Before I left home for Pisco I would tell people my plans for the next few months: “Yes, I’m going to South America for four months,” “Yes, by myself,” “Yes, to volunteer for 44 hours a week in a little town in Peru called Pisco.”  Most of the time I would get a response like: “Wow, that’s brave,” or “Wow, I could/would never do that,” or the straight-forward “Wow, Amy, you’re crazy.”  No, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into, but five weeks later, there hasn’t been a single day I haven’t been happy to be here, working hard and playing hard.

I arrived at Pisco Sin Fronteras on a Sunday afternoon, Super Bowl Sunday to be exact.  Sundays are the only full days off for volunteers here, so we certainly learn to use them to our advantage.  In true American football fashion there were about 10 to 15 volunteers piled in the back of the PSF truck, drinking beers and “tailgating” for the big game.  So what else was I to do but grab a beer and jump on in!

Then the work-week came.  Day 1: demolition (always a fun job); Day 2: I helped to build a door for a modular bathroom; and by Day 3 I was laying bricks, something I never expected to do in this lifetime.  The following week I started work on Karina’s house.  Her house was damaged in the earthquake, and she had huge cracks through her walls.  We worked alongside Karina’s husband and father to tear down all the damaged walls, and we are currently in the process of rebuilding her house back to its pre-earthquake state.  One day during lunch we got to chatting with Karina’s mother, Teresa.  She told us about her experience during the earthquake: Teresa was at home alone in her kitchen preparing food when the earthquake hit.  All the buildings around her collapsed, and she was trapped in her kitchen for hours until people were able to come rescue her.  During our chat, Teresa broke down in tears telling us how grateful she was for our help with her family and all around Pisco after the earthquake.  As I listened to Teresa’s story and her appreciation of the help we were providing, I almost broke down in tears myself.  Most of us can’t even begin to imagine what a tragedy like that must be like to live through.  Teresa and her family were incredibly lucky.  Yes, their house was damaged, but they all came out of it ok.  Teresa doesn’t take that for granted.

There are plenty of other families who need our help in Pisco.  We will soon be starting a project on a house for a sweet, young lady named Mayra.  Mayra lives with her daughter in a “house” made of ragged tarp and scrap pieces of wood.  Because of the state of her home, Mayra has had most of her possessions stolen from her at one time or another.  All Mayra wants is some security in her home so she and her daughter can sleep soundly at night without worrying about people invading her house and robbing her of her possessions, or worse, harming her daughter.  When we mentioned the possibility of putting in a concrete floor, Mayra’s eyes lit up in excitement.  She expressed so much gratitude in such a simple job as bringing her home some security.  I hope to be a part of Mayra’s project because she truly needs the help and will be very grateful for anything that we at PSF can do for her.

So when I reflect on my time before PSF and my time so far here at PSF, I can’t help but think that all those people back home are crazy for not being here, not experiencing what we as volunteers experience every day at Pisco Sin Fronteras.  We can all come “home” after a hard day of work here and feel that whatever it was we worked on that day was important, if only for one person, for one family, or for the entire community of Pisco.