Chris and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Peru for 10 days in June. We wanted to take a trip together before Chris started his work as an investment banker and after Collin passed away we began thinking about the different places we could go. The more we thought about it the more we felt like a humanitarian trip was exactly what we were looking for. So we began seekig such opportunities. Conveniently Chris began volunteering at Ascend Alliance, a non-profit humanitarian company headquatered in Salt Lake, in January. He graduated from BYU in December and after Collin passed away we decided to push back moving to CA until the summer, hence the volunteering. On a side note, he was able to make such a great impact at Ascend! Anyways, we were able to get hooked up with an expedition group, the Park City 5, who was taking a trip to Peru to help build a school along with participating in other service projects in the small village of Amaru. The Park City 5 is a foundation started by 5 mothers from Park City who in a 7 month time frame, each lost a teenager - all of whom either attended or had recently graduated from Park City High School. These mothers founded this organization and have raised money to build 5 schools, one in the name of each child. They take one trip a year, those that participate are generally students from Park City High School, with a few exceptions (like us). They have already helped to build schools in Ecuador and Bolivia, so this trip to Peru was their 3rd expedition. Anyways, sorry I kind of went on a tangent. I just think what these women are doing is absolutely amazing.
The first couple of days we toured around Cusco and visited Machu Picchu. We then spent a week in Amaru participating in service and experiencing the Peruvian culture. We were very lucky to have my parents join us for the service part of the expedition! My mom lived in Bolivia for a couple of years as a child and then served a mission in Peru, so they visited those areas for a couple days and then met up with us in the village. It was so much fun to be in Peru with them!
This is our group at Machu Picchu.
There were tons of llama's at Machu Picchu and we were able to get this great picture with one!
The view from Machu Picchu of the moutain range was absolutley breath taking. This picture obviously does not do it justice at all and only shows a tiny porition of the mountains.
Chris and I and the famous Machu Picchu picture (if you google Machu Picchu you most likely will get something very similar)
This next group of pictures comes from the village. In this village they mainly speak Quechua, which is an ancient Incan dillect, however most the adults also speak Spanish. Although this wasn't too benefically for both Chris and me becuase neither of us speak Spanish. I will say though that I was very impressed with Chris's Spanglish that he claimes he picked up from his mission. For some reason whenever I tired to think of something to say in Spanish so that I could make an attempt at communicating all I could think of was Chinese words (and I don't even know very much Chinese!) Needless to say we did a lot of hand motions and thankfully my mom speeks Spanish very well and was able to help us out a bit.
Anyways, we worked on planting trees, building the school, and teaching business classes. Other group members taught additional classes such as health and hygiene. We also played in a soccer tournament and went for a hike to a beautiful lake.
We stayed in rural homestays, so we lived with families from the village for the week. The family Chris and I stayed with had the cutest daughter, Flora Desneida. She and I became great friends, even though the only communication we really had was a smile. You will see pictures.
It was interesting because the village is at a very high elevation (12000 feet) and so durning the day it was pretty hot but at night ohh it was FREEZING! I definitley thought that first night would never end because I spent it shivering in bed with very little sleep and as a result caught a horrible cold. I definitely learned my lesson and tried to bundle up better, however it was still very cold. I can't tell you how grateful I was for a warm and comfortable bed when I got home!
Chris doesn't love the picture I took of him and my dad working because I didn't catch them in action. They really did work very hard!!
These adobe bricks were heavy! I was sore for a couple of days after lifting them for a couple of hours.
Us in the traditional Peruvian clothing. It is interesting because this type of clothing is not just a custume, they wear it all the time.
Our hike to the lake. Chris stayed behind to teach another business class (which the villagers loved)
Flora Desneida with some of her friends.
Flora Desneida and me walking to dinner. It was at least a one mile hike to our group dinner location every night. I loved the walk! And when it got dark the stars were AMAZING!
Peru was such an incredible experience, one that I will always remember. I have so many more pictures and much more to say about Peru however, I am getting very tired of blogging (it takes me way too long per post!) Also coming soon is a post about my birthday and the fourth of July weekend.
Friday I took off to NY to visit Chris. I had the best time with him and cannot wait to go back (in just over a week! yay!) I miss him so much already. This whole me in Utah - him in NY thing is hard. I had a crazy/awful experience getting to NY, which is a story for another post so stay tuned.
And just in case you were wondering, yes it was a million degrees outside. Something about a heatwave. So yes, we are very sweaty in this picture. And yes we did leave the game a bit early because the heat was too much. It was still tons of fun though.
From NY I flew to CA, where I met up with my mom, to look for an apartment. We had two days of stressful searching but ending up with the perfect apartment! We are both unfamilar with the area and we were definitely led by the spirit to run into just the right people at the right time to find out about safe/good areas etc. I am really excited about the place we found. And I can't wait for Chris to see it in person.
It was so fun to be in CA with my mom. I am so happy that she came with me! We even went to the movies after getting the apartment situation figured out. Thank you so much mom for coming and for all of your help! I love you!
