Where There Be Dragons: Andes and Amazon

On the last day of my trip to Peru and Bolivia our instructors asked the group to brainstorm words that qualified in some way the trip we had just completed. Concentrating some of the most influential three months of my life into a word seemed like an impossible task, but as I talked to the people who had walked with me around mountains, who had stopped to examine tiny flowers on the ground and gotten distracted by an especially beautiful pebbles, who had danced their hearts away holding the hands of their host sisters and brothers, the word that I felt fit the most was Care. This program taught me that to care is so many things. I felt cared for by my instructors and the other students on my course, my host family fed me soup and tea with every meal when I got sick. I couldn't have asked for a better course on compassion and adventure, on culture and dancing and cooking and feeling. I think back a lot to the time that I spent in South America and the people that I spent it with. My life has changed a lot since then but the person I am since leaving this program is much more prepared to handle it all.