I went to the RSIS (Round Square International Service) project 2015 in Peru from July 11th to July 25. We went to a village called Yuncachimpa. The altitude is 3800m above sea level, the temperature is -3 degrees Celsius at night-time and 21 is the highest degree Celsius during the day time. The population is 200. The aim of our trip was to build the wall around the school, a climbing day on Via Ferrata, learning Apulaya art and music, a visit to Machu Pichu and many markets in Peru.
I arrived in Cusco airport on the 11th of July and met the rest of the team members in the hotel. On July 12, we went to Apulaya to learn music and art. On 13 of July, we had our adventure climbing on Via Ferrata. I was really nervous but at least I tried. On the July 14, we went to the community place called Yuncachimpa. We did the wall project and painting from 15-21 of July. Basically, we divided ourselves in two big groups and we worked on both sides of the wall at the same time. We had 5 things to do and we could decide in our group which one do we want to do.Those 5 things were mixing the mud, carrying the bricks, carrying the water , carrying the mud and shaping the bricks . I picked to mix the mud for the first day and the rest of the days I carried the water and put the mud inside the bricks. Also, we painted the flags in the class -room and repainted some of themurals on the walls in the class too. All the host families were incredibly friendly and they were so kind to us. The total number in our group was 20(This included the 3 adult leaders) .We got to know each other very well and we became as best of friends at the end of the trip. All the members were so friendly and helping each other all the time. We slept in a tent at our host family’s house.
On 23rd of July, we went to Machupichu. We were there for 6 hours. We went through all the parts of Machupichu and also we went trekking on the Machupichu mountain. I really enjoyed listening to the story of Machupichu and I couldn’t take my eyes off the view on Machupichu city.
The first thing that I learnt from the project was the skills of a leader. It is not that easy to become a leader. As a leader, you need to be able to motivate people, you need to get all the attention from your followers, you need to have full knowledge of the project and you should be able to speak clearly so the members can understand you.
The second thing was to try new things and challenge yourself, instead of avoiding them. We had to do the 400m climb on the 13 of July at Via Ferrata. I really hate heights so I decided not to do the climbing and just remain at the base of the mountain. But I thought at least I should tried it because this is only one opportunity that I will have in my life so I tried it and I finished the climb!!! After that I realized that if I didn’t try how could I know the feeling of accomplishment of climbing the mountain.
The third one was working in a community and making new friends. We worked together in the project. We built a strong friendship during the trip. I believe that strong group members can accomplish the tasks more efficiently.
All the knowledgethat I learnt from the trip and the things I did during the trip will help me in the future. I am going share all of my experiences from this trip with my family, friends and the whole assembly at my school. In the future I can organize a group to do a project like painting the class room for the orphanage, motivate people to the value of Round Square and I can explain to all my friends and students about the skills that a leader should have, how to engage with new people and helping community.
In a nut -shell, all these experiences are memorable and will affect my whole life. I would like to say thank you to you all from the bottom of my heart for supporting me to be able to go on this trip. This was a fantastic amazing trip and you have made my dreams come true. Without your help I would not have been able to go on this trip and I would havenever experienced this kind of adventure.
By Kyi, IB Boarder
