Being the type of person I am, I always make plans and have clear outlines of what I will be doing before participating in most activities. This is probably best exemplified this summer in Peru when on a mini trip from Lima to Cusco, 600 miles to the southeast, I had prepared a color coded itinerary of our trip: plans for what hostel we were staying in and hour outlines of what museums and archeological sites we should visit. My on-site mentor, Dr. Sixto Sanchez saw this itinerary the night before our trip and burst into laughter. “You Americans,” he said “always need to have everything planned. You need to be like Peruvians just show up to a place and make it work out.”

Well, taking his advice of dropping my habits of knowing what to expect is not easy. So many times in my Peruvian experience, I was surprised. Surprised that understanding the world of statistics, was actually very fun. Surprised that my hospital shadowing experience with Dr. Sanchez could be so rewarding. Surprised to find that only 5% of Peruvians I encountered looked like the Quechuan images that appear when you google image search “peru people.” Surprised at each little unique custom and tradition that differed from American ways and similarly surprised at each part of Peru that was indistinguishable from America. Although these experiences all were new and challenged my ideas and expectations of my summer, none of them were ever greeted without a smile on my face.

I can say I have been nothing but grateful for this summer I have been given: enhanced by the MIRT friends I have made in Washington and in Peru. I have learned countless things about paper writing and epidemiology. This type of research was previously unknown to me, however now that I have understood just a small portion of what it is like to be an epidemiologist or biostatistician, I am truly fascinated by the field of Public Health and want to look into careers that will include this! I also really understand study designs now and I actually think about study validity when I hear people say “new research shows…” Besides this major outcome of a new love for Public Health, the MIRT program has taught me simpler things in life such as the importance of really reading the news and being aware of the larger global picture. I am also proud to say I have picked up a little of the Peruvian bargaining skills that are required everywhere in Peru: from getting a taxi to going shopping.

Lastly, I have also gained a new sense of how privileged and lucky I am. Even when I get stressed at school, all I need to do is think of all the other people out there in the world and how there are much larger problems than my physics exam. This mentality might be best exemplified by an experience in a mountainous village called Pisac where Andrea and I were visiting some Incan ruins. I somehow dropped my expensive photography camera and was in such a state of shock I actually teared up. However, as much self pity and anger I felt, these emotions quickly vanished when stepping outside the ruins. Among all the people who tried to sell their crafts to the tourists, we met Juanita, an old woman who was selling her trinkets and hand-woven tapestries while taking care of an orphan child named Violeta. It only took a little time talking to her for my tears to dry and be replaced by awe for this woman.

The people I met and places I went were truly unforgettable. So to conclude, I merely want to say “Muchisimas Gracias” to MIRT and my mentors. Every single part of this trip was extremely rewarding. I know that even as I continue to go abroad and engage in research, I will still remember this summer indefinitely.  

Thats it on Peru! Look forward to more posts from being back at school at my new (one time) job as wedding photographer!

Here is More on Machu Picchu since I did not talk about it alot in the picture posts below:

ABOUT MACHU PICCHU

• Nobody has been able yet to solve the mystery about how the transportation of huge blocks of limestone to the top of the mountain was made for the construction of the city. How the Incas built more than 14,000 miles of roads, 600 terraces, thousands of steps, several temples, 16 fountains (sometimes using up to 20 tons stones) and why they abandoned the city. the general belief is that they used hundreds of men to push the stones up inclined planes. A few of the stones still have knobs on them that could have been used to lever them into position; it is believed that after the stones were placed, the Incas would have sanded the knobs away, but a few were overlooked.

• probably created around 1450 near the height of the Inca Empire. No one knows what the real purpose of Machu Picchu was. Some say was a prison and some say it was a defensive retreat, but the most common belief is that Machu Picchu was the estate of an Inca emperor. It is also generally accepted that Machu Picchu was a self-sustaining city. The evidence for this comes from the farming terraces (grew Chicha). (However, Some believe that the farming terraces are actually structures to help Machu Picchu withstand earthquakes). The Sacred Urubamba river does almost a complete loop around Machu Picchu

• most significant features of Machu Picchu history = architecture (technique is called ashlar). Like the pyramids of Egypt, was created using massive stones hauled over great distances BUT the Incas did not use any kind of mortar to bind their stones together (well, Some Inca buildings were constructed using mortar, but by Inca standards this was quick, shoddy construction, and was not used in the building of important structures). Instead they cut the stones with such precision that they fit together so tightly that you could not even fit a thin knife blade between them. This design made the Inca structures highly resistant to earthquakes Furthermore: Inca walls had numerous design details that helped protect them against collapsing in an earthquake. Doors and windows are trapezoidal and tilt inward from bottom to top; corners usually are rounded; inside corners often incline slightly into the rooms; and “L”-shaped blocks often used to tie outside corners of the structure together. Walls do not rise straight from bottom to top, but are offset slightly from row to row.

ABOUT INCAS:

• Tracing the history of the Incas is difficult because the Inca relied heavily on their people to carry important information. no written language, history was passed down by oral historians. Even mathematical system required special people to interpret it (used a system of knotted, colored string - quipu - to keep track of livestock and other business. However these strings required special “rememberers” to interpret what the strings meant. While quipu still exist today, their meaning died w/ rememberers.

• The Incas believed the spirits of their creator resided in the natural elements—the sun, the moon, the earth, trees, etc.
 In fact, the Incas believed that their Emperors were descended from the sun god Inti. This gave Inca Emperors demigod status.

• Inca art was plain but precise (functionality ie. Ceremonial purposes over aesthetics). The Incas did, however, create very elaborate, brightly colored tapestries made from alpaca (practical purpose of binding political contracts)

• For the first 200 years the Inca were a small group of people; however around 1438 the Emperor Pachacutec’s aggressive military expansion turned the Inca civilization into the most powerful nation in South America. Pachacutec’s rule is generally accepted to be the starting point of the Inca Empire that would reign for the next two generations. After the death of Pachacutec’s successor, the Inca Empire was split into two factions, each led by one of the Emperor’s sons. The division eventually led to a civil war that wouldn’t be resolved until 1532; the same year the Spanish conquistadors arrived. Unfortunately a lot of Inca art would be lost during the Spanish rule (melted down countless examples of Inca metalwork)

HIGHLIGHTS OF MACHU PICCHU:

• Its three primary buildings are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. These are located in the Sacred District and are dedicated to Inti, their sun god and greatest deity.

• The ruins of Machu Picchu are divided into two main sections known as the Urban and Agricultural Sectors, divided by a wall. The Agricultural Sector is further subdivided into Upper and Lower sectors. According to archaeologists, the urban sector of Machu Picchu was divided into three great districts: the Sacred District, the Popular District to the south, and the District of the Priests and the Nobility. The Popular District, or Residential District, is the place where the lower-class people lived. It includes storage buildings and simple houses. The royalty area, a sector for the nobility, is a group of houses located in rows over a slope; the residence of the Amautas (wise persons) was characterized by its reddish walls, and the zone of the Ñustas (princesses) had trapezoid-shaped rooms. The Monumental Mausoleum is a carved statue with a vaulted interior and carved drawings. It was used for rites or sacrifices.

• The Incas never used the wheel in any practical manner. Its use in toys demonstrates that the principle was well-known to them, although it was not applied in their engineering. The lack of strong draft animals, as well as steep terrain and dense vegetation issues, may have rendered the wheel impractical. There are more than one hundred flights of stone steps — often completely carved from a single block of granite — and numerous water fountains. These were interconnected by channels and water-drains perforated in the rock that were designed for the original irrigation system. Evidence suggests that the irrigation system was used to carry water from a holy spring to each of the houses in turn.

• The Intihuatana = ritual stone. These stones are arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstice. The name of the stone (coined maybe by Bingham) is derived from the Quechua language: inti means ‘sun’, and wata- is the verb root ‘to tie, hitch (up)’ (‘huata-’ is simply a Spanish spelling). The Quechua -na suffix derives nouns for tools or places. Hence inti watana is literally an instrument or place to ‘tie up the sun’, often expressed in English as “The Hitching Post of the Sun”. Inca believed the stone held the sun in its place along its annual path in the sky. At midday on 21 March and 21 September the sun stands almost above the pillar, casting no shadow at all. Researchers believe that it was built as an astronomic clock or calendar.

• The Guardhouse is a three-sided building, with one of its long sides opening onto the Terrace of the Ceremonial Rock. The three-sided style of Inca architecture is known as the wayrona style.