Community Engagement in Cusco, Peru (Spanish Intensive)

Camp Moray is situated on a beautiful high plateau (3,600m) close to the world famous Sacred Valley of the Incas. This unique wilderness camp gives you a true taste of what it is like to live in the Andes, with spectacular mountain views across the valley and a real feeling of space and remoteness, allowing you utter peace and a chance to get away from it all.

Upon arrival at camp, you’ll be welcomed by community representatives with a warm drink. Take a tour of the camp and community, followed by a detailed briefing on the upcoming projects.

Following on from the project briefing, the group starts by thinking deeply about their goals for the week; in a framed, student led discussion forum. In Camp Moray we are working on projects concerned both with education and nutrition, and those two areas are naturally linked. Those projects have been identified through dialogue with the community and the local authorities and are considered vital for the future of these remote mountain communities. Through an understanding of the process of dialogue, the development of ideas and the aims that we have, the group can identify their own goals, plan for those and then work towards their own objectives.

Kajllarakay is in a remote area in the Sacred Valley of the Incas that has been largely forgotten in terms of funding or development. We are working with local schools to build and improve infrastructure and ensure children have access to a quality education. We are also working closely with the local municipality to fulfil basic sanitation requirements in the community such as flushing toilets, sinks and shower facilities. Deforestation in South America is at a critical level and in this region around Cuzco, destruction rates are unprecedented. Communities rely on wood for survival. However, wood harvesting is far beyond sustainable levels. Our reforestation program aims to replenish this invaluable source by planting native trees back into the region.

In the evening, you will have a chance to get your dancing shoes on and try out some traditional dancing with the local community.

A student focused discussion of Leadership, its challenges, models and aims. The students will be asked to think about these issues particularly in the context of their current environment and activities. What has worked, what hasn't? Are we on schedule for our own aims? How could we do things differently?

Other projects in the community include building toilets for households, helping improve the health of families, the community as a whole and surrounding area. Further, the community, unusually for this area, doesn't have a communal building. Andean communities are active and strong and they meet together to discuss common issues, make plans for their futures, elect leaders and maintain a community wide social life. Having a communal house is vital for the long-term viability of the community and is something that we are working on with the community authorities. The hard work on the projects is often rounded off with a game of soccer with the "maestros." At this altitude, it pays to manage your game carefully, and stints in goal are a favorite way to have a rest and breathe a little bit. For those who are still awake after dinner, some hot chocolate and roasting of marshmallows on the campfire, under a spectacular roof of thousands of stars, is always a fun way to end the day in the camp.

Camp offers interactive lectures on topics like stakeholder engagement, citizen science, and biodiversity. Schools can choose the subjects most relevant to their group, ensuring each session connects directly to student interests and learning goals.

This morning the group has the opportunity to make sure they have put any finishing touches to the service work. There will be a gathering whereby your group can handover the work you have done to the locals - a proud moment of reflection as you look at what you have achieved and the positive impact you have made.

Travel to Ollantaytambo, a small town with houses built on top of Inca walls and with a massive archaeological site right in its center. We will explore this site, climbing up on huge terraces and looking across the narrow valley at beautiful, and ingenious, ancient grain stores.

The train passes through the Sacred Valley of the Incas to Aguas Calientes.

Board a train and travel through the Sacred Valley for a full-day excursion to Peru's most famous destination, the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. Set on a mountaintop, deep in the jungle, Machu Picchu remained unknown to the outside world until 1912.

In the afternoon we will return by train to Cusco, the train journey itself is wondrous and the carriages' partially glass roofs offer great views upwards to the cliffs that form the walls of the deep valleys.

Our guide will explain how the Conquistadors built churches on top of Inca temples, and show you the hard evidence of that which still exists in the form of magnificent and complex stone walls. You will visit Qorikancha, the epicentre of the Inca Empire, home to some of the finest Inca stone-work and a place to learn about the social structures and ambitions of that once great Empire.

This evening, students make their final entries in their Reflection Journals, sharing key observations and perspectives gained throughout their travel experience and considering how these insights will remain relevant as they return home.

At dinner, a local dance troop will entertain you and, of course, offer the chance for members of the group to show-off the skills they learned while dancing at Camp Moray.

Throughout the program, we will set time aside time for discussion, guided reflection, and time to write reflections on self-discovery and what we have learned. "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey