If you’re reading this, then you know I’m being sent to Peru! It’s very exciting, and kind of short notice, and to be honest I don’t know much about it yet, but I’ll definitely be keeping you updated when I learn more.
I’ve been hired by a company called Base Camp International Centers that does volunteer placements all over the world. There are a bunch of companies like it; one called Foundation for Sustainable Development sent me to Bolivia in 2007. Basically what they do is this: if you want to volunteer abroad, you talk to Base Camp. You tell them who you are and what you want to do, and they arrange a place for you to stay and a place to work. That’s my job. I’ll be on location in Lima, Peru, taking care of volunteers who want to work in Peru. I would get their information sent to me in advance, and then I’d talk to various local organizations and try to find a good match-up. Then when the volunteer arrives, I do an orientation, introduce them to the place they’ll be working, and troubleshoot when things go wrong. Which they probably will.
Adventures in Peruvia 
Lima is an interesting city, and one of great contrasts. The Old Centre is cool and full of history. Miraflores is rich and prosperous (make sure to stop in and see the hotel with the dolphins in the lobby). But the city in general features the worst drivers I have ever seen on the planet, the city smells bad from years of dumping garbage over the cliffs into the ocean, it’s a desert and dry as a board, it gets wicked fogs that sock the place in, and it has probably the best food in all of Latin America.
Also, my company is currently the lead on the largest private investment project in Peru’s history: the Camisea gas field/Peru LNG export project, which should be shipping cargos in mid 2010.
So exactly how log will you be in Lima?
By: Derek Ryder on July 20, 2009
at 6:18 am