I went to Peru two weeks ago.  It was a 10-day trip and my first trip to Latin America.  From Asia where I came, Latin America is the furthest to travel. If you travel from South Korea, it takes more than 40 hours. There’s no direct flight. You should transfer either in Canada or in U.S.. Therefore, I decided to travel Peru just after I was confirmed for the fellowship. From U.S..to Peru, I can save time and money.

My dream was started from going to the Machu picchu, but I could see more than that through this trip. I was not aware of Latin American culture, compared to European and American. I guess, majority of Latin American people would have same feeling toward Asian culture. Although it was a really really short trip, I would like to share a couple of learning from my trip through blog posts.

During the first couple of days, I stayed in Lima, the capital of Peru. Lima was a wealthy city.  There were many high-end restaurants and packed with foreign travelers. The street was clean and you can find global brand shops everywhere. I thought that Peru in overall, was really stabled and rich. However, my thought didn’t last longer. After Lima, I moved to Paracas where was a very small port town.  I took a bus from Lima to Paracas. Through the window, the view was shocking since it was totally from Lima.  There were countless “collapsing” houses and houses filled up to the mountain.

Source; Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/adpowers/27809071/in/photolist-fETzYL-eEC2WX-3swEK-7trvGA-dX4sf2-94sWho-qojAV-viZkj-57z6UU-5EoA8-fETA1Y-8PUBWX-6DrV7-4UvXpd-5n3rEA-5mYaVt-5mYaYv-fEAZqB-PV35-PzrU

Source; Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adpowers/27809071/in/photolist-fETzYL-eEC2WX-3swEK-7trvGA-dX4sf2-94sWho-qojAV-viZkj-57z6UU-5EoA8-fETA1Y-8PUBWX-6DrV7-4UvXpd-5n3rEA-5mYaVt-5mYaYv-fEAZqB-PV35-PzrU

It was obvious gap between the rich and the poor. There must be millions of reasons why the huge gap formed. One of the reasons, it’s because of an internal war in Peru. The war occurred by racial conflict and political reasons. However, the government didn’t deal with it well.  Supported by other countries, the government could stop the war without solving its problem. In addition to that, Peru hadn’t met ambitious and powerful leader to solve the problem, yet.

Looking back Peruvian history, I became to think about how non-Profit and development agency can change the world and minimize the inequality. Although there have been many development agency, other countries’ aid agencies and UN agencies, its speed of bridging the gap is till slow.  Eventually, isn’t it depending on the government, politicians and policy makers?