Collaborative Mural in Flora Tristan, Peru

This summer I had the opportunity to travel through Peru for two weeks with two inspiring friends, one of whom is a gifted visual artist, and the other a gifted restorative justice facilitator. While there we made many new and old acquaintances, being that one of my friends had been to Peru once before.

JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

We made our first stop in Lima, staying at the home of our friend Frances, a nun. From there we flew to Cusco - the capital of the ancient Incan Empire - before heading off on a four-day hike through the jungle along the Urubamba River to Macchu Picchu led by Samuel, our tour guide. At Macchu Picchu we basked in the glow of the Andean wonder, rising at 4am to hike the one-hour climb up Macchu Piccu mountain, stone steps carved into her mountainside. I sketched atop the Sun Gate, and spent the day wondering at how the ancients lived in community with each other. From there we headed back to Cusco, and at the invitation of Samuel, travelled to his home pueblo of Raqchi where we enjoyed cooking a meal together with his dad, stepmom and sister in an outdoor oven we built made of balls of red earth. We ate potatoes coooked in that oven, avocado, alpaca cheese, and bread outside on the warm earth.

Giving colored pencil and marker sketch portraits as goodbye and thank-you gifts to our hosts, we headed on an overnight bus to Arequipa 6 hrs to the south. There we stayed two nights with a local family and created the mural with Flora Tristan youth. We also enjoyed Lake Titicaca and the islands of Amantani, Uros, and Tacquile; and back to Lima to say goodbye to Frances, but not before honoring her request for us to paint over her graffitti-ridden front door with a mural of flowers.

PAINTING THE MURAL

A highlight of my travels in Peru was spending my birthday, June 4th, with a special group of young kids at the Flora Tristan School in Flora Tristan district, city of Arequipa, Peru. Before I left the United States I communicated with the agency responsible for bringing volunteers to the school to teach - Traveller Not Tourist. I asked for drawings and input for the kids as to what they might want to draw. Once we arrived at the school after a 45 minute crowded bus ride (and I do mean crowded, like folks hanging out the windows, elbows in faces, and sitting on the floor), I was met with a beautiful list of things - dinosaurs, flowers, butterflies, tigers!

Here's the school wall we painted on in the valley, surrounded by low mountains