The Peruvian Impact

Two Months in Peru

Week 8 – 04/26/2015

I took my last photograph, finished my last Spanish lesson, and gave my last hug goodbye. It’s finally time to go home. I made my way back to my hostel stopping to buy last minute gifts along the way. Well it’s been an amazing, educational, and challenging time in Peru but I was beyond ready to return home to the USA. To my fresh vegetables, to my FDA approved prescription drugs, to my domesticated dog and fresh air.

Peru challenged me everyday. The language finally came to me at the end of the two months and I now feel comfortable holding a conversation in Spanish. It challenged my understanding of what it means to be a third world country. While the center of the city was very clean and a hub for tourists, it was eye opening to venture just outside the center. Within minutes of straying from the enticing trinkets and restaurants there was overflowing dumpsters of trash surrounded by stray dogs, crumbling unfinished homes, and black fumes that jetted out from the exhaust pipes of diesel cars. These peripheral communities were living in unimaginable conditions.  Many of them fled their homes back in the 90’s when the terrorist organization The Shining Path raided their villages, killing and destroying everything they came across. They fled for their lives and ventured to the city but could not afford to live within the heart of the city, so many of them began to populate the outskirts in these slum communities. Even though I was well aware that South America would lack the regulations and standard of life that is in the US, what surprised me the most was the extent to which Peru relies on tourism and struggles to support it’s own citizens.

Tourism is a very important part of Peru’s economy, I was bombarded everyday by people trying to get me to buy some piece of processed clothing or to check out their tour circuit and I started to wonder if tourism was helping or hurting the people of Peru? With so many job opportunities within the tourism industry there is no room for innovation or entrepreneurism and also no desire to further one’s education. In fact, several Peruvians actually major in tourism. Some of them use their children to start selling bracelets and trinkets at 6 years old. And as result these children learn to sell not only the products but also themselves, relying on pity and relentless sympathy to make the sale. Is it doing more harm than good? I don’t know, but it was something that I became painstakingly aware of while I was living there.

I didn’t sleep at all my last night in Peru. The excitement and adrenaline of returning back to my home country kept me tossing and turning. I woke up at 3am to prepare for my journey home. Tired, sleepless, hungry, and sore I reached customs in Miami International Airport. Upon arrival there was a tall man in uniform asking people  “Are you American?” in the thickest most delightful accent I’ve ever heard, “Hell yeah I am!” I exclaimed as I gave him a high five and he directed me to the correct line for customs.

Touchdown USA. I felt a new sense of pride and appreciation for the United States when I returned home. Once I was through customs the first thing I did was buy a large chicken salad from the nearest food vendor. I sat down and devoured my pre-packaged salad and could feel my body coming back to life. (You see, I didn’t eat any vegetables the entire time I was in Peru because they have an open sewer system and there is Giardia in the water and they wash all their vegetables with tap water, so I didn’t want to take any chances) I took a deep breath. I was home.

I can’t say that living in Peru for two months changed my life or that I had some grand epiphany while I was there, but I did come to realize something pretty important about who I am and what makes me feel alive. Interacting with people of different cultures, traveling, and creating a meaningful story from what I experience. Film. Photography. Journalism. This is my passion.

High up in the Andean mountains taking photos of the weavers and setting up for interviews I felt inspired, happy, and full of purpose. I made a promise to myself right then and there that I would pursue this as a career. And so that is what I’m going to do, that is my next great adventure. The start of a real career, one I can say without a shred of doubt that this is what I was meant to do, this is who I am, and this is how I will make my mark on the world.

Ven conmigo.