Dinsmore's Travel Group; Photos Courtesy of Dinsmore School

After two years of planning, Dinsmore's Grade 11 students finally made the trip out to Peru. The trip was inspired while the group was studying a 'Doing the Right Thing' unit while in Grade 9. 10 out of the 16 Grade 11 students attended the trip.

Teacher at Dinsmore, Karen Blackwell-Jones, says that the class was looking into doing a service learning trip, "We chose a combo pack tour. We did quite a bit of tourist activities, but we also did a couple of days of work on a volunteer site for charity. So it was a perfect combination."

Blackwell-Jones said the travel group was able to see the 'full range of the economic realty' in Peru. They started the tour in Lima, which is a fairly modern city, close to the size of New York. The group was able to visit a monastery and museums with pre-Inca artifacts.

From there, the group went to Sacred Valley, where they did their volunteer work and toured an archeology site. They then toured Machu Piccu.

After their work at the Sacred Valley, they traveled down South closer to the border of Bolivia. Blackwell-Jones said the more Southern areas had a lot of visible poverty.

The Grade 11 students did the service learning work in the Sacred Valley. They helped build dormitories for girls who are attending school in the Valley. The Sacred Valley Project is aimed at improving access to education for girls, aged 12 -15.Currently, the girls attending school in valley have to rent accommodations, as their homes are to far of a journey. After this dormitory is built, they will be able to live there and complete their education in the village.

Blackwell-Jones said her class was able to really connect with the local people while they worked. "We got to meet the girls, they were so adorable, so grateful, and so sweet. It was a really good experience all around."

The Sacred Valley has a lot of agriculture and farmers. Blackwell-Jones said it was eye-opening seeing Peruvian agriculture and being able to compare it to Canadian agriculture, "I took a lot of kids that are from farming families, and they voiced some of frustration in the fact that they don't have any implements or mechanized equipment. We talked about, they can't, first the plots are so small and everything is done by hand. Some communities have a cooperative and share a tractor but all the labour in those fields is done by hand."

While it may sound frustrating or primitive to do so much farm work by hand, the agriculture industry in that area employs and provides for many families.

Blackwell-Jones said the entire trip left an impact on the travel group, "I think we all walked away with a bit of awe for it that Inca civilization ability to construct these amazing creations out of huge heavy stones. We learned a lot about Inca religion and culture and their work at trying to maintain the Quechua language in some of the remote parts of Peru."

Sacred Valley Project