The support of Ascend volunteers, whether it be helping a dentist pull teeth at a medical campaign, or assisting in the laying of foundation for a chicken pen, or planting trees in the Sacred Valley, is vital in maintaining the sustainability of these projects for future generations within these communities.

Beyond the Sacred Valley communities, we also have projects taking place in the highlands of Quenko. In Quenko, we are conducting a rural tourism course that will allow the families of 15 community members to host travelers from around the world in their homes; just as I stayed with Faustino and his family. The health of not only these community members but also of their fellow neighbors, is vitally important in being able to sustain the community’s rural tourism business into the future. Therefore, we are completing a medical post that will provide healthcare for all 350 Quenko residents.

Ascend Expedition participants will likely find themselves providing service in at least one of the aforementioned communities. Within these communities, they will participate in unique activities that help others while pulling them out of the comfortable context of their home lives. You will stop for cows and sheep on your way to Quenko; you will drink tea and eat the local cuisine (yes, guinea pig) with those who live in the Sacred Valley; you will meet the national police at a medical campaign; you will get creative with how to wash yourself without water or electricity. You will connect with yourself as you do things you never thought imaginable, and you will connect with Perú as you participate in projects that will teach you about the country’s economy, history and culture. However, and most importantly, you will create human connections as you realize that why we are all geographically separated, we all have problems, we all need the help and support of others, and we all like s’mores. An Ascend Expedition provides one with these human connections through which we are often presented with the freshest perspectives, confronted with the most difficult questions and given the most memorable experiences.

Katie Terry Expedition

Katie Terry shows us how an Ascend Expedition is right for anyone.

Amazon from Kyle Gray on Vimeo.

It is not all work on an international internship with Ascend, (even though work is great with Ascend). An international internship gives you the chance to take some time off and explore some of the beautiful places that South America has to offer.

Life as an intern.

Intern Life from Kyle Gray on Vimeo.

Cusco First

Cusco First from Kyle Gray on Vimeo.

La Margen Derecha of Cusco

Weekly Updates 15

ASCENDER in Cusco

Weekly Updates 11,12,13,14

New Weekly Reports from Cusco

Intern Geoffrey here, I have been writing weekly reports for ASCEND HQ and the Hinckley Institute for internal reporting. They are written for a general audience so I will share them with you here.

Week 7 2/22/10-2/26/10 Cusco, Peru Geoffrey Strom

We began our journey by loading up the truck with crutches, a wheelchair, and two shovels. The crutches and wheelchair were for a young man in the small mountain town of Patabamba. The two shovels were for digging the wheels out of the mud which is common on the high Andean dirt road toward Quenko. On the highway outside of Cusco we passed the prominent roadside Incan ruins of Saqsawaman and Puca Pucara. After getting of the highway a few towns into the Inca's Sacred Valley, the hard pack single track road began. Up and up we went, the valley slowly opened like a mouth as the towns below became smaller and smaller. Traversing various valleys we came upon expansive fields of flowers, steep mountainside cultivations, herders and their sheep and a few kids who needed a lift back to their house further down the road. They had woken up at five, before the sun, to walk to their family's fields to tend them and harvest grass to feed their cuyes. After dropping them off in their community we climbed so more before dropping into a valley with a tremendous view of the Vilcanota River and city of Coya below.

The river was of muddy contrast to the bright summer greens of the skirts of the mountains which encompassed it. Evidence of the previous month's flooding along the river could be seen as brown stains in otherwise green and healthy fields. All of these communities had been affected by the torrential rain either directed through crop damage or due to the drop in tourism and coincidently sales of their textiles. We eventually made it to Patabamba, situated on an angular plateau straddled by two forested ravines. Only having passed a few of the reddish brown adobe houses of the community did Tim spot the intended recipient of the mobility enhancing devices. Lidio was sitting on a cinderblock in a muddy area between houses as we approached him. He explained to us that his mother was at a weekly community meeting and his father was working. He remembered the ASCEND expedition that came through a year before and we wheeled his gift towards him. He propped himself up on two cane-like sticks to softly land in his new wheelchair donated by ASCEND. Tim and I pushed him up to the street so he could enjoy his new freedom. His smile was big when we arrived but grew brighter and whiter as his wheels hit the dirt road. We walked with him toward the meetinghouse as we needed to talk to his mother. She pardoned herself from the meeting and became as jovial as her son upon seeing him waiting for her outside.

We went back to their house and chatted as Tim went off to buy Lidio a notebook for the upcoming school year. We departed with their gratitude in our hearts and drove another ten minutes to the community of Quenko where ASCEND has been constructing a school for this mountainous community. We arrived and talked to the construction workers about what worked was left to be completed. The finishing touches are all that remain and the schoolroom with be another notch in the ASCEND's belt. A notch to be proud of due to the precious aesthetic of the white walls, red clay tilted roof and the exposed wooden eucalyptus beams inside the classroom. The community has been put forth an immense effort in the construction and the students in Quenko will soon have a new educational environment.