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Trekking through Peru
La Plata teen joins others for People to People trip
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Photos courtesy of JANKI KASWALA
Above, Janki Kaswala, 18, and Zachary Reyna climb the Andes. Right, Kaswala and friend, Danielle Milagros Lynch of Texas, take a breather from hiking.
Janki Kaswala, 18, and Zachary Reyna climb the Andes.
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Janki Kaswala's passport must never get dusty.
The 18-year-old La Plata resident recently returned to her family's La Plata home from a 10-day Peru trip.
Her parents, Kishor and Jagruti, are natives of India and the family, including Kaswala's younger brother, Aalekh, 13, tries to get back there to visit at least every couple of years.
She has family in Canada, took a missions trip with her former school — Grace Christian Academy — to Europe, where she's also traveled with cousins.
"I haven't been to two continents — Antarctica and Africa," said the 2010 Maurice J. McDonough High School graduate.
She really wants to see Antarctica, for some reason — even she doesn't know why exactly.
The latest trip, the one to Peru from July 13 to 23, came about as an invitation from People to People International, an organization founded in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
"President Eisenhower felt that people getting to know each other can bring about peace quicker than anything governments can do," said Liz Wegman, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City, Mo.-based nonprofit.
It was Kaswala's second People to People experience. The first one was to Australia, where she spent time visiting museums and participating in workshops.
"It was nothing like Peru," she said. "I think I got a lot more out of Peru."
She, along with a group of teens from around the country — 16 girls, five boys — spent time in the rainforest at a jungle ecolodge in Puerto Maldonado, built a playground for a school in the Infierno community, took a three-day hike in the Andes, learned traditional dances by residents of Sacred Valley, visited Parque de Papa — Potato Park — to learn how potatoes sustained the local lifestyle, learned about Peruvian pottery at Seminario Ceramics, went to Machu Picchu to see the lost city of the Incas and toured the Inca Empire in Cuzco.
The hike left a lasting impression on Kaswala.
One of their guides, Boris, promised the teens that the hike would be an easy one. He does it all the time.
"It was three hours uphill," Kaswala said. "We were all saying, ‘I'm going to die.'"
But they trudged on, even developing an inside joke when Boris would chide the group, telling them it wouldn't be that hard.
"OK," the group would ask. "Is this Boris hard or American hard?"
But making the trek gave Kaswala a boost of confidence. She registered to attend University of Maryland, College Park starting in the spring semester — she didn't think she'd be ready to take on college in the fall.
"I was scared to go," she admitted about college. "But I came back and thought, ‘I can climb a mountain, I can do this.'"
She will be headed to College Park in the fall now, commuting for the semester before moving on campus in the spring.
There were other experiences on the trip. The ecolodge in the rainforest was interesting, Kaswala said.
Everything was natural; one side of the room was open to the elements.
Because it was winter, the jungle was rather quiet.
Although, it wasn't a big deal to look up and see a monkey hanging out and, "I swear, at night, we had bats in our room," Kaswala said.
The traditional dances, complete with traditional dress, were taught to the teens by little kids and the talent show they put on at the hotel was fun, Kaswala said.
"Everyone did them awfully," she said of the dances, which they had a couple of hours to learn.
Kaswala credits her parents for instilling in her and her brother a love of travel and encouraging them to learn about other cultures.
During her journey to Peru, she met a lot of people and found that people have more in common than not.
Especially children — the school kids, where the teens built a playground and dropped off school supplies were happy to see the volunteers. They taught them the shortcuts around the school and clung to the volunteers.
"Kids just want to be loved," she said.
Kaswala, who while at McDonough participated in teen court, student government and on the mock trial team, urges others to explore whatever piques their interests.
"Even if it seems lame, you don't know what you'll be getting," she said. "You'll always get something out of it. Get out of your comfort zone. That's when you'll learn the most about yourself."
