UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Once we completed construction of the reservoir, the community through us a good bye and thank you party (pictured above). People who have so little being willing to get together and prepare a feast for us and thank us was an incredible and emotional experience for both our team and the community. I will never forget that day.

At least two days a week we would spend time with the kids in the community (pictured in the three photos above). We would play games with them or teach lessons. These were my favorite days. Seeing the kid’s faces light up when we came made my heart full of joy. It showed me that we were really making a difference in these communities. I remain in contact with several of the community children through Facebook and love getting messages from them.

One day, during my trip to La Hyualla Peru, I had the privilege of going on an assessment trip to a near by community. This community was even more rural than La Hyualla (image 1). They had no running water in homes at all and asked us to assess their water situation and to consider a project in their community. The community had access to a spring, however, to get to the spring we had to hike up the Andes mountains. This was the hardest but prettiest hike I have ever been on (image 2). Once at the spring we conducted water tests to determine if there was enough water to help the community (image 3). Though we are still unsure is we can feasibly help this community, this day was one of the most life-changing days of my trip.