So, what have we done that can compare to ceremonies in Nepal and Africa? The answer hit me, quite literally, in the form of a water balloon to the back!

The team with the worker children during Carnaval.

Throughout February in Villa, the residents celebrated "Carnaval" - a water festival originating in the rural communities that many of Villa El Salvador's inhabitants come from.

When they left their homes in the mountains and countryside in search of the opportunities and economic improvement that living in Villa could bring, they also brought with them the tradition of celebrating a festival of water, which, in those areas, is far more abundant than here in the desert.

Despite being warned about Carnaval, I was still pretty shocked the first day I was walking to work at my placement school and got attacked by a group of small children with some well-aimed water balloons without anything to get them back with! My fear was only added to when, running away from the water attack, we ran straight into a group of barking dogs. This being a developing country where rabies is a possible threat (and me being someone who is quite easily scared) has made me fear every dog I come across as probably rabid and probably going to kill me. Having said that, the worst I've actually encountered so far is some heated barking.

A local boy gets ready to surprise another 'victim'.

Anyway, back to the festival. A water festival in a desert may seem wasteful, but this opinion doesn't take into account the progress that has been achieved over recent years. We have been told by the community here that, as more awareness has been raised about the importance of protecting water, the water fights have been cut down from taking place every day to just Sundays and to now only involve children instead of the adults as well.

A few members of our team decided to break with this unwritten 'rule' just for one Sunday, to channel their inner child and join with the children from their placement at MANTHOC - an organisation for worker children - in a spot of water fighting.

In addition to Carnaval, we were also treated to an amazing cultural experience, and a classic example of Peruvian timekeeping, in the form of a street parade in celebration of "la vírgen de la candelaría" - a Catholic tradition which has its roots in the Peruvian district of Puno.

Although advertised as starting at 4pm, the celebration only kicked off at 6:30pm (something which all the locals mysteriously seemed to know). However, it was definitely worth the wait as we witnessed performances of many different traditional dances from Puno, all in traditional dress with bright colours, bells and a lot of gold-coloured accessories.

As I spend more and more time here, I am starting to understand that to culturally experience a place isn't always about all these celebrations we have attended (though they definitely make an impressive impact), it's also about the day-to-day interaction we are having with people here and learning more about their lives and culture on a much deeper level.

We were invited to a celebration for Maria Elena Moyano. Whilst that name probably doesn't mean anything to most of the people reading this blog, in Villa El Salvador, she is as much of a celebrity as Madonna or The Beatles (and for some reason, they really seem to love The Beatles in Peru).

Maria Elena was one of Villa's most prominent leaders and was at the forefront of the women's organisation movement which created many of the 'comedores' or soup kitchens here. As both a woman and an Afro-Peruvian in a Peru where machismo was still prevalent, Maria Elena is seen as a role model for the masses. Her amazing work was sadly and brutally cut short during Peru's era of terror, when she was assassinated by the Maoist rebel group The Shining Path for her determination to continue working for the community and her refusal to succumb to fear.

Released: doves are set free as a symbol of peace. Picture: massdistraction/Flickr

It was the anniversary of that day, exactly 20 years ago, that we attended today. Twenty years is my entire life, and I had been initially doubtful as to whether something so far in the past would still resonate with the community. I quickly found out how wrong I was. As we approached the ceremony, the thing which most struck me was not only the number of people who were there, but also the variety of ages and backgrounds. The mayor presided over the ceremony, which included: speeches; placing a wreath on a statue commemorating Maria Elena; awarding members of the community for their achievements; and, what I found to be most poignant, releasing doves into the sky as a symbol of peace, which Peruvians have fought so hard to maintain against terrorist threats.

This was followed by a chant, begun by members of the women's organisation Maria Elena herself set up, consisting of the words: "Los peruanos quieren paz, terrorismo nunca más" which translates to: "Peruvians want peace, no more terrorism". Since the leader of what remains of the Shining Path movement was captured only a few days ago, these words were particularly heartfelt.

However, as I stood there, part of the crowd and part of something much greater than just myself, the words which really struck me were these:

"You are Villa El Salvador. We are all Villa El Salvador. And Villa El Salvador will keep on progressing".

Villa El Salvador's committee for the development of their youth plan. Picture: Stephanie Criddle/DFID

Young people complaining about adults. Could be anywhere in the world. Could even be the UK. But in this case, it is Peru.

Over the past few weeks, I have been lucky enough to attend several meetings, forums and community events addressing youth issues in Peru and one of the problems which is brought up time and time again is that many young people feel failed by the education system, which they say doesn't prepare them for the workplace or provide them with any leadership skills.

Often, young people seem to feel excluded from the decision-making process and see adults as authoritarian and indifferent.

Whilst these are ideas that have probably been expressed thousands of times by young people all over the world, in Villa El Salvador, they are doing something to resolve the situation. There is a particular focus on young people and the importance of making sure that they get involved with the town whose future they will be in charge of.

Explaining what we are doing in Villa El Salvador

A meeting I attended last week included both young people and people who run youth organizations. After introductions – and a personal achievement of managing to explain exactly what we were doing there, in Spanish – there was a general discussion about the main problems currently facing young people in Villa El Salvador.

Information was provided about different help available, such as workshops and the free courses which we are currently teaching. On top of this, the young people decided to organise themselves in order to be able to be represented and participate more effectively by appointing a president and committee.

Villa El Salvador's young Mayor, Guido Iñigo

This proactive attitude was also clear at the next event we attended: the first meeting of 2012 for the leaders of different organisations in Villa El Salvador to see how the strategic plan for the young people of the area is being carried out. This plan targets the main problems facing infants and young people and has been in place since 2007, with the goal of achieving its aims by 2021.

The progress towards these aims was discussed by a panel made up of representatives of the separate commissions dealing with the four different areas targeted by the plan:

- Protection of infants and young people

- Health

- Education

- Participation of young people in the community

The panel's presentation was followed by a speech by the recently appointed 26-year-old mayor of Villa El Salvador, Guido Iñigo, who, as a young person himself, highlighted the importance of the commissions' work towards the plan's aims. The panel then divided into separate groups to lead discussions about the issues raised with other members of the community.

I have learnt so much from the way in which people here deal with their issues and are able to directly participate in their community to effect change themselves. Hopefully, we can follow their example in resolving some of the issues facing young people back in the UK as well.

Ready to learn: with some of my students

"Do they drink anything apart from tea in England?" That was just one of the questions our students had for us in our first week of teaching at a youth centre in Villa El Salvador, Peru.

Although I couldn't entirely deny our love of tea, the children were surprised to find out that, just like them, we English folk are also partial to a coke every now and then!

However, they were disappointed to discover that we don't have the popular Peruvian beverage 'Inca Cola' which is an incredibly sugary, incredibly yellow, fizzy drink.

A love of Inca Cola is just one of the many things we have been taught by our students. Although we are supposed to be teaching them, you can't fail to find yourself learning so much from the people here and their inspirational attitudes towards life.

Forty years ago, Villa El Salvador was just another part of the desert: no houses, no life, and definitely no infrastructure. It is incredible to me that they have managed to build an entire town out of nothing but sand and solidarity.

Startlingly yellow: Inca Kola is a popular drink in Peru. Picture: arnold | inuyaki/Flickr

Despite this deep sense of community spirit, Villa El Salvador is not without its problems. Drug addiction, gang culture and child prostitution are all issues facing the youth of the area. To deal with this, the organization we are working with aims to provide an alternative for kids outside of school.

Here in Peru, it's the summer holidays, so a lot of the work we are doing is keeping young people occupied and off the streets. Teaching English has been a completely new for me personally, as I have entered a whole new world of lesson planning and worksheets.

Lesson time: teaching an enthusiastic class

The one thing that really has made it worthwhile is the sense of achievement you feel at the end of a lesson, when a class can come out with a stream of English words that only a couple of hours ago, were nothing more than alien sounds to them.

Or possibly even better than that is the sense of pride you feel in small, but important personal achievements: when that one shy child who had been keeping quiet all lesson, starts getting involved and jumps out of their seat to answer a question.

It's only been a week, and, as you can probably tell, I'm already getting really attached to Peru, to our students, and (worryingly) to Inca Cola.

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Podcast: returned ICS volunteers.

Ceri, Esi and Mohammed volunteered for ICS last year. Hear them talk about their experiences in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya in the latest DFID podcast. Listen here, or subscribe on iTunes.

I can't believe how much we have learnt in such a short space of time. We have had Spanish lessons every day - and for some, who have had no experience of the language before, it has been a bit of a challenge! On top of improving our ability to communicate with the people that we will be working with, we have also had a series of talks from development workers, environmental and human rights specialists, and the Peruvian correspondent for The Economist and Time magazine, Lucien Chauvin.

In these discussions, we have tackled issues ranging from water scarcity and environmental change to indigenous isolation and health problems. Something I found particularly interesting was learning about Peru's turbulent recent history of internal conflict and how this still affects these topics. Despite its classification by the World Bank as a middle income country, Peru's conflict has left a lot of areas still in need of development, including the public education system. I am really looking forward to playing a role in improving the situation through our placements teaching English.

The traffic in Peru's cities can be daunting for newcomers. Picture: Jackson Lee/Flickr

Another key issue we have dealt with has been intercultural communication. After tours of Lima and some of its districts such as Miraflores and Barranco, our first impressions of the country and its people have been really positive and welcoming. However, there are definitely a few noticeable differences between Peruvian and English culture, the biggest of which, after the obvious language barrier, is the driving. Traffic here is far less orderly than in England and even crossing the road was a little bit daunting to start with! Despite this, we have benefited from another aspect of Peruvian culture: that of being very open and friendly - for example, greeting everyone in the room with a kiss on the cheek - which has made us feel very welcomed into the community.

Orientation has been a really great experience, and now that we know more about the placements we will be working on, we can't wait to move to Villa El Salvador and get started.

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Podcast: returned volunteers Esi, Mohammed and Ceri

Ceri, Esi and Mohammed volunteered for ICS last year. Hear them talk about their experiences in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya in the latest DFID  podcast.

Listen here, or subscribe on iTunes.

Through it, I found the Progressio ICS Empower programme which would enable me to go to Peru and volunteer with some of world's poorest communities – something I had never even dreamed that I would be able to do before, since South America was pretty far out of my student price range.

Work, rest and play: schoolchildren in Peru. Picture: mirmurr.blogspot.com/Flickr

The contribution element of ICS is a really important part of the programme as it gives people opportunities that they would never otherwise have the chance to participate in. I jumped at the opportunity and applied nearly a whole year before the start date of my chosen programme! I had already done some volunteering with other organisations and had seen the difference that volunteering can make to people's lives, so I knew that working in international development was something that I really wanted to experience.

After finding out more about the programme and meeting other volunteers at my interview, I was even more excited to take part. I will be working with children's organisations aiming to improve their education, which, to me, is one the most important foundations for development. Something I really like about the programme is how we will be working specifically towards some of the Millennium Development Goals – in my case, the goal of universal primary education - which makes me feel like I am taking part in something much greater than simply the project I will be working on.

The months since I found out that I had been given a place on my chosen ICS programme have flown by and I am now feeling fully prepared and seriously excited to be starting my project in just a couple of weeks!