Photos from the collection of melynda thorpe burt, peru 2012

Like Me, They Believe in Opportunities

Making of the Film “Heart of the Andes”

Melynda Thorpe

Published in

Making of the film “Heart of the Andes”

6 min readOct 17, 2013

Part 12 in the series following: “Shaman of The Street” https://medium.com/heart-of-the-andes/52b7eedf16dd

Believe in opportunities. This is what my parents taught me to do.

Learning to golf at the heels of my father, by the time I was 10 years old, I was ready to begin competing, though hesitant and afraid.

I remember my mother driving me to my first out-of-town tournament. Helping me register and unload my clubs, she then left me there. I was nervous, homesick for anyone or anything that felt familiar to me; I was also stuck. Realizing I was going nowhere, I decided to make the most of my experience, by befriending the girls in my foursome. I finished the round with confidence and a desire to continue to compete.

Until now, I have never acknowledged to my mother— choosing rather to revel in my self-perceived independence that day — that I took silent note and comfort in seeing her circle the golf course several times before our old blue Chevy truck faded from sight. Until we were both sure I was okay, I knew she was near.

At that early age, I became a believer in stepping outside of my comfort zone, immersing myself in unfamiliar experiences, making connections with new people, and experiencing new things. When the opportunity to travel to Peru presented itself, it first felt unfathomable, then undeniable. I would go, I would experience, and I would share.

As the trip comes to an end for me, I feel that my work with the Q’ero people has truly just begun. My heart grew with every story written, every expression photographed, and every interview filmed. I look forward to returning home to begin piecing together footage and building my first documentary film.I am grateful for the opportunity to tell a story that has never been told before about a remote and once forgotten indigenous people. Here, high the the Andes Mountains above Peru, an old life has been preserved.

These are people of the mountain. They belong to the mountain and the mountain belongs to them. It is in them; it runs through them. You cannot meet people like Don Cesar, Gregoria, Rosa Luz, or Romario without looking into their eyes, shaking their hands, and knowing that this mountain, this sun, and this sky, is their home.

Only death would keep them from living in the precarious embrace of the Andes. And nine years ago, it nearly did. When Q’ero tribe leaders expressed their plight to Tim and Penelope Eicher, crops were failing, children were dying, life expectancy was dropping, and they were losing their ability to remain in their beloved homeland.

I am enthralled by their stories of progress and cultural rejuvination — how the Q’ero people have been revived through the gracious programs and donations of Heart Walk Foundation and its supporters. Now, part of the history of this people is the story of countless donors and volunteers who have reached across barriers of time, place and technology. Heart Walk Foundation leaders have helped create programs for sustainability, while honoring the traditions of the Q’ero past.

I believe that we all choose to accept opportunities without guarantee that our investment will be worth the risk we take. This is faith. And whether we choose to participate relying wholly on those we love and trust to guide and lead us and show us the way, or on the simple feeling that this is the right thing to do, what is important is that we do choose to participate. This is when we demonstrate that, yes, we do believe in opportunities.

My wish is that we will all choose with the same willingness and courage of the mountain Q’ero people of Peru to greet opportunities with open arms. If we accept invitations to be helpful, involved, to make donations or gifts, and if we borrow from their willingness to work, to receive with open hearts, open minds, and the a common belief in all that is good, then there is no end to what we can do. Boundaries are meaningless when met by willingness, and Heart Walk Foundation’s work here is proof of that.

I helped transport a discarded sewing machine from a family in St. George to a tearfully grateful mother at Hueccouno. We transported medical supplies paid for with simple, heartfelt donations, and school supplies to eager children who read mathematics textbooks over and over like novels.

John delights in playing the flute for fellow students at the Heart Walk Foundation school at Hueccouno, Peru

When I first met the Q’ero, I felt anxious for their rescue. I wanted to help save them from their limitations, bring them to America where we have everything in plenty. My desire was to teach them, tell them, show them that a determined course and guarantee of education would allow them to leave behind their impoverished communities and struggles of the past.

But, now I see.

Helping the Q’ero people stay here in their beloved home (though high and rocky and treacherous at times) is truly the greatest of all the opportunities we can help them receive. These are people of the mountain, and they are proud to be. They believe in humble opportunities, and they are willing to take risks to see them through. To allow Heart Walk Foundation into their communities in 2003 was perhaps the greatest risk this people had taken since fleeing to the mountains for safety 500 years ago. Both times, they were facing death and destruction. Both times, they took a risk and were blessed.

Traveling home, I can now say that I have been to Peru and have experienced it. I will never forget the prayers I heard the shaman speak. How I did not understand the native language, but I heard his words. And felt them. Like the rushing of a great river, though softly and sweetly, the shaman’s words spoke to me. And now, for all of us, whether we live in the mountains or the valleys or this country or that, we are given the great opportunity to learn from the Q’ero, by giving to them.

This is the great blessing of the Q’ero. Reciprocity is their way. They receive, and by so doing, they open their hearts and give right back.

May we give, and by so doing, open our hearts and receive.

For this is what their parents taught them to do.

The end.

Oct. 2, 2012 at Cusco, Peru

About the author

Melynda Thorpe Burt is a writer, filmmaker and producer living in southern Utah. In 2012, she traveled with Heart Walk Foundation to Peru to document the never-before-told story of the plight and rescue of the indigenous Q’ero people of the Andes Mountains of Peru.

For more information about the documentary film produced from her trip, go to heartoftheandes.org.