Though part of their mission was to help others see, it was the members of the Vanderbilt University athletics department who had their eyes opened.

Student-athletes Hillary Hager and Venessa Ferragamo, both basketball players at Vanderbilt, along with assistant athletic trainer Kris Mack and associate strength coach Lori Alexander, spent 10 days this summer in a remote section of Peru providing a variety of medical care to people who have never seen a hospital.

The volunteers traveled to Cusco, Peru, the ancient capital city of the Inca empire, which is located in the Andes at about 11,000 feet above sea level. From there the team traveled 90 minutes round-trip every day to the remote village of Pisac where they offered care to people who are direct descendants of the Incas.

Ferragamo and Hager, both juniors, worked with the eye-care part of the team.

"We gave out bifocals, tested their vision and made prescription eyeglasses. I am so glad I went. Being able to help those people, most of whom have never seen a doctor before -- it was worth it," Ferragamo said.

In just under 10 days, the U.S. medical team saw 2,369 patients with ailments ranging from malnutrition and respiratory problems to a variety of infections and the almost universal conditions of intestinal worms and parasites, which are caused by the poor sanitation and the difficult living conditions.

"Vanessa and I are both pre-med, but I had never done anything really hands-on before," Hager said. "This convinced me about my major, being able to help people. You see people's reactions to the help you give them, and it's a wonderful feeling."

Jeff McKinzie, a doctor from Vanderbilt's emergency medicine department, organized and led the team.

"I wanted to put something together purely on a humanitarian basis, with the goals of education, partnership and service," McKinzie said. "It went really well and was a tremendous experience. For anyone -- regardless of age -- who has never been to a third-world country, it is an eye-opening experience. There is a lot of poverty and little or no access to medical care for these people."

Another sobering experience was the fact that the team just could not see everyone.

"Every day we had to turn people away. It was humbling because there was no way to see everybody," McKinzie said. "People would line up early in the morning to get seen the next day. And the night before our last day, people were lining up that night. That was very humbling."

Ironically, Hager and Ferragamo were able to participate in these good works because of a very bad event. Mack had been scheduled to make the trip in September 2001. Because of 9-11, the trip was pushed back to May, timing that enabled Hager and Ferragamo to join the medical team.

One part of their work that truly left an impression on Hager and Ferragamo was giving sight back to elderly women who had worked their whole lives as seamstresses. In some cases, the women were so blind they could no longer see the needle, severely limiting their ability in the only trade they knew.

"Some of the older women, the Quechua women, you would give them a pair of glasses and they would kiss you and then get on their knees and thank you. The total gratitude, I'll never forget that," Hager said.

Mack was touched by the patience and determination showed by those who came to from great distances to the clinic.

"The biggest thing for me was seeing these people walk four to eight hours to get to the clinic, stand in line all day and then some of them were even turned away at the end of the day because we couldn't see them all," she said. "But they were still so grateful. And they put so much hope in us Americans. We have so much technology here, they have absolutely nothing, and yet they are such happy people, probably happier than we are."

Because the village had so little, the medical team had to provide everything it used.

"We worked in an empty building, and we had to take everything with us. All the medicine, supplies, even a dental chair -- everything we needed, we took with us," Hager said.

The experience was light years away from Mack's daily life as an athletic trainer.

"We have so much to learn from (those we treated)," Mack said. "These people have never seen a doctor in their lives, and they are 70 to 80 years old. I work in sports medicine here, and if people can't get an MRI within 12 hours, they are upset. We have one of the top medical centers in the world here, and I just hope people will go back (to Peru) and give more."

Alexander found it incredible that a strength coach like herself, an athletic trainer and two pre-med college students could be so needed in such a situation.

"None of the four of us have medical experience really. We are just in related fields. To realize how much help you can give, even with little experience, was amazing," Alexander said. "It also makes you realize how spoiled we are and how great we have it here. We can go to the doctor whenever we want to, and (our problem) gets corrected. I went on this trip to help other people, but I feel as if I got more out of it than the people we were helping."

Though it's a long way from the Andes to life as a student-athlete at Vanderbilt, Ferragamo saw some obvious parallels.

"We learned to depend on teamwork in Peru," she said. "There were almost 25 of us, and we had not met any of the other ER doctors before, but we spent pretty much the whole day interacting and working with them. Learning how to work with others and get the most out of ourselves, that reminded me of the team aspect in basketball."

Said Mack, "I just wish everyone could experience a third-world country. Because unless you experience what they don't have, you will never appreciate what you do have."