Leaving Quito and driving to Arutam was an incredibly jarring experience
you kind of see this transformation. the drive just becomes a lot quieter
and all the sudden you're surrounded by the scenery that's just so beautiful
Alternative Spring Break is a completely student run organization
our mission is kind of two-fold the first is to spend your spring break
in a productive and constructive way
that's second is to kind of foster relationships within the UVA community by
engaging in a cultural exchange outside of the UVA community
This week we've been staying with Shuar people
who live by the land basically. It's very much like a sustenance farming type of situation
That's a beauty these trips, learning to not just
take what you see in a culture by the context have your own experience but
being able to
understand like how their environment and their community has like shaped them
in such a way
This community doesn't have any access to medicinal companies like CVS
and so they have to grow all of their ingredients themselves
So I'm a nursing student and I just think it's really interesting studying about
herbal medicines
and I thought that coming to the Amazon would be a great opportunity to
find out what people who don't have pharmacutical companies actually do when
they get sick
So this week we're building a greenhouse
to you plant medicinal plants
So we woke up, had breakfast at 7
headed down to the shelter, carried a bunch of rocks
skinned trees, and put up netting above
this orchid garden
Being able to see that part of their culture and their work ethic, that's taught me
the importance of waking up and seizing the day and being excited to work every day
We think in terms of drugs, when we all came here we're like, "Let's all get Cipro, in case we get traveler's diarrhea"
Then I just think it's so interesting to come to a community that's so removed from that
and to really get to study how they treat sickness
We spoke with Jose and he was explaining how
there's a lot in common knowledge with medicines and we picked all these
different ingredients and
and we made a tea for stomach pain and
it was just so cool that it's all right there
Letting us see how they live and how they're able to
practice medicine and live in this sustainable way and I think we get a lot
out of it
Not knowing anyone prior
I was kind of scared.
Being in such a different environment with different people
just brings about a lot of eye opening experiences. The culture exchange with
the Shuar people here as well as with the other people from the
University of Virginia that I don't interact with on a daily basis
So we do a lot like strenuous work throughout the week but
we get immersed
in the cultural a lot throughout the week as well. We've been able to get these like
face tattoos. We've also been able to enjoy the bounty of
the Amazon, particularly through this trip we took to the waterfall
That was like the epitome of nature's beauty
We followed a guide through the forest which was really educational as well
because he showed us poisonous plants and
medicinal plants as well then we had to
scale down some rocks with the rope and
it was really tough, but once we got down to the bottom
it was almost a euphoric feeling to overcome such a hard obstacle
and it really just set the tone for the trip
It was really shown during that waterfall hike
how much not only did they persevere but that they
helped their fellow man as well. Everyone just epitomized what the UVA community really
is about. All these people from different walks of life, different social circles
We were able to come together and help each other enjoy this
bit of culture that the Shuar people have