It wasn’t the classes, the landscape of Peru, the hike down the Inca trail or even the view from atop Peru’s Machu Picchu that junior midfielder Jessica O’Rourke described as one of her most memorable experiences when studying abroad in Peru over the summer.

It was a small, brown-haired, brown-eyed 11-year-old boy named Eldino from Cuzco, Peru.

O’Rourke, native of Marlton, N.J., met Eldino when leaving her hotel during the program’s 12-day travel-study tour to Cuzco, Peru.

“He used to wait outside of the hotel for me in Cuzco every day,” O’Rourke said. “He would wait for me to come out and play soccer with him.”

The loyalty and genuineness are what O’Rourke described as some of Eldino’s admirable characteristics that drew her to him.

“He was just so sweet,” O’Rourke said. “He would take my hand, and if there was somebody he didn’t really know, he would take my hand and just be like ‘No, get away, this is my friend.’ He was trying to protect me.”

Fellow program participant Megan Carroll, a junior in communication and Spanish, said Eldino wasn’t the only friend O’Rourke made while playing pick-up soccer in Peru.

“At every hotel we stayed at, she made friends with some kid and played soccer,” Carroll said. “Even when we were in the small town of Urubamba, she met these kids outside the hotel at about 6.30 a.m. I think it was to play soccer before our group went out for the day.”

Carroll admitted she didn’t know a lot about soccer when watching O’Rourke play while in Peru, but she could still tell that O’Rourke was a very talented player.

“She looked like she was having a good time every time she played, you could really tell she loves the sport and that it is a big part of her life,” Carroll said.

“Every time she saw a soccer ball, no matter if they were kids or adults she would ask to see the ball. Most guys were surprised she played so well.”

O’Rourke added the gender demographics present in pick-up games in Peru was something that drew the attention of natives of Peru to herself and her play.

“It was different there because they don’t really see women soccer players. Everyone was kind of fascinated like ‘Wow, you can juggle the ball. You can kick the ball,’ it was really a shock to them because in South America soccer is a male-dominated sport,” she said.

O’Rourke said hopefully her playing provided an example to young girls who watched her play while in Peru.

“Hopefully girls will start playing,” O’Rourke said. “Maybe the girls will have learned something and will start playing.”

Pick-up soccer wasn’t the only thing that O’Rourke found memorable while in Peru.

O’Rourke described her experience in Peru as one that really opened her eyes to the world as a whole.

“Your perspective on things changed. It humbles you a lot and I definitely changed my opinion on a lot of different issues and on people,” O’Rourke said. “You can’t explain it, you just have to go and you have to see how other people live.”

O’Rourke said the culture and values in Peru are so different than what we have in United States.

“I saw kids playing with an old bike tire and they were so happy with that,” O’Rourke said. “And you think about it here, and kids are begging their parents for Playstations. Do you really need that to be happy?”

As for Eldino, O’Rourke said she has thought desperately about ways to get in contact with him since she returned from Peru, but since he has no mailing address in Peru, she has had challenges.

“When I was leaving he was like ‘Can I have your shoes, can I have your T-shirt?'” O’Rourke said. “He kept on asking me for all these things so that he could remember me. I was thinking when I get back here if we had some T-shirts that we could send [them] down there.”