As I was looking back through pictures and souvenirs bought over the past few months, I not only realized how quickly my time here is coming to an end, but also all the amazing adventures I have been able to experience over the past four months. The past few weeks of traveling have truly lead to some incredible memories and stories. My adventures first began with a trip to the beautiful, but very touristy town of Copacabana in Bolivia and touring some native floating islands on Lake Titicaca, each one home to about five families. The people of this tribe were forced to the islands (on which they have to keep laying down new reeds every few years, so they will not sink into the lake) by the powerful Incans, and have lived there ever since in their small, single-room, reed constructed houses. The children travel by rowboat every morning to a different island, where they have one school. Because of tourism, the people here have begun to learn Spanish, but it is not their native language and they embrace their own tribal culture and religion, rather than that brought on by the Spaniards. The next magnificent adventure I got to be a part of was a four day trek to Machu Picchu. However, it was not all hiking, though we did get to hike part of the Inca Trail; my friend and I elected not to do the whole thing because of the diversity we would be able to experience with this other trip (including biking, hiking, rafting, and zip lining). Our group was just so wonderful and diverse, made up of a man from Italy, who taught me how to properly eat spaghetti, a Polish guy from France, who has lived in China the past several years, and who I believe has visited the most countries of anyone I have ever met (he gave me lots of advice of all the places I need to travel to next), an incredibly intelligent guy from Ireland, who has had job opportunities with credit card fraud and processing companies, my friend from North Carolina, who is currently living in Lima and working with a surfing-missionary program, a girl from Washington DC, who is spending about six months down here traveling and writing for her NPO, and a girl from Germany, who had been teaching in Chile for several months and we picked her up in one of the small towns along the way, as she was attempting to take a bus to Machu Picchu, but none of them could make it through because of the recent sixteen landslides, and of course our awesome, knowledgeable, Cusquenan tour guide. The first day was all biking, beginning at 14,275 feet on a nice paved road and ending with us racing through the mud on a narrow back road in the mountains. The following two days we hiked through mud, straight up steep hills, on the sides of cliffs, under and over landslides, and waterfalls, through the beautiful diversity of the Inca Jungle. Along the way, we encountered hundreds of different plants, including coffee, cocoa, coca, avocado, ketamine, and many more. We learned about the history and culture of the mighty Incan People and the glimpses that still exists in parts of Peru to this day. We finally made it the third day to the town at the base of Machu Picchu, called Aguas Calientes, where we were able to enjoy the relaxing, natural hot springs. The following morning we woke up at 4am to begin our hike to the top. The first bus leaves at 5:30am, so if you want to beat the crowd, you have to hike the straight-up trail from the bridge right outside town (that opens at 5) in less than an hour. So we booked it. Being one of the first few people to arrive up there in the morning, drenched in sweat but feeling somewhat accomplished is just such a magnificent and beautiful experience, as you catch glimpses of the ancient ruins and timeless, huge mountains through the fog. Because we were within the first 250 people up there in the morning, we were able to hike up the mountain right behind the ancient city after our tour and enjoying some coffee. It was another steep climb, but the view from the top was like no other. We sat at the top for several hours just admiring the hugeness, yet detailed work of God´s creation and the unimaginable intelligence and work that it took to create this ancient home of the Incas, while we enjoyed our fresh mangos and avocado. The rest of the day was spent wandering around the ruins, getting chased by a llama, encountering an old Incan Bridge on the trail hovering over a cliff, and racing back down the path from the top to see if we could beat the bus down, all the while focusing hard not to twist an ankle. This place, though a mind-blowing wonder to see (obviously, as an average of 2,500 people visit it every day), is so much more than that to the people here. They feel such a connection to it and their ancestors, and they will all tell you of the “energy” that it possesses. My Cusquenan sister even went to visit for a weekend because she was going through a difficult time. Even though our guide has been there hundreds of times, you could see his excitement as we got closer and he told us that he felt like he was being called home. I am grateful to get to experience a little bit of the true culture here and to have gone on this absolutely unforgettable adventure, but I am also just excited to spend time at my home back in Cusco with my family and my dear friends that I have made here, as I make the most of my time here over my last two weeks.
The last several months have truly flown by and I can hardly believe that I only have about three weeks left in this wonderful country. For the past month or so, I have been working at one of the government run Centro de Salud´s in Cusco – a complete 180° change from the private medical clinic I was at before (which I did have the luxury of staying in this past weekend with an IV in my arm, recovering from salmonella and several other bacteria found roaming in my stomach and small intestines). These "centro de salud" health centers are the places where the general population of Cusco and the surrounding highlands come for any kind of health care, from pediatrics and obstetrics to needing a tooth pulled by the dentist (there are very few fillings done here because they are too expensive; instead if you have a cavity or a tooth that is giving you pain, they just pull it out). We have seen patients ranging from 8 days to 96 years old. When I arrive in the mornings around 7:30 or 8:00, there is a line wrapped around the outside of the building. Before entering into the main waiting room, every single patient must first go through “triaje”, where they obtain their weight, height, blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. It is a way for the doctors to be able to observe the patients´ general health, since no one goes in for check-ups or physicals after the age of 7. After just a few hours have passed in the morning, I will have easily taken over one hundred different blood pressures. I have also been assigned to work in “topico” a good bit, in which we give injections (lots of antibiotics, which you can purchase without a prescription and penicillin as well) and care for any wounds or injuries. We get to see such a range of patients here, including a little boy stabbed in the corner of his eye with a pencil (yes, this one was very difficult for me), a man with a dog bite in his arm that cut deeply through the muscle, a 16-year old girl having the stitches from her recent cesarean section removed, and an elderly woman (she only spoke the native language, Quechua) who´s toenail was almost completely ingrown and had to be removed. The people come in for minor injuries as well that simply need to be cleansed and cared for because they do not have medicines such as iodine, hydrogen peroxide, or antibacterial ointment available in the convenience of their own homes. I have really enjoyed getting to work at this place, meeting the Peruvian medical students doing their rotation here, getting to know other volunteers from Canada, Germany, England, Australia, and the US, and being able to build relationships with the wonderful doctors and nurses at this place.
Another big addition to my daily schedule over the past month or so is an afternoon volunteer position with the missionary organization called Project CORASON. Along with about four other volunteers, I travel in the afternoon a little ways out of the main city, to a more rural area. As we are walking up the dirt road to the church building where we hold our afternoon “club”, we are greeted by children running up to us, embracing us with hugs, calling out, “Hola, hermana!” The major purpose of this afternoon club for the children of this rural area is to keep them busy and entertained, so they do not get involved or drug into bad situations. Every day is a different activity, some days we just play soccer, volleyball, Frisbee, basketball, and jump rope outside. With the older kids, we will do an activity like wood-working, cooking, or making some craft out of leather. We have English classes and Bible lessons a few days throughout the week as well. The children race up the hill everyday as though it is their first day coming, and the joy that they bring is just so beautiful and encouraging. I learned about this program through the small church that I recently found through some crazy connections. After several months of truly learning what it means to be somewhat alone and without community, having to turn to and rely on God alone, and not another person, I was provided with this incredible group of Christians that hold a church service every Sunday night. I was told about this church by my Spanish teacher who´s boyfriend is a teacher at the University here and happened to have a student in his class who is a missionary from the US, but has lived here about 15 years now. The people I have met through this all have incredible stories about the work God has done in their lives here in Peru. One family lives in the rural hillside, about an hour outside of Cusco. They have eight children, biologically, two adopted from Peru, and at the moment 40 foster children living in their orphanage that they started here years ago. They are originally from the US, but the father is German, so all the children speak English, German, Spanish, Quechua, and whatever other language they chose to study in school. There are several families here who have left their lives at home to come serve in this country, as well as many students taking a gap year after high school or college, or just desiring a break from their jobs at home. So many of these people saw a need that simply needed to be met and generously donated time, money, work, or knowledge. So the most common question asked here, is “So, what are you doing here, what is your story?” Often times, if you are going to church and are from a foreign country, people will assume that you must be a missionary working on a project here in Peru. After hearing this question many, many times, I started to think about it more and about the term “missionary”, which by definition means one who is sent to witness and share their faith to all peoples of different cultures. And, isn´t that what we are all daily, called to be: in our speech, actions, and interactions with all different types of individuals. Why do we have to have the term pinned to us, be in a foreign country, or be on a specific “mission trip” to be living our lives this way? Because you meet so many incredible people here, but know in the back of your mind that you very may well never get the opportunity to see them or talk to them again in this lifetime, it truly makes you want to chose your actions when around them, as well as your words and topics of discussion wisely in order to make the most of every moment.
