Lisa Ramsburg Volunteer Blog. Lobitos, Peru.
30 Jan 2013by WAVES Volunteer
This is the fifth time I have started writing this blog. Perhaps this time I will make it past the first few sentences before I fall asleep. I’m a college student and quite used to functioning without enough sleep, but I haven’t been this exhausted in a long time. Last night we rode El Burro (which is basically a motorcycle with a metal cart attached to the back) along the coast of the old Pan-American highway to a secluded surf spot. Lobitos is a very small, remote town, yet it doesn’t compare to how isolated we felt at the camp site. I climbed to the top of a mountain of sand looking deceptively like stable rock, and for miles all I could see were the fishermen, the open desert, and the shoreline. I watched the sky turn orange and pink as the sun set on the horizon and then sat by the fire eating barbecue chicken and listening to brilliant people play brilliant guitar. I fell asleep by the fire, which sounded like a great idea at the time until I woke up the next morning sore everywhere and more tired than I was before I went to bed. I still think it was worth it.
The next morning we helped build a concrete floor for a family in the town. We spent three hours out in the sun leveling earth, mixing concrete by hand, and then hauling buckets from the road over a hill and into the house. It was exhausting and my fingertips will never be the same, but I loved it. I think my favorite part of this trip has been the broad range of activities. I was only here for two weeks, so I didn’t have any grandiose plans about changing lives, but I didn’t realize how much this trip would change mine. I loved the time we spent doing physical labor because I could see the progress we made and the things we accomplished.
I loved spending time with the kids and the families in town because it opened my eyes to the way that people live and values they have that are different from my own. Surfing and visiting the surrounding towns and seeing new places is like a drug, the more I see the more I want to see. It’s time to say goodbye to Lobitos for now, but I know I’ll be back.
Posted in: News
Tags: 2013, Concrete Floors, el burro, Lisa Ramsburg, Lobitos, volunteer blog
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WAVES is only possible because of volunteers who come from all walks of life. Here, they share experiences and perspective from their time as volunteers.
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