Peru. 2005

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”

• St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430); theologian, philosopher, bishop

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It was sometime in 2004 that one of my brothers, J, contacted me. A friend had invited him on a humanitarian trip to Peru. Did I want to go along?

I had never been to South America, let alone Peru. Nor had I taken any trips of length in the recent past.

The travel bug — the same one that led me to live 2 years in a landlocked Middle East country in the…