A Single Step

 Kylie Purdy:

There are two quotes which I have found to drive a lot of my decisions in the past few years. One of those discusses our own personal comfort and ability to separate yourself from your daily routine. I think that there are certain quotes that become mechanisms that challenge us to think outside of the box. It is so easy to stay near what you know is safe, reliable, and surrounded with people you are comfortable with. But if we think about it, this isn’t really living, as Neale Donald Walsch once wrote, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”. I think about this quote when I reflect on my time spent traveling to Peru in January of 2022. The months leading up to this trip were filled with a move across the country, uncertainty, anxiety, stress from a rigorous graduate course load, and a sense of being disconnected from the world around me; a time in my life that has challenged me the most. When I think about it, this new year excursion was exactly what I needed to refresh and become more in tune with myself. 

When I thought about this trip I was excited but there was also  part of me that was filled with so many questions. I began to create  “what if” scenarios before they even happened. What if I could not travel back home alone from another country? What if I could not get through three legs of flights that separated Peru and home? What if I could not do any of this without speaking much Spanish? So yes, I was scared. The danger in this type of thinking is being so shut down that you forget to be in the moment and take risks. This was my challenge for my trip: to simply just be. o just push myself to the end of my comfort zone. So I got on that plane because I felt a calling and a purpose, that the work I would be doing in partnership with The Quispicanchi Project and my MPH program at Baylor University would overcome the fears and hesitation I held. 

My time in Peru was nothing short of fulfilling. While I did not have much time there on the ground due to my busy workload at home, those five days have still been some of the best days I have had in 2022. I came to Peru with the purpose of incorporating initiatives surrounding hygiene and women’s health, topics I am passionate about as a future public health practitioner. With the help of Paul Gramling, I was able to have those in person conversations with stakeholders and community leaders face-to-face on the ground in Peru. In having these conversations, I was able to design personalized programming that would fit the unique needs of those in the Sullumayo community. With the help of the amazing social workers at WAYRA, we ended with two projects. One focused on handwashing and dental hygiene for students at the school and the other would target educating adolescent girls on menstrual health. These programs in Sullumayo were unique because they incorporated the help of community health workers such as dentists, nurses, obstetricians, Sullumayo teachers, and Quispicanchi staff and volunteers. If I have taken away anything from my MPH program, it is that you can not work in silos; with every initiative, there must be a multidisciplinary approach where you work hand in hand with the community and its stakeholders. This is exactly what we did with the health initiatives at the school in Sullumayo this summer. 

It has been such a rewarding feeling to see the work that I created happening on the ground in Sullumayo. More so, seeing the results come to life has been incredibly impactful for not only myself but also the Sullumayo community members and students; Professor Cristabel stated, “Regarding the handwashing workshop, it felt very important to have, especially during a pandemic. With an activity, the students were able to see and understand how the transmission of bacteria and viruses occurs. And also, it included a practical way for them to learn. To me, the practice was very important because the kids took it very seriously”. Additionally, Professor Eduarda stated, “It is very interesting to work with the kids on their dental hygiene because there is no health clinic here in Sullumayo. Even then, the nearest one is many kilometers away and they don’t have cars to take them”.  As I read these statements, I knew that the steps I took to get to the end were well worth it. These health initiatives and their impacts have outstretched my time in Peru beyond my short five days. The long lasting presence of these practices remain my connection to the beautiful people and country. 

Lao Tzu once said that a “journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. This is exactly what I did in not only creating my health programs to complete my internship but also to get into the car to drive to the airport and get on that plane with 3,599 miles of travel ahead of me. I returned home from my journey feeling tired from the jet lag, but mostly rejuvenated and reminded that nothing great ever comes from sitting at home. Each day I was on the ground in Peru, I was not consumed with fear or stress. It was like the air was quite literally healing my soul. I will never forget waking up early on my last day and hiking up the mountain with the cross at the top in Andahuaylillas with Paul. The memory of that journey was quite literally an analogy of my journey; it was hard going up, but once you got to the top it was eye-opening, inspiring, and healing. All in all,  you have to challenge yourself to push your boundaries and see how far you can go-because you never know where you might end up!