Life moves slowly in Magdalena, Peru. All photos by Scott Gribble CARE 2001.

Finding Taylor, Elizabeth, and Tiana picking cucumbers on a hillside in the town of Magdalena, our notebooks and cameras seemed to bring the girls back to reality. It was their third day

working in the "campo" and they were feeling so Peruvian that they didn't want to be reminded of Virtual Field Trips or video cameras.

As they taught us how to pick the sweet cucumbers of this fruit-filled valley, the girls recounted their experiences of the last few days. The "gringitas" -- as the locals called them -- told us about their reception in Asunción, the first town they visited. Taylor told us they were welcomed with bottle rockets and songs from the local children.

"The hospitality has been great," she said. "They are so accepting and ready to help us adapt."

And adapt this group did, as the sunny hillsides reverberated with their laughter. They never stopped laughing as they worked, and all I could do was smile at their jokes. Elizabeth told us about the time they spent with a veterinarian who received his training with help from CARE. While Taylor

Tiana helps a local farmer pick cucumbers.

and Tiana stood aside, Elizabeth learned to give a shot of calcium to a cow as the veterinarian explained that, ironically, sometimes cows experience calcium deficiencies and that the shot helps strengthen their bones.

Elizabeth also told us about a special ritual they had adopted. Each evening, after their long workday, the girls would hike to a secluded spot and bask in the last light of the day.

Tiana, Taylor and Elizabeth take a short break from a busy day working on CARE projects in Magdalena, Peru.

"It's hard to believe how the people here get used to such beauty," she said. "When a family only has one egg to eat, they give it to their baby," Tiana said describing

CARE's work that they saw in an infant nutrition center. "It's not as if CARE gave them the egg, but rather that CARE has taught the families who in the family needs it most."

The girls had learned much in their three days of fruit picking and field plowing. Tiana explained about life in the campo, "Here, the lack of material things brings life back to what things are really about."

The Youth Corps girls sing songs for Peruvian youngsters.

We finished our lovely afternoon with the girls by returning to the nearby town of La Viña, where we visited days before. There, we stopped by the local school to deliver another bag of toys from the toy drive in Lindenhurst. The children greeted us by singing a few songs and Taylor, Tiana, and Elizabeth -- the Youth Corps rock stars -- responded in turn. They opened their set with "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and blew everybody away with the double encore of "Amazing Grace" into "You Are My Sunshine."