Free · Certificate included

Preparing for a Mission Trip to Peru

Three countries in one, and all of them thin-aired — arrive as a guest who did the homework.

Reviewed monthly · last reviewed October 2026

50 min Beginner 7 modules Pass 80%

EspañolFor: Short-term mission team members, youth group leaders, trip coordinators and first-time travelers

What you’ll learn

Explain who you are visiting — the coast, the sierra and the selva, and why each is a different trip
Plan for altitude: acclimatisation, who should not go, and the symptoms that mean descend now
Greet, thank and apologise in Peruvian Spanish, and use a handful of Quechua and Aymara courtesies
Speak respectfully about Catholic faith lived alongside Andean practice — Pachamama and the apus
Handle the memory of the 1980–2000 internal conflict without reopening it for your own curiosity
Recognise the short-term practices that do harm — orphanage visits, photography, direct giving — and choose the ones that help
Prepare for water, food, sun, road travel and night buses before you fly

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Course outline

1
Joining work that is already there
Why Peru is not a blank page, and the posture that makes a short visit worth hosting.
6 min Quiz
2
The three Perus, and the history in the room
Coast, sierra and selva are three different trips — plus the conflict that is still living memory in the highlands.
7 min Quiz
3
Spanish that earns trust — and two words of Quechua
The phrases worth memorising, the usted rule, and why Quechua and Aymara are not dialects.
8 min Quiz Written + interactive
4
Altitude: the fact that shapes everything
Soroche, acclimatisation, who should not go, and the symptoms that mean descend now.
9 min Quiz
5
Faith, Pachamama and the apus
Catholic practice lived alongside Andean devotion — and how to talk about it without insulting your hosts.
7 min Quiz Interactive
6
Do no harm
Orphanage visits, photography, direct giving, displaced labour and one-off clinics — and what to do instead.
8 min Quiz Written + interactive
7
Water, sun, roads and the pre-flight checklist
The practical things that end trips early — plus the screening step most teams forget.
6 min Quiz Written + interactive

Sources & further reading

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