Reflections on my Experiences

Sitting here on my last night in Pisco, I can´t help but be forlorn and sad. Its really strange how, in the midst of such a horrible tragedy, you can so easily forget the experiences that people had to go through. We have such a wonderful time helping the people, but I think I sometimes forget that I am living in a disaster zone. Often, on many mornings our leader gives us the instructions, ¨We are going to take these rocks, move them over there, and, uh, try to not to get hurt and die.¨ But when you begin to sit back and think of what this was, why you are here its terribly heartbreaking. On our last day of doing rubble removal, we were working with a lovely family. They had brought out their speakers and radio, and blasted classic 80´s tunes and rock songs the whole time we worked. Me and my fellow workers danced on top of the piles that we were moving, and afterwards the family had brought us a whole tub of ice cream and hot chocolate. It was AMAZING, Awesomely amazing, and i think they really enjoyed looking at us have such a great time. Then the 13 year old kid who was on crutches, who i just assumed must have gotten hurt at Futbol practice, showed us a newspaper article that he was on the cover of. It showed his leg, completely mangled, and little skin left, i can easily place it on the top 3 list of most disturbing things i had ever seen, and proceeded to lift up his leg and show us the large contraption and pins that were holding it together, and there was a piece of his hamstring completely missing. I did everything i could to hold back the tears that i felt welling up inside of me at the sight of it. He was smiling and was having fun showing it off to us, but it was another moment that i have had on this trip where the overwhelming realization of it all catches up to me. I was later comforted by my friend who works in physical therapy though, saying that it made her happy to see that he was able to move around like he was, and that after seeing the newspaper picture, that he even still had a leg, and survived the ordeal. It was just an interesting realization, and now i am looking at pictures before i leave, seeing this for what it was and trying to let it sink in....

here is a link to the pictures of pisco, it really brings it home for me as to what happened, and why i was here...

http://s20133.gridserver.com/peruenemergencia/index.html