Lynn Novak shares Ramsey Students Peru trip for fun and community service

On August 29th,  Lynn Novak gave an enlightening and informative talk on the recent trip of Ramsey High School students to Peru where they learned about teamwork and leadership while also having a service component working on a project with local people.  The trip was mostly driven and organized by the students themselves.  The numbers that traveled were much higher than initially anticipated due to the interest in the trip.

 Four groups of students traveled at different intervals.  They had to plan their day to day activities as a team with a fixed budget to spend.  Each group had approximately 15-20 students, two chaperones and a guide provided by the travel company.  However, this was not a typically organized trip with a tour company.  The company arranged the travel to and from Peru, their first nights accommodation and the providing of the guide who was available to the students for guidance and advice.

 One of the first tasks was to arrange their local accommodation in Cusco for the following nights.  They spanned out across Cusco and identified three potential locations, the group then met to review the options and determine which one they should use.  The emphasis was very much on the students making the decisions.  Sometimes the decisions were less than optimal, but this was all part of the learning experience.

 As they traveled they camped on the trek to Machu Picchu and had various adventures crossing rivers and trekking at 15,000 feet.  Setting goals was important and sometimes a reasonable goal was taking 20 steps before taking the next break.

 Arrival at the Macchu Pichu historic site was early in the morning before most other tourists and the view was spectacular.

 On their return they helped with a community project where they had to carry lots of sand to make cement.  Creativity again was the order of the day when the cement ran out as they then had to break up rocks to complete the task.

A local tradition of the people is to share their clothes with visitors so all the students and chaperones looked resplendent in their new colorful clothes.

For many the trip is a life changing experience opening them up to the conditions that people in other cultures live in every day. 

 Below is a photo of Lynn presenting with great enthusiasm to the Rotary Club members