Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By Dennis Merritt Jones
Camarillo Acorn

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I departed the airplane and approached the terminal in Cusco, Peru, the faint echo of music wafted through the air. When I entered the terminal, something I never would have expected happened.

My eyes welled up with tears. In front of me stood a band of about 10 Peruvian musicians playing guitars, wooden flutes, mandolins, percussion and hand drums.

Their music, which was traditional Peruvian folk in style, so deeply penetrated my heart that in an instant I felt I was returning home to a part of myself I had long ago forgotten. I experienced my soul opening as it began to commingle with the energy of those to whom I was a foreigner- and I had an epiphany right then and there.

While I knew my house was many thousands of miles away in California, my home was right where I was in that moment, in the presence of others who looked so different from me, and yet my soul confirmed these "others" were clearly a part of my family.

In that moment, any anxiety or fear I might have had about being a stranger in a distant and foreign land simply dissolved.

Shirley MacLaine once wrote, "The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends."

It is truly extraordinary how people from just about every culture open up to us as we open up to them.

I had a similar experience on a journey to China last year as I sat in a crowded restaurant in Beijing. However, this time it wasn't with musicians; it was as I gazed into the eyes of a young Chinese girl, perhaps 3 years old.

She stood outside staring at me through the window and appeared to be looking directly into my soul. In that holy instant I saw the face of God, and once again all sense of separation dissolved and I was "at home." It was the peak moment of the entire trip for me.

The single common element in my encounters in both Peru and China and every other country to which I've traveled were the people.

What I've come to love most about travel to other countries is not just the amazing historical landmarks and the stunning beauty of uniquely different landmasses, but the people.

By experiencing diverse cultures so unlike that of my own, I've been given the opportunity to witness, marvel at, respect and appreciate our differences and, even more so, the universal sameness we all share.

To be able to be so present with others in their own habitat so far from mine and at the same time feel a deep and profound sense of connectedness is a rather disarming experience.

Sometimes I wonder what might happen if every human being had the opportunity to travel to foreign lands and see for themselves that we have far more in common than we have differences.

Perhaps that is where true world peace might start. When we can look beyond size, age, gender, nationality, color, culture, religion or any of the other many labels we tend to place upon others and ourselves, we shall realize we are all very much the same.

We all are born; we all die. We all laugh; we all cry. We all know joy; we all know pain. We all share the same planet, and we all share the same name: human being. This to me is the deeper meaning of traveling the world.

Dennis Merritt Jones is the spiritual director for OneSpirit Center for Conscious Living in Simi Valley. His website is www.OneSpirit.org.

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Dennis, how eloquently you put the experience.   I too, have had much similiar reactions in Peru both times I have gone.    It is a wonderful country with amazing people.  The music at the airport hit me just like you described.  One of the other times was on the inca trail at an outpost where I just sat and cried.  I looked through the tiny window looking at the trail that stretched out far into the mountains and I just knew I had seen this before.  It was a soul searching experience to say the least.   Peru is a very magical place if you are open to it.  We took our daughter there for the first time when she was 11.  I think it should be a prerequisite for all America's children to visit a 3rd country world, and see other cultures.  I know my child is much better for the experiences she has had in other countries.  She is 17 now and wants to travel and make a difference in the world as we know it.

Dear Joyce,

I am a Peruvian young woman, and I really appreciate the way you both describe my beloved country. It is definitely true that people are very open and that we welcome foreigners like no other places, but maybe sometimes it is too much since poor people, especially from the highlands (Cusco is there) admire "Gringos" as they call you, unfortunately they want just dollars or euros but do not really love our country. Most people in Peru want to migrate because they have no money to get by and because we are seen they way you mention, a third world country, and want to belong to other more sophisticated cultures. I have been to the States a couple of times, and it's beautiful too, but I wouldn´t leave my country for anything.

Beatrice,
Yes, I have seen that in Cusco and the highlands.  There is a lot of poverty and the amount of street children in Cusco breaks my heart.  There have been many changes there since the first time we visited in 2000 so I think that the tourism dollars are helping somewhat to ease many people's burdens.  Or at least I hope so.  My husband and I have a godchild  (Pacha) in Cusco, in fact, my husband is there now.  It wasn't possible financially for me to go or I would be there too.  We have a small adventure tour company that does 1 - 2 trips per year.  We give back both to the local children and to the porters who work so hard on the Inca Trail.  We have seen that the porters usually don't have sleeping bags to sleep in during the trek and so we donate a good sleeping bag per customer to the porters.  We are in the process of trying to get our company designated as a non-profit company which will then donate the majority of the profits to help the peruvian people in the mountains.   We also support the HOPE foundation that helps with schools and education in the highland villages.  I know, that in the scheme of things, what we do isn't much but we try to do what we can.   I can only imagine that for the highland people especially, it is hard to truely love something (Peru) when you are just simply trying to survive the best you can.  We try to take groups up to one of the villages to buy the textiles directly so the artisans can get all the money rather than just some of it.  www.onemoon.us

Congradulations to you. Sounds like you have come a long way in this life. Good for you. A person from your past. Sandy