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ARVIAT/PERU
After joining a Canada World Youth voyage to Peru at the last minute in February, Arviat youth Jordan Konek has nearly finished his post-trip fundraising for an adventure that was priceless.

Jordan Konek is pictured here in Peru during a Canada World Youth humanitarian trip to Palma in February and March. - photo courtesy of Jordan Konek

In February, Konek spent time in Toronto and Orangeville, Ont., for orientation and to learn a bit of Spanish. At the end of February, Konek, as part of an 18-person group, headed to Palca, Peru, to build brick fridges and stoves for poor families. While down there among new people and cultures, warm water and trees, Konek not only gained new insights about the world, but about his culture as well.

Now he's raised $1,400 and is just $350 away from having the trip paid off, although he may be able to work that off by doing some video editing for Canada World Youth.

For what he describes as a "life-changing experience," the trip was well worth the cost.

In a stroke of luck, the Peruvian family with whom Konek stayed owned a restaurant. After getting used to the food, he was treated to some good cooking, with chicken and rice as staple cuisine. It took more than just getting used to the spices, though. Konek was introduced to a new way of getting food.

"I'm not used to getting fresh food off the ground. A lot of it was from farms they had ... but in the middle of the program I realized their food was not so bad."

The youth were put to work, first making bricks from mud, and then building brick fridges, which helped keep food cool and protected from the sun, and simple brick ovens.

Being immersed in Peru not only opened his mind to what lay outside Nunavut, but gave him a heightened perspective about his home territory.

"We're not considered poor but there are a lot of issues with having economy in the North and in the place where we were in a lot of it was the same thing," said Konek.

"Inuit don't have a lot as Canadians but I learned that we become more ignorant as we get more things, like personal belongings, and these things start to make us ignore things like the social environment that we have and in Peru these people are really poor and need some help."

Another new experience for Konek was being able to jump into warm bodies of water, which were much more welcoming than the water he grew up with in Arviat.

"One of the coolest things was to go to a waterfall to go swimming, and to be going inside a cave inside a waterfall," said Konek. "One of my friends pushed me, pulled me inside the cave because I was really scared to get in there and I couldn't breathe for awhile and then I was able to catch my breath, then go back outside, and that was a life-changing experience."

Now that he's come back North, Konek said he wants to travel again and be exposed to more of the world, possibly again with Canada World Youth. He'll at least stay involved with the program - besides his video work, Konek is to sit on an advisory committee for the organization.

At home in Arviat, he works with Nanisiniq: Arviat History Project and maintains a YouTube account, skooltech, on which he has posted videos of his trip.

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