| Author |
Thread |
|
simdog
Senior Member
Sweden
457 posts
Joined: Dec, 2007
|
 Posted - 2010/10/23 : 21:58:23
after mentioning my volunteer work in the hardcore underground 2010 thread DjTriquatra recomended i start a thread about it so here it is :)
november last year i went to peru with an australian NGO (non-governmental organization) called world youth international to do a 10 week overseas action program.
the first half of the 10 week program was spent near cusco helping the people of a village called chinchero build a weaving centre for the women of that village and surrounding villages. after 5 weeks the majority of my group went home or travelling and 4 of us went down to a city called Pisco to work with an NGO called Pisco sin fronteras*(1)
i had originally planned on staying there for just over 4 weeks and then getting on my return flight to sydney, after a month of building compost toilets for the 100-200 families that were squatting just down the road from our house in houses built of bamboo, tarps, plastic, cardboard and the occasional lucky family had found them selves some scrap wood, i had decided i didn't want to go home any more and i was needed in pisco allot more than i was in sydney. so i never bothered going to the airport to get my return flight and just stayed in pisco.
pisco sin fronteras is completly run by volunteers and was started by a local peruvian man (Harold Zevallos) a year after the earthquake when all the NGO's started heading off the the next disaster zone. a hand full of volunteers from "burners without borders" (an NGO stemmed from burning man festival) stayed behind in pisco to help harold.
we rented an old hostel that survived the earthquake and renovated it to turn all the rooms into dorms ( all up it sleeps around 60+ people ) we built a big kitchen to prepare breakfast and dinner for everyone, a tool shed and work yard, a bio diesel reactor and an office.
after my first month building i broke 3 ribs (in a non work related weekend beach limbo accident) and used that as an excuse to become kitchen manager. so from february 2010 till september 2010 i was resposible for the kitchen, the food for anywhere from 40 to 110 people and keeping everything clean and hygenic in the fight against the dreaded pisco belly....
once my ribs had healed i was able to do 1 or 2 days a week out on site helping people, but i was probably most usefull in the kitchen (even though when i plugged my ipod into the speaker and had some hardcore blaring i was a shoveling machine :p )
so that's where i spent most of my time (still had my music blaring thoughout the kitchen and the wood yard though)
my time in pisco was the most fun and most rewarding thing i've ever done and i met some amazing people that will remain friends for the rest of my life (also went from 110kgs to 75kgs :)
and i'll be going straight back to pisco as soon as i have the money to get back there, live there for 1 year+ and some extra money to buy tools and building materials.
getting tired now and can't think of more to write but i'll try add more later. if you have any questions just ask.
please have a look at www.piscosinfronteras.org and maybe donate some money or even look into heading out to work there or just read about the amazing things people are doing there.
thanks for reading guys :)
*(1)Pisco Sin Fronteras is a volunteer disaster reconstruction organisation that works in and around the city of Pisco, Peru. In August of 2007 a 7.9 magnitude earthquake devastated the region, destroying 80% of the homes in Pisco and killing around 600 people. The earthquake left many people living in makeshift housing of cardboard, scrap wood and plastic, and on dirt floors, with no more than a bucket in the corner for a toilet. Pisco Sin Fronteras works to improve the living conditions of those families affected by the earthquake by building and improving houses, working in schools, building sanitation units and working in community development. We are always looking for enthusiastic, hard working volunteers to help the people of Pisco rebuild their lives.
Alert moderator 
|
tru bass
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
1,996 posts
Joined: Jul, 2006
|
Posted - 2010/10/23 : 22:05:50
I have a huge amount of respect for these organisations. Well done! and a very interesting read.
__________________________________
http://soundcloud.com/shrubman
Alert moderator
|
Triquatra
Moderator
United Kingdom
12,637 posts
Joined: Nov, 2003
|
Posted - 2010/10/23 : 22:20:18
wow, great read!
i think its great how you decided you were needed there and missed your flight to stay longer! i guess an experience like that can really show you where your priority's lie, or where they should lie..
was it a kind of finding that "there was more to life?" - recently i've been having issues with the "meaning of it all"...seems to me that something like this really shows a human what we are here for?
perhaps something i need to put myself through
recently things have gotten way too "cosy" for me..very 9-5..not making any difference to the world..
also - what did they think of hardcore? :P
__________________________________
Triquatra/Bee Trax/Cuttlefish
http://www.hardcoreunderground.co.uk/ - http://CLSM.net -
Alert moderator
Edited by - Triquatra on 2010/10/23 22:20:40 |
simdog
Senior Member
Sweden
457 posts
Joined: Dec, 2007
|
Posted - 2010/10/23 : 22:44:44
well in sydney before i went to peru i was bumming around the house during the week and cooking dinner for my family, then all weekend i was out raving and doing promo work.
this was a pretty awesome life for a while but it started to feel prety meaningless pretty quickly and i just wanted to drop everything and f*ck off to the middle of nowhere and go on an adventure.
if that's how you're feeling bout life/work you should definantly look into doing something like this. even if it's just for a few weeks.
it's definantly an amazing life changing experience and it's been hard coming back to the real world after it. i'm definantly a better person from doing it and i've grown allot but i'm nowhere near done, i'm gonna go back as soon as i can get the cash together. hopefully i can pick up a few more skills while i'm here in europe to take back there aswell.
most of the peruvians liked hardcore, the main radio station there seemed to be mainly edm. it was called "la calle" and their slogan was "TECHNO..t...tt....te....TECHNO, en la calle" :p it was pretty much 50% reggaeton and the rest was trance or eurodancey stuff. every now and then i heard a car or a tuktuk go past blaring hardstyle, even heard someone playing "you're my angel" once, lots of trance there though.
however hardcore wasn't as popular amongst the other volunteers, there were a few complaints about the music but i owned the speakers and had been there for ages so i usually won...
Alert moderator
|
acidfluxxbass
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
5,000 posts
Joined: Apr, 2008
|
Posted - 2010/10/24 : 03:59:36
Respect to you bro, takes a strong personality and allot of will-power to persevere like that!
__________________________________
Aka Archefluxx
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/archefluxx
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/afbofficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/archefluxxuk
Alert moderator
|
|
Printer friendly
