It's hard to describe the energy at Pisco Sin Fronteras to the world outside. With volunteers from all around the world, the community here is what the world leaders might have had in mind, when they imagined a united world. It is a little family of its own, and quite possibly the only place where you might see buff guys doing household chores and petite girls mixing concrete.

As soon as I walked through the gates, and even before I had a chance to put my bags down, I was welcomed to join a group of volunteers for lunch. The friendly surprise of it, was probably better than the grandest welcome I can imagine. Later that night, the volunteers had a party to break themselves for all the hard work they've been doing, which was followed by a commemoration ceremony for PSF held in town.

This small episode of my life had just begun, and it had already begun making its impact. PSF  have an initiative they call "The Miracle Project", where in families living in adverse conditions after the earthquake and don't have money to build themselves a new home are granted a house at the expense of the organisation. We recently raised money for The Miracle Project though a fun auction of small objects and services, ranging anywhere from a tube of Vegemite that sold for an astounding US$128 to a guitar with complimentary lessons for about US$160. A grand total of approximately US$1500 was raised, and will go exclusively towards the development of Miracle projects for those in need.

Hard work, good food, great company, campfires and delicious cakes (courtesy of cake lady) made me remember how fast a week can pass when you are enjoying what you are doing. Most of us participating at PSF are travellers on long journeys with no destinations, we travel to explore, to learn and know what we dont know. Anyone who has been here at PSF will agree without a doubt in their mind that, it has been a highlight in their lives.

Once I arrived in Peru, I went straight to the casa de voluntarios and headquarters of Pisco Sin Fronteras (PSF). I got set up in a hostel-style room with three other girls, nicknamed the Powder Room. Every morning we get up for breakfast at about 7:30am. It's usually oatmeal, fruit salad, scrambled eggs with veggies, rolls with jam, and tea. Sometimes the volunteers who choose to make breakfast will change it up (we got pancakes last week and they were GREAT), but it's generally this. At 8:30am, we must be dressed for the day and ready to go, and at that time we gather outside for the morning meeting.

The morning meeting serves as a platform for announcements, job placements, and hellos and goodbyes from volunteers who seem to be coming and going everyday. All the jobs are listed on a white board and people volunteer to clean various parts of the house, make dinner or breakfast, and go to a job site. Many people go to the same job site the whole time because they like the family or just get really invested in the work they're doing. Jobs include helping out at the ludoteca (like a free, voluntary school for kids who aren't at public school), helping build houses or pour concrete slabs, work on the earth-bag construction community center, gathering scrap wood from the gigantic metal factory and de-nailing it, or admin type jobs.

My first day I helped make dinner. This is an all-day job! First we spent some time picking up the ingredients at the market. The market is a huge maze of stalls with people selling everything from toys to fresh chicken feet to underwear. We had to go to multiple little stalls to get our veggies, cheese, spices, chicken, and oil.

The next day I went to the largest steel factory in Peru, Aceros Arequipa. There, past the factory and through dunes, is a slab of concrete with piles of scrap wood and pallets. The company lets us sift through those and some old tarps and take what we can use, then trucks it back to the wood yard we use across the street from the volunteer house. This job doesn't take all day, but it is quite hard. I was looking forward to the early day, but when we got back, we were recruited to help out with a concrete pour. This is tough and takes many people - people to shovel gravel and sand into the mixer, to gather water, and to pour buckets into wooden troughs to make foundations and columns in buildings we make.

Over my first weekend I went beach camping with about twenty other volunteers. We borrowed some poles, rope, and tarps to make one long tent to sleep in. It was very beautiful - a nice change of scenery from the sad, dusty desolation of Pisco. We had a campfire at night and stayed up drinking, then relaxed the next day, making a big sand castle and also catching crabs and mussels for dinner. Also, walking along the rocky shore, a pod of dolphins dropped by to check us out! It was amazing!

The second week was cool because I got to work on the earth-bag community center, then finally on the bio-diesel system. We ran my first batch of bio-diesel this weekend. Lots of little issues and things to fix! The methanol and lye solution that we mix with filtered veggie oil tends to crystallize in the pipes and block up the works, so we had a bit of cleaning to do due to that. Last night we mixed the meth oxide with the hot veggie oil and then let it settle overnight. Today, we have to get rid of the by-product glycerol, and send the newly made bio-diesel into a series of water washes. The oil sits on top of water and the dirt and impurities settle into the water. Then it has to go to dry in another tank before it's done. But first we have to test samples of it to make sure most of the glycerol has been separated out.

Days we work hard and nights we sit around a camp fire, drink beer and eat cake made by a local called Cake Lady. A great way to wind down ready for the next day.