When Ellie was fifteen years old, she came to me for a checkup. She was excited, and after a few minutes of chatting she told me why.

“My dad and I just got back from Peru,” she blurted. “It was so cool. You can’t believe how beautiful the mountains were and how amazing the people were we met.”

“How nice, Ellie Who all went on your trip?”

“Just my dad and me.”

“What about your mother, brother and sister? Didn’t they want to go on vacation with you?”

“Oh no, we weren’t on vacation,” she said “We went to bring medical supplies to people in the Andes who don’t have any. My dad and I planned our trip a year ago and this was something he wanted to do with me, I guess.”

“That must have been fun.”

“Well, I really wouldn’t call it fun. It was incredibly hard. We hiked up the mountain every day starting at about ten thousand feet and set up clinics in empty rooms and sometimes outside. I took blood pressures and gave fluoride treatments to kids and grown-ups and my dad treated their sicknesses.”

I stopped my exam, picturing this elfish young girl hiking up…