I am ashamed to admit that I am frequently surprised at the number of kind and amicable people in the world. I'm still not quite sure why I think friendly people are so rare. Maybe it is more related to my lack of noticing them rather than their lack of existance. Perhaps my charitable mood during my travels caused people to open up to me and allowed me to notice and appreciate their goodness.
In any case, I encountered many caring people while I was away. Not just my wonderful American travel companions or the Peruvians we served, but strangers on my flights and the employees of the hotel where we stayed. On my eight hour flight from L.A. to Lima I sat next to an Indian (from India) student of the air force academy on his way with a buddy to Peru for Spring Break. He was polite, friendly and gracious. He humored me by looking at pictures of my boys and flattered me by saying how adorable they are. There was also a motherly woman
next to me on my flight from Lima to Cusco who oogled over pictures of Cameron and Eli and chatted me through some wild turbulence.
next to me on my flight from Lima to Cusco who oogled over pictures of Cameron and Eli and chatted me through some wild turbulence.
I love it when the world feels small. I love it when all it takes to make a connection with someone is having one thing in common. What I already knew was the obvious, that we all have one thing in common. Our humanity. What I learned is that it really does unite us.
One evening Kim and I were wandering the streets of Cusco and came across these dancers. We watched them for awhile and after they finished I asked if I could take their photo. One young man grabbed my camera and pushed us into the picture where the others adorned our heads with their festive hats.
A couple in the market that I made some purchases from. He actually didn't like this picture, and requested that I try again but the second one didn't turn out.
Pepe and Ernesto are employees of Ascend that work with the American groups that come to do humanitarian work. They were so humble and Ernesto worked so hard to make us laugh.
This is Sabino. I bought this painting from him and then in his best English and my best Spanish we talked for 20 minutes. I showed him pictures of my family (what a proud mother I am!) and he told me about his love for art and "motos" and his bad motorcycle accident. I wanted to hug him when we said good-bye.
Teaching the kids the hokey pokey...
They told us to bring things that we could use to interact with kids. I brought this magnadoodle and asked the kids to "escribe tu nombre". They loved it.
I spent the first day in the village with the medical team. We set up a clinic that included a triage where we took vitals and a chief complaint, three exam rooms, and a small pharmacy. My role this day consisted mostly of painting the fingernails of the little girls and teaching basic toothbrushing skills. 
This girl was especially nervous, but her mother said her tooth had been hurting for over a year. I had to coax her through the entire procedure and by the end I felt like we had accomplished something major together.
The difference between this trip and summer camp though, is that the bonding was on a higher level. These people are experienced in life, and topics of discussion were more mature and meaningful. I developed a closeness and love for these people that, well, I just did. 
Saqsaywaman is known for the sheer enormity of the rocks. Without a doubt they were huge.
Pisaq had endless terraces used for farming. We were told that they reconstructed the terraces each year to rotate the soil.
Machu Picchu deserves it's own post. But anyone who has ever witnessed something breathtaking knows that pictures will never do it justice. Just imagine, an entire city in the middle of the jungle, built on top of a mountain 500 years ago. 
The most physically challenging part of our trip was climbing to the top of mount Waynu Picchu, which overlooks Machu Picchu. The way up the mountain is a rugged and steep Incan staircase, and by stairs I mean rocks. They have installed rope for help on the way up and down. 
The view of Machu Picchu from atop Waynu Picchu.
This is me, feeling thrilled at top of this mountain.
The Inca people may have spent their lives in hard labor, but not much has changed for the current Peruvian people. If you click on this picture you can see how high up the side of the mountain the farms are. To get a general idea of the magnitude of the mountains just use the buildings in the valley as a scale. No small task for the people to climb the mountain each day to work on the farms.
In society as we know it here in the United States and in westernized civilization we take the path of least resistance in most of what we do. Successful ideas and products are designed to make our lives easier. Our bread is sliced, "hand-wash only" articles of clothing are taken to the dry-cleaner, our pizza is delivered and even our pharmacy has a drive-through.
