So, I’ve been out of high school now for about a year and a half. In that time, I´ve been through one meager year of University, worked for six months, and arrived here. I am easily one of the youngest volunteers at PSF, but simply said, I could not be happier that I am having this experience so early in my life. Most of the volunteers that work here at PSF have done things like this before. I’ve had conversations with people who have worked on feeding starving people in Egypt and done work with pertinence to the Rwanda genocide. I´ve talked to people who have spent a huge portion of their lives doing just this: finding people in need, and helping them. The act itself may appear a bit banal to those who have seen every variety of third world countries, poverty, violence and destruction, but it has been enough to bring me to tears… more than once.
    Since I began to consider the idea of compassion, defining it, practicing it, I´ve had difficulty finding a practical example of it. Living in the U.S., we get our image of disaster from media outlets which are inevitably controlled by the corporations and money holders who control the prospects of our government as well. Most of the people I used to be friends with had never had any real experience with people who were actually struggling to survive, or people who had become destitute without any aid from the governing bodies of their countries. So, when I considered compassion, I found it difficult to see in any tangible sense. This is why being here has caused a full 360 degree rotation in my view of the world.
    One of the first nights I was here, there was a showing of a homemade video of the earthquake. A man happened to have his video camera in hand when the quake hit: the footage showed his viewpoint as he ran out of his shaking home, dust falling from the ceilings, concrete crumbling and falling to the ground. He emerged outside, and debris was blowing through the wind like snow in a blizzard. It was dark, as the quake hit at about 7pm, however there was some light coming from fires burning in sporadic locations on the streets. The man walked past the crumbled ruins of the storefronts along the street, and the sounds of mothers screaming for their children, men shouting into the darkness for their girlfriends and wives, echoed into nothing. As I was watching this, I understood the purpose of PSF being here. I listened to the screams and I imagined my own mother, crying with her face in her hands over the loss of one of my brothers. I understood that these people are just like me, in so many ways. They have family that they love, homes that define their lives, stores that sell their favorite foods, and all of these things were destroyed. I felt a true, irrevocable connection with all of the people on the streets of Pisco. I knew that if disaster were to strike my life, I would hope that others would realize their connection to me, that the same disaster could strike their lives, and come to my aid. PSF, and all of the volunteers thereof, are answering the call of human empathy, of connection, and of compassion. This is something that I hope every volunteer keeps in his or her mind with every moment of work, because there should be nothing more empowering than the strength one can draw from purposeful work; and there is nothing more purposeful than practicing pure compassion.
    A fire is lit in me, that burns in a way I´ve never thought possible. I can literally feel the heat in my chest and throat (as well as the sun on my back and neck) while I am working on projects such as Super Fun Town 2. In the area called El Molino, there are six thousand people of Pisco living in shacks made of plastic and thatched bamboo, with dirt floors and water that is far from potable. Two thousand of those people are grade-school aged children. The modular school being built in El Molino will serve as a place for children, who may have even lost their prospects of having a place to educate themselves, to expand their minds and learn how they can help their own community and the world. Furthermore, outside of the school PSF is building a proper playground, hence the name “Super Fun Town.” I was working on the project one day, and in the afternoon, the children came out and started playing around our worksite. I can remember, I was carrying a panel across the dusty playground, feeling a bit tired, but when I looked over and saw a young boy kicking a ball and laughing with joy, I got that tickly feeling you get in your nose and behind your eyes when you are so ecstatically happy, your mind goes blank with euphoria. I saw my own younger brother’s face in that boy’s face, and I knew that at that moment, I could be doing nothing better with my life, with my being, with my entire existence.
    As a young person, this organization has exposed me to my first real experience of true, devoted, and purposeful human connection. I have been here only a week, but this has been the most revolutionary week of my life. The only thing keeping me from staying here until every child has a home is the fact that I don’t have enough money to contribute, but I will certainly return in the future, for a much, much longer period of time. For anybody who is reading this, if you are a volunteer: thank you, so very much. If you aren’t, I hope you can find the same sort of compassion that PSF has illuminated to me.