Travel diaries: Peru edition
Traveling can be a way to expand your world and give you an open mind about cultures that are not your own. Kortney Schwartz, who has been to Mexico several times and Peru twice, shares her experience living in Peru for a summer.
Q: Why did you decide to take this trip?
It has always been my dream to teach English as a second language, so I had been looking into taking a trip overseas with my sister. We considered many different options, including China, Armenia, and Peru, but we ultimately decided when we landed on Huancayo, Peru, a mountain town nestled in a valley of the Andes Mountain range.
Q: What were you expecting?
I had been to the same town and village the summer before my sister and I took this trip, so I had some clear expectations going into it the second time around. However, living is vastly different from visiting a place, so my expectations preparing for the trip shifted toward how to sustain my health in order to remain effective as a teacher. My Peruvian host family went above and beyond to provide for us, and I quickly learned to fall in love with the rhythms of everyday life in Huancayo.
Q: What happened that were you not expecting?
I was not expecting the love and acceptance we experienced from the community there. Our country's demands have reached to all corners of the earth, not excluding this mountain town in the JunÃn region, which produces potatoes in many forms for export to the U.S. I expected there to be some hostility coming from a newly emergent consumerist society, oppressed by export demands from big business. After all, we stuck out on the streets of Huancayo- towering a foot above the locals, pale skin, and bright red hair- and no less than if we had worn American flag sweatshirts everywhere we went (which did not happen, even on the fourth of July). We did encounter some derogatory remarks about our skin color, but we were met with nothing but respect from a multitude of people. To them, we were just people- not Americans, not white, not privileged. It was a lovely un-expectation.
"This trip helped change my view of the rural "poor"; since in monetary value they were of little value, they were defined by the flourishing of their lives- how much peace, joy, and love could come from what little means they had."
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