The service in Peru is varied and often demanding while meeting pivotal needs in our host community. Be prepared for adobe work, the most common form of construction in the Andean region. Participants usually start at the very beginning when learning adobe craft--making the blocks by stomping mud together with straw, forming the clay bricks and carefully placing them out to dry. Your major construction project most likely will involve building a school or an addition to an existing school. Many of the areas outlying our home base in Urubamba have inadequate classroom facilities, or they lack schools altogether. Construction projects will be about 20-30 minutes from our home base.

There will be multiple service projects happening simultaneously. One project of many summers' of committed labor in the Sacred Valley is the installation of cocinas mejoradas in Andean families’ houses. Household by household, we assemble and install these "cleaner burning stoves," addressing three primary issues: (1) the exceptionally high rate of upper respiratory disease and infections common to the area; (2) deforestation caused by the volume of wood required for historically common open fires built for cooking and heating and the resulting (3) high carbon dioxide emissions.

Another project will be continuing expansion of a strategic irrigation system in a rural community. VISIONS participants began this project in 2001. In the spirit of faena farming families lend their labors by providing the large rocks, cement and tools and placing these at junctures along the canal paths under construction. This extensive web of irrigation canals makes water more accessible to farmers for their crops and conserves the water supply significantly.

You’ll partake in internships with farmers and local craftsmen--a carpenter, bee keeper, weaver and others. Typically, one or two smaller projects might develop before the summer starts.