It’s finally time for me to reflect on my LiA, which seems a million miles away now that I’ve started a new academic year as an exchange student in Guadalajara, Mexico - which in fact is only just over 3000 miles from where I was based last month in Calca, Peru. I spent my LiA with the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development (AASD), and their partner organisation Raíces Andinas (Raíces). The former is an NGO, funding and developing sustainable development programmes with a focus on agriculture, offering the funds and logistical power rural Andean communities need to make things work for them. Raíces helps with this funding by receiving groups of students and other visitors who participate in community led service-learning, interacting with communities (on their terms) and learning about Peruvian farming and culture.
I immediately got the sense that this was an organisation that I was proud to be welcomed into through conversations with the small team I was working with. We discussed how NGOs often fall into the trap of a ‘saviour’ attitude, channelling money into projects that look good but don’t work well for communities. Along this vein is also the issue of 'voluntourism', which the AASD and Raíces are adamant to avoid – there will be no murals that get painted over and over ready for the next group of volunteers here! Put simply, visiting volunteers giving their time to pointless tasks doesn’t do meaningful good, but providing opportunities to meet with communities, whilst also reimbursing them fairly and liaising with the appropriate community governance systems does.
I spent most of my time in Calca in the AASD office, working on a design-based project. Whilst this was slightly different to what I had initially planned, I was happy with how my relationship with the team evolved, and how we found a way to make the most of the skills I had to offer. I designed and produced an information packet for potential visiting groups about the work of the AASD and their partner communities. I also collated and presented operational information such as local emergency contacts, community contacts and future potential partners as easily interpretable guides. I really enjoyed taking to Canva (my favourite website in Durham too!) and speaking with different members of the organisation to gather information and present it in a useful way.
The other side of my time in Calca was engaging and talking with wider members of the AASD community about what they do, and I had some great conversations (in both Spanish and English!) on topics including forest fires, flooding, organic farming and Quechuan language and culture. One of the first people I met was Yesica, a Cusceña (from the Cusco region of Peru) herself, who runs an organic farm which formed part of one of the AASD’s early initiatives many years ago. Yesica has slowly built up her own organic seed bank and teaches other local farmers the benefits of farming without artificial fertiliser and pesticides, and how they can do it themselves. She has an astounding volume of knowledge, and now travels internationally to conferences and meetings to share and exchange this with others. I also met Julio, Yesica’s brother, and Julia, a couple who founded a community forestry project in a very remote high-altitude community, about two hours from Calca. Collaboratively, including with some help from the AASD, they are afforesting the area around the Qoricocha lagoon, and employing various water retention methods to mitigate against floods in the rainy season and drought in the dry season. I helped them to build a water retention mound (similar to a bund) whilst I was there, and saw just how far they’d come, as well as how much more there is to do.
Whilst I can’t talk about everyone I met, there were a few key lessons I took away from my interactions. Firstly, the importance of local and indigenous knowledge. My time in Peru taught me just how much I don’t know. It was incredible to hear about the properties of different plants, how they’ve been used for thousands of years, or how to combine them for the best crop yield. This knowledge has not reached these communities through university or study, but through preservation and inheritance of ancestral knowledge. In monetary terms my home country, the UK, may be richer, or on paper more educated, but I have come away from Peru with a sense that I have been deprived of a great wealth of ancient knowledge that has been lost in the majority of modern Europe. I will carry this reflection with me throughout my life, I think, and I would like to believe that I will slowly try to remediate what I lack.
Moreover, community is of great importance in many of the rural areas that I had the pleasure of visiting. Following the Peruvian Agrarian Reform (which I simply do not have the space to explain here!), agricultural land in rural communities became not a territory that was owned, but a community asset that was cared for. Community decisions are made collectively, and everyone is expected to do their part to upkeep shared resources, such as the Church, or play areas.
I have also taken some tangible lessons away from my LiA, that being my Spanish language. I spent my LiA living with a local family in Calca, meaning I had no option but to practise my Spanish seeing as they didn’t speak any English. Whilst I won’t pretend that I’ve come away fluent, my understanding has most definitely improved, and I’m more confident giving things a go in everyday interactions. I also got the chance to try a whole range of Peruvian foods and visit local places important to my host family.
During the free time of my LiA, I also managed to see more of what Peru has to offer. I had to go to Machu Picchu of course (when in Rome!), which was an incredible quiet and magical place. It also gave me the chance to learn more about the Incan culture, of which I did not have much prior knowledge. I found it so interesting how ancient Quechuan culture has been both preserved and lost in modern day Peru, and how different communities and groups of people interact with this part of Peruvian heritage.
On a final note, I'd like to remember something I learnt about Quechuan language whilst I was in Peru. In Quechua, there is no word for goodbye, only 'see you next time' because it is believed that you will always cross paths with another again, be it in this life or the next. And so, to Peru I will say Tupananchikkama - until we meet again.