3 months in Peru summed up

(From a UP Volunteer)

I can’t believe that 3 months has come and gone and while so much happened in between, I feel like I have just had an extended dream. It is a good thing that I took notes while I was there because I might not believe that I even went at all:)

Peru was incredible, and I am so thankful that I had this opportunity to travel and learn about and from another culture in this extremely diverse world. The people I have met, the experiences I have had, and the passion I felt will forever stay etched in my mind and my heart. My host mom told me at the airport that I little piece of her heart was going home with me to a country that she had never visited and to a family that she had never met…. but that’s the incredible part about traveling…. we build bridges between two cultures that might never have been made otherwise. And, just as part of her heart comes home with me, part of my heart has remained there and will remain there forever.

It was not always easy being in Peru. Although most of my e-mails were always focused on the benefits of traveling and meeting new people/cultures, my journal also recounts many hard experiences as well…loneliness, frustration, the realization that life is not, and will never be, perfect, the feelings of guilt as you remember all of the incredible blessings that we enjoy everyday here in America, confusion, and helplessness, etc. Even though these were hard experiences, they made this trip real, and I will choose to remember these experiences as well now that I am back. I sincerely hope that I have come back a different person and that the good times and the bad in Peru will continue to shape me and mold me into becoming a citizen of humanity…not just citizen of the United States of America.