Working With TeamUp in Peru

After Colombia, we continued our journey on to Ecuador. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time there - just a couple of days in Quito - before we had to move on quickly to our next country: Peru.

The reason for this is because finally, after eight months of travel, we were finally getting a chance to actually work in-person with our charity partner, TeamUp. TeamUp is an NGO based in Victoria, BC, with the express purpose of bringing hope to children and communities in need through sports. They work with disadvantaged communities in Canada, across Africa, as well as in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Peru. We were on a tight timeline to meet up with TeamUp and a group of volunteers from Canada to do some projects in Tarapoto, Peru, at the beginning of July. This meant that we had to make a beeline for Peru - and the journey was a long one!

After two days in Quito, we boarded a night bus to Guayaquil, Ecuador, a town on the coast. We arrived at 5am across the street from the airport, which ended up being a good thing - it was the only place open! We spent the entire day in the airport simply because it had a strong wifi connection for us to get some work done as well as it was across the street from the bus terminal. This was important, as we had another night bus that evening from Guayaquil to Chiclayo, Peru. By the time we actually arrived in Chiclayo, we only had a few hours to go to a cafe, eat something, and work a bit, before we got on the third and final night bus to reach our destination: Tarapoto, a town in the Amazon region of Peru.

Yes, we are a little bit crazy to have taken 3 night buses in a row, but in the very least, these buses were in Peru. Peruvian night buses, if you don’t know, are normally fairly comfortable. Often the seats recline 160 degrees, or even all the way to 180 if you’re lucky. They usually provide blankets and sometimes even pillows, though it is still advisable to come prepared. With different elevations and regions where the temperatures drop drastically during the night, we always made sure we had sleeping bag liners, sleeping bags, and extra layers. We used our touques to keep our heads warm and to block light from our eyes, and earplugs are always a must. This is for a couple of reasons: the first being that the bus itself, plus any traffic outside, can be quite noisy. The second is because of the passengers. We have noticed a trend in Latin America in which people opt not to use headphones while looking at videos on their phones, so on a bus at any given moment you will have five or more people swiping through TikTok or Instagram on full-volume. In the night, when most people are sleeping, you may still encounter this - even from the bus staff - plus the usual couple of people who snore. If you are ever taking a night bus anywhere, solid ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones will be your best friend.

We finally arrived in Tarapoto around noon, just in time to join the team for lunch and meet the other volunteers who had flown in from British Columbia. It was a lovely meal cooked for us at a local church and community center. From there it was straight to work. The first project was a work project: Expanding the floor of a local church to give the congregation more space. The hardest part of the project, breaking off a concrete ledge on the far side of the room, had already largely been done in the morning. Our job was to finish that and then help mixing the cement and spreading it evenly to create a seamless continuation of the existing floor. It was dirty, difficult work, but it was fun to help out and work together as a team. By the end of the day, Jo and I were exhausted and couldn’t wait to finally sleep in a real bed after three nights on buses.

The second day was one that we were most excited for: we were finally going to get to work with the kids and play some sports. We went to a local school, where we were going to work with two different groups. The first group was a younger one, perhaps between the ages of 8 and 10 years old. Jo and I were put in charge of getting the kids warmed up for the activities. We decided to lead them through a fun, Midnight Runners classic dance-style warm to the song Azukita. It was really fun and the kids loved it - the energy was high by the time we were finished.

After the warmup, we divided the kids up into different groups, where they then rotated between stations that involved different, mostly soccer-based games. Jo and I were at a station with one of the Canadian volunteers who is an actual soccer coach, and so were running some fun drills with the kids that worked on their speed, agility, and ball coordination. This was a good place for me to be, as I could help translate the explanations so that the kids would understand the drill. By the end of the session, the kids were giving us hugs and asking us to stay.

The second session with the older kids, likely between 11 and 13 years old, started off a little bit rockier. Jo and I led them through the same warmup, only this time, the kids didn’t really get into it. We didn’t think about the fact that these kids are now at the age where they are starting to feel more self-conscious. The Azukita warmup is really fun - but not as much for self-conscious pre-teens who are looking around to see if the “cool kids” in the group are participating or not. The result was all of the TeamUp people doing the warmup and all the kids standing there looking uncertain and uncomfortable. Thankfully, things got better from there!

We divided the kids up again into groups and began moving them through the same stations as before. For our station, we were able to make it a little bit more technical for the older kids. It’s really incredible the difference just a couple of years makes in a child’s body control and proprioception. Again, I helped with translation and did my best to connect with the kids. I didn’t think the connection part was going overly well, until after the session ended and suddenly it seemed like all the girls wanted to hug and talk with me. Part of this, I am sure, was that I was the only one in the group who spoke spanish. Still, it really surprised me.

After the sessions with the kids, we had some downtime at the hotel to rest and get ready for the evening’s plan: The tournament. Jo and I were exhausted still from the travel, but for some reason struggled to take a nap. Instead, we decided to go splash around in the pool. Back in Costa Rica we had been practising the famous Dirty Dancing lift in one of the hotel pools, so we decided to see if we could improve on our previous attempts. After some pretty hilarious fails, we finally nailed it - and received a round of applause in appreciation.

That evening, we went out into the more village-like areas on the outskirts of Tarapoto for the kids’ tournament. Our job? Simply watch, cheer, encourage, and chase down any balls that were kicked far off of the field. It was a nice way to spend the evening, and all of the kids were really into it. One of the ways that TeamUp supports this community is by providing them with equipment, training for coaches and local community leaders, and creating spaces for them to play. The day before, half of the group had actually come over to the field which had been constructed by TeamUp to paint fresh lines on the field. It looked fantastic and the kids were ecstatic.

At the end of the tournament, each of the kids got a medal for participating. The look on their faces receiving their medal was something I’ll never forget - they were all so proud of themselves! In addition, TeamUp had brought bags full of new balls, pinnies, and other equipment for the community. The biggest impact that we all discussed at the end of the day was simply how much our presence at the tournament meant to the kids. We didn’t do much, but us being there and cheering them on made them feel special, important, and like them and the tournament that they were playing really mattered. At the end of the evening, all the kids were hugging us and asking when we were coming back. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that Jo and I likely weren’t coming back any time soon, so I told them that TeamUp will most definitely be coming back to do more activities with them, plus their local leaders would be organizing more fun stuff for them, too.

The next day, we ran to the trailhead of a short waterfall trek in the jungle, where we met the rest of the TeamUp squad to see the waterfalls and enjoy the beauty of the Peruvian Selva. Jo even jumped in and swam in one of them, but the water was too cold for me. From there, we returned to the hotel, cleaned up, and headed back to the bus station. While the team would be flying to Lima, we, of course, were taking a bus - a 24hour-long bus ride, to be exact. The bus route was a stunning one, passing from the Amazon part of Peru through various mountainous landscapes until reaching the more desert-like ecosystem of Lima. The bus made a breakfast stop at what seemed like the most random restaurant somewhere above 4500m in elevation in the mountains. Here, however, you couldn’t get anything that resembled a typical Canadian or French breakfast - it was full Peruvian fare, with the menu consisting mostly of soups. This suited us fine, as it was quite cold so high up and so early in the morning. We chose two soups, the first being the classic caldo de gallina, aka chicken soup, and another which I don’t remember the name of and we thought we’d be adventurous trying it. Quickly we learned we should have stuck with what we knew. Inside the soup, there were various animal parts for “flavour”. We still don’t know what animal it was, nor what these parts were, and if I am being honest, we prefer to keep it that way.

We finally arrived in Lima, where we had taken an Airbnb in an apartment around the corner from the hotel where the rest of the group was staying. By the time we arrived on the Saturday we were quite tired, so we chose a quiet evening at the apartment rather than go socialize with the group. The next day was just a free day for the group, so Jo and I decided to take advantage of the city’s ciclovia and do a long run. We ran down along the Pacific coast path then up and around back through the city. Outside of our apartment there was a local farmer’s market, so we took advantage and stocked up our apartment with some local products so we could do some cooking at home.

The following day would be our last day with the TeamUp crew from Canada, as they were flying back home early on Tuesday morning. We spent the day in a district of Lima called Callao, which is known for having some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Lima. TeamUp has a community here, doing their best to help create positive spaces of hope and with influential role models to help these kids break out of the cycles of poverty, crime, and violence of the area that they were born into. Our project there was to help their local leader rebuild the roof of his church, which was also his home and a community center. This was hard work, and involved a lot of heavy lifting and, of course, getting quite dirty yet again. While we didn’t get everything done that we would have liked, the community leader was incredibly happy and grateful for everything that we did accomplish that day. That evening, we had a final dinner with the team and chatted with the local leaders about Jo and I coming to help them with some soccer clinics that they were to be hosting that week.

Sadly, Jo and I further supporting the TeamUp communities in Lima was not to be. When we got home from the dinner, I noticed that I seemed to have developed a cough. I thought that I had probably just breathed in some dust during the day and that tomorrow all would be well. That was not the case. I woke up with not just a cough, but with nausea and heavy fatigue. Before I knew it, I had a full-blown fever, was vomiting, and could barely eat. We had to cancel our plans with TeamUp, hoping that I would recover in a couple of days. Finally after a few days of me getting worse rather than better, we called my travel medical insurance, who helped us locate a clinic in Lima where I could go and see a doctor. Peru is not a rich country and their medical systems have very limited resources. The doctor prescribed me an antibiotic, which, though it made me feel even worse for a couple of hours each time I took it, did seem to work. Finally after a full week in bed, I was able to get up and go for a slow, evening walk. We stayed a few extra days in Lima while I continued to recover before moving on to our next destination. While we can’t know for sure, we are fairly certain that I had bacterial pneumonia, or at least something like it. Let’s hope that is the last time that one of us gets seriously ill on this trip!