It didn't feel like the end...

On my birthday (Wednesday), we toured some schools with Eduardo during the morning. This included the University of Lima and the rival school of VCSP. Kind of like the Country Day of Lima, if VCSP is the Cranbrook.

The university was very nice, though nearly entirely new. The campus was constructed since COVID, since before, students would go to their classes and then head to the nearby Jockey Plaza shopping center for their afternoon entertainment. The university wanted to inspire a campus community, and therefore, invested in dozens of new buildings. This includes buildings akin to Michigan’s Union, and also more academic buildings, so that the academic area is more centralized. The area is nice, don’t get me wrong, but it lacks the history and charm of, say, the Diag. All the buildings are made of concrete and full of chargers so students can constantly be on their phones and laptops.

After our tour, we headed downtown to do the one thing I really wanted to do on my birthday: go see ancient walls. Huaca Pucllana, an old temple made of adobe bricks, smack dab in the middle of Miraflores. It is still under excavation, actually, as the last people to use it defended the site from invaders by covering it up with sand. It had been thought for generations that these were just sand dunes that the city had to build around, and people used to take ATVs and sandboard on it. The bricks are constructed in that particular way as to avoid damange from earthquakes. The lack of mortar between adjacent bricks allows the bricks to all move somewhat independently from each other, whereas the mortar between layers allows each layer to still move independently from the others around it.

Huaca Pucllana is about 1000 years older than the Incas and was constructed mostly by a civilization we now call the Lim Culture, which resided in Lima around 1500 years ago. The site is so tall nowadays because, after the death of each high priest, the new one would build a new temple on top of the old one to demonstrate his superiority. The site was also a location for human sacrifice: women and babies in particular. Women were sacrificed to bring rain, as they symbolized fertility. Eventually, culture realized that, well, human sacrifice was barbaric, and they turned to sacrificing frogs—an amphibious species, representing both water and land—in the place of women. They also sacrificed babies, who were seen as being the “closest to the afterlife,” and thus, when adults would die, they would kill a baby along with them so that the baby acts as a “chauffeur” to the afterlife, having not had as much time to forget the way.

We were both tired, so we headed to Larcomar—that cliffside mall in Miraflores—just to rest our legs. I also had some work to get done for my teaching, so I worked on that there. We then headed over to Chorrillos, the district south of Barranco, to get an endless chifa buffet with the rest of the INvent kids from UC Berkeley, and Eduardo’s son. Eduardo and his wife didn’t know until the day of that it was my birthday, and this endless chifa buffet was always the plan, but they did get me a slice of orange cake at the end, and they sang cumpleaños feliz for me. It was nice to have a proper birthday dinner around some people, to feel the love from more than just one person for the first time in three years. I had a great birthday.

Thursday is when I really got the sense of something weird: though school was coming to an end, I felt like this was just the beginning.

As I mentioned, I had some work to be doing at Larcomar. The week before, I had been, as I described previously, working with the 10th graders on their science and technology fair projects. But that ended on Tuesday, as they had exams. So on Thursday, I changed gears a little bit. I do feel bad, since Zack kinda sat around on Thursday because he had nothing to do.

Manuel runs an IB design and technology class, and every year, the projects are different. He just finds inspiration from somewhere, and quickly throws together a project for the kids. Well this year, I was the inspiration. He wanted the kids to design cardboard boats that are informed by the physics and basic principles of naval architecture, and to produce naval architecture style technical drawings of their ships, in addition to the 3d modeling that they can already do.

So I had about a week’s notice to slap together a 102 slide PowerPoint summarizing the relevant parts of NA 270 into three hours of lecture to deliver on Thursday and Friday.

I loved being up and teaching: I felt the interest from the class, and I could see them learning, making the same mistakes I would make a year or two ago. Manuel even commented on the fact that I had an unusually high amount of control over the class, and he felt like they listened to me a lot more intently than to him…

The AutoCAD lecture was a little more difficult. AutoCAD is not an easy program, and it has a steep learning curve. The group, though trying their hardest, required a lot of assistance from me to get their gears to work properly, and disappointingly, we never got to laser cutting them out. Regardless, I was proud that they all had a gear on their screens by the end of class—something that, though I was hoping would happen, I was still very doubtful of.

But where I really felt like things were just getting started was on Friday. Friday was the last day of their trimester, and therefore, the atmosphere was cheery and light. Class wasn’t class as usual, and all the kids wanted to do all day was play soccer. Zack and I had been asking them when they usually play, and so they came and found us before they got started.

I was, ironically, wearing my Messi jersey that day, in the spirit of leaving for Miami the next day. But it only made me look more like a fool when my very obvious ineptitude at soccer became more than apparent to the students. To make it even worse, Zack and I had brought our hiking boots to school that day, anticipating that we’d be climbing the mountain behind the school in morning. So, we both played barefoot on the turf, which definitely did not make my already lacking soccer skills any better.

Despite me, frankly, sucking at soccer, the kids were really adamite on making sure I was playing and part of the team, and I appreciated that spirit. I felt especially goofy, since Zack is really good at soccer, and you could tell when he got the ball that all the kids would make comments about how skilled he is.

But all in all, I had a great time playing with them. Again, I could feel friendships forming. It didn’t feel like the end, it felt like it would have been the start of something meaningful, only for me to cut it short the next morning. They invited Zack and I to their literature class, where they sat and read for a little bit, before going back outside to play soccer again.

I had to dip, because I still had to teach the back half of my boats lecture, but Zack was lucky enough to be able to stay behind and play another few hours of soccer with them. They all bade me the VCSP goodbye, giving me a fist bump or a shoulder hug and thanking me for coming. It made me really sentimental for something I could have had—I was already missing the friendships I didn’t make.

Manuel, Mónika, and that history teacher gave us an equally sentimental goodbye, thanking us for all our work and the inspiration we brought to the kids. They had me stand up in front of the whole lunchroom to be recognized, and talk about my experience both in Peru and at their school. Zack would have been there too, but he lost track of time at soccer…

At the end, I got a real strong round of applause, and it made me just so thankful to have had these people in my life that I could inspire and educate. Manuel made me feel like I really made a difference: that me being in Peru wasn’t just for fun and adventure, but that I had something to bring. That there was a reason for me to be in Peru, that my presence was necessary and appreciated. Very few times in my life have I felt like I had such a strong purpose and that I carried out my mission successfully, with honor, dignity, and spirit. I really cannot describe the overwhelming feeling of pride and love I felt, standing in front of the tables of students, with a VCSP gift bag in my right hand, microphone in the left, receiving a standing ovation for my work.

I could not have asked for a better group of students to have here in Peru, and I couldn’t have asked for a better school to be at. I miss it dearly, and I hope to make a quick return to Villa Caritas y San Pedro—hopefully, for a little longer than 2 weeks.

I guess, now, I have all the connections I need, and I have been extended a permanent welcome at the school to come down and volunteer again.

Farewell Picarones

Everything considered, I cannot and will not pick a favorite part of Peru. Every part was so different, each place’s contribution to my life and experiences were all so different, the learning I did in each place was so diverse. I can say that Peru provided me an education unlike any country I’ve been to before—a comprehensive, daily, intensive lesson on so many topics. I mean, I learned survival, ecology, small-craft design, I improved my “tough-it-out-ive-ness” camping with tarantulas feet away, and my sense of direction, keeping oriented in the maze that is the jungle. I learned about the different ancient cultures that existed in Peru, stretching back to the dawn of civilization, and extending to the modern day, and I saw how modern Peru is a combination of what happened in Europe, what happened in the Americas, and how those two cultures interacted upon contact. I learned about archeology, studying all the ancient walls I encountered, and I heard an in-depth set of monologues about the Andean peoples’ role in modern Peru on the hiking trip. I found a sense of purpose and enjoyment in helping the students in VSCP, and I, too, learned more about the process of design by simply helping them out with early stage design. Of course, with repetition, you get better.

I am so beyond grateful for everything that Peru brought to me and I hope that those still there are grateful for what I wanted to bring. I also cannot thank Zack enough for giving me this amazing opportunity and putting up with me for the whole month. I’m no

So, as I write this, flying over Cuba on my way to Miami, I can only keep myself happy by remembering that as one amazing thing comes to a close, the next amazing thing is only a few hours away.

Thank you all for coming on this wonderful journey with me, if you’ve made it this far, and I cannot wait for what the future has in store.

Over and out,

Be back soon,

Ian