May 18th, 2018 - Lauryn Mitchell


This Friday I was able to enjoy a free day with friends and go to some new places in Cusco. Even though my day was fun and eventful, my roommate was not feeling well and wasn’t able to enjoy it with me. She has been sick and I hate that so many students have been getting sick while on the trip. While she rested I went to lunch with Taylor, Jake, Dominique, Kylie, Brandon, Lauren, Sarah, and Marie. We went to a restaurant in the plaza called Pachatos and enjoyed delicious burgers and fries. After eating lunch, we were able to go the infamous “black market” store called El Molino. This is a place in Cusco that sells products at a low price. It is illegal but is accepted here and everyone knows about it and shops there. I was able to find some Nike items for a low price and I am really happy with the deals I was able to get. 

Although I enjoyed my time out today, I couldn’t help but worry about my roommate and friend, Bri. We pretty much spend each day together and do mostly everything today while in Peru. We get on each other’s nerves but we love to have each other around and I’ve grown to really care for her. We went out last night to the clubs and had a fun time but our fun was met with her sickness and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Her getting sick only showed me how much I missed her and how appreciative I should be of good health. Being in a place where we are not used to eating the food, there is always a chance of getting sick. We take for granted all of the clean and easily accessible water we have in the states and the food we have. We never really had to think much about our health or eating certain foods around town or even worrying about the water we use.

I realized how blessed we are in the states to not only have clean drinking water but be able to shower as long as we wish and eat whenever we want. I noticed that health is something that a lot of people take for granted, including myself and I couldn’t imagine going through what some of the other students have had to go through while being here. I am blessed and privileged back home to not think about my health as much. It also made me aware that we should conserve more water and focus on clean water even more. It was interesting to learn in one of the lectures how Peru has so much water but only a small percentage of it is safe to use. That was so shocking to me how a country with water in such abundance has gotten to a place where they have to be cautious with the amounts they use and can’t even drink from the tap.



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