I am back in Colorado. It is nice to be back home, but I miss my friends already and am expecting a bit of reverse culture shock as the weeks go on. I have given presentations at 4 US Rotary clubs, which has been a perfect chance to share about my experiences. It truly was an awesome year. Thanks Rotary!

Here are some differences between clubs in the US and Peru:

• In Peru clubs often hold meetings in members’ houses; most clubs meet at night, around 8:30 or 9:00, and can go until 11:30. Actually the meetings usually officially start at 8:00 but no one shows up for at least half an hour.
• Meetings tend to last longer than in the US, and projects sometimes take a while to get done, because everything tends to move slower in Peru. But they do get done!
• Clubs tend to have smaller budgets than in the US; Peru has no Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars studying abroad because the district does not have enough money to fund the scholarship.
• There is usually no program speaker at the meetings, just club members talking about what projects the club is working on. Sometimes, one member will read a short story/paragraph that has something to do with Rotary’s idea of “service above self.”
• In my club, we also have a raffle every week for a small prize. I once won twice in one night. It was awesome.
• Despite differences, Peruvian Rotarians also show great respect for Rotary and are proud to be part of the organization. Rotary signs, usually in parks or green space, are everywhere in Lima, and all over the counry!
• The members of the clubs are also very welcoming and willing to help out the community as much as they can. My Rotary club, San Martiniano, was like a family to me.

Last BBQ at my house

It has been a week full of despedidas (going-away parties). Of course it was fun seeing everyone but hard to say goodbye. I guess I’ll just have to come back and visit!

Dinner with the Mesias family

A gift from my host club

Rotary San Martiniano

Location of TB patients in the community

I visited several tuberculosis clinics when in Lima. Unfortunately, TB is a huge problem here. Multidrug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) and the even worse Extensive Drug Resistant TB is growing.  The disease is prevalent in shanty towns that have been built into the hills surrounding Lima. The houses here are built of cheap materials, and often lack running water and electricity.

However, even in clinics with limited resources, TB treatment is improving. Patients are required to come to the clinic daily to receive their medications. In some communities, the health workers will personally visit patients in their homes to make sure they follow up with the treatment. I enjoyed learning more about the TB situation in Peru and might be interested in conducting TB research in the future.

TB medication: 1 box for each patient

Houses in the hills

Medical records

Cli-Ché. My favorite graffiti in Bogota.

Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is the smallest German-speaking country in the world, the only alpine country to lie entirely within the Alps, and has a population of only 35,000. It’s hard to believe that this country has fewer citizens than some U.S. universities. But while traveling through Colombia I met one of them! One of the 35,000! I don’t know why but for some reason it was exciting to meet a Liechtensteiner. Makes me want to visit.

This sign outside a restaurant in Colombia says, “Open from Tuesday to Sunday from 4pm to 11pm, MORE OR LESS.” Typical.

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Riding up the cable car (funicular) to the top of Bogota. Scary!

Colombia was one of my craziest and most random trips yet. I met my friends Britney, Marc and Anu in Bogota and we traveled for about two weeks. We visited the capital Botoga, Cartagena on the Caribbean coast, Medellin in the mountains, and spent a day in the coffee region, Zona Cafetera. The trip included adventures such as bathing in a mud volcano, swimming at a beautiful white sand beach, going to an international (and legal!) cock fight, and para gliding over Medellin (where Pablo Escobar lead the Medellin Cartel in the drug trade years ago).

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The mud volcano

Mud massages

Playa Blanca

Caribbean coast

Chicken fight ring

Fanous Botero sculpture in Medellin

Paragliding in Medellin

Horseback riding in the Coffee Zone

Made it to Colombia!

To get to Colombia to meet my friends, I had to take a solo bus trip from Quito to Bogota. Crossing the border was a bit confusing, but the real problem was that the trip took 32 hours. 32! They told me it was going to take 18…And to make things worse, they showed the movie Taken during the ride. During this movie, a young girl goes to Paris and gets kidnapped. It was not the kind of movie a gringa traveling solo through Colombia needs to see. But the good news is, I made it safe and sound.

The Ecuador/Colombia border

I had another solo travel adventure up through Ecuador and into Colombia. I started in Guayaquil in the south, where I stayed with some Rotaract friends. From there I made my way to Cuenca in the mountains and found more Rotaract friends. I hadn’t actually met these people before arriving, but nonetheless they took me into their homes, fed me, and showed me around. One of the great benefits of Rotary–truly a worldwide network!

Rotaract Guayaquil

My next stop was Banos, a beautiful town in the mountains surrounded by a giant volcano and many waterfalls. Here I had my first try at Canyoning, which is rapelling down waterfalls. The last waterfall was 45m high and wonderfully scary and awesome at the same time.

Canyoning

That's me at the top!

Then it was off to visit the jungle, in Tena. I went without any plans and luckily met a nice French-Canadian couple on my bus who was doing a two-night stay in a jungle lodge. I went with them and had another fun jungle experience, swimming near waterfalls, canoing across rivers, hiking through primary forest, visiting a local community, and playing with the pet monkey, Tonio (who was probably really dirty but oh well, how often do you get to play with  monkeys?!).

Tonio the squirrel monkey

Making chicha, a fermeted corn drink

I finished the Ecuador trip in Quito, with a lovely visit to the middle of the world. Literally, the middle of the world where latitude is 0 0’0″. At the Mitad del Mundo museum, I had fun watching water spin down the drain different directions depending on hemisphere, standing in the two halves at once, and balancing an egg on its end.

The middle of the world!

Balancing and egg, VERY exciting