Health insurance worker's charity trip of a lifetime
But it made up her week's work on her visit to a town in the Kulungus region of northern Brazil, one of the poorest areas of the Goiás state.
She was there after being named as someone who had made a difference in work or the community at BCWA parent company Simplyhealth's Being the Difference Ball in July.
Lisa's hard work on BCWA's Charity Committee helped her company raise money for community initiatives and helped the firm win the Community Award at the inaugural Business Awards in 2007 run by Western Daily Press sister paper the Evening Post.
She was a popular choice for nomination by her colleagues and was picked along with her colleague Iain Nash and eight other winners from the Simplyhealth Group to travel to Brazil.
Plans for a medical centre to be built in Calvacante were made 20 years ago, but lack of funding left the townspeople with an empty shell of a building and no way of turning it into something useable.
"After waiting for the building to be finished for so many years, and being let down time and time again by people offering help, the villagers of Calvacante had stopped believing that they would ever have a new medical centre so our arrival came as a real surprise," said Lisa.
"We started work almost immediately, sanding down all the walls of the eight-room building then we began installing windows and building an access ramp.
"When it was finally ready for painting we asked the local villagers what colour they wanted and mixed the paint by hand until we'd got the right shade of blue."
Although Lisa and the rest of the Simplyhealth team were concerned about the language barrier, their fears were allayed when they met their translator, who made it possible for everyone to work together and communicate with ease, even giving them the chance to socialise.
"The camp fires we had each night were a really great way to catch up with each other and swap stories from the day as well as plan the next day's work and, as the villagers would often come and join us, it was a great chance to bond and unwind.
"One night, one of the villagers offered us a guitar so we could share all the songs we could think of from back home. Listening to Abba songs combined with traditional Brazilian music was quite an experience!
"Visiting the children was a great experience and they were so keen to find out about life in England and how it compared to their own.
"They found it very strange that most of us lived in different towns from those of our family members because they had all grown up surrounded by their family, often living in houses with their parents and grandparents.
"We were also given the chance to visit a local tribeswoman who produced Madhok flour that the villagers could then use to make bread.
"She told us she was worried that without anything to keep the next generations of villagers in Calvacante there would be nobody for her to pass on her knowledge to and the traditions that had lasted so many years would be lost.
"The medical centre and the jobs and training it will offer will make a big difference to future generations of Calvacante and hopefully help to keep the village together."
After all their hard work the Simplyhealth team were able to meet the deadline for the completion of the medical centre and hold an opening ceremony to celebrate.
"Getting to understand exactly how important the medical centre was for Calvacante and the surrounding towns was incredibly humbling," said Lisa.
"When we held the opening ceremony, everyone turned up to see the medical centre's launch. There we so many people there, it was astonishing.
"Once the ceremony was over, some of us wanted to offer extra gifts of thanks to individual villagers we had worked closely with.
"This was another really emotional moment as it was also a chance to say goodbye before we all headed back to Bristol."
Lisa has already made plans to return to Brazil and visit Calvacante again to offer further help and meet friends she made.
"As a group, the 10 of us have decided we would love to offer more help and we will be meeting very soon to discuss ideas such as sending supplies and helping raise money for Calvacante," she said.
"While in Brazil we met a girl called Bella who wanted to become a doctor and desperately needed the funds to get her the right training.
"We hope to be able to raise enough money for her to fulfil this dream and give her the chance to serve her community."
Comment on this story