A day in the city....

A day in the city......or something like that.

Today we left our homes for a day in the town of Ollataytambo.  We were all so excited to get back to relative civilization.  Our day included a tour of the ruins and the annual festival play of the story of the founding of Ollytaytambo in the Inca days.   It was a wonderful cultural opportunity.  The play was in Cechuan, the local dialect, so it was hard to grasp, and the sun was blazing hot, but we still had a great time.  After the play, the group got to pick a lunch place with our country leader help ADELLA .....guess what we chose......PIZZA.  Now the kids are having free time shopping, and I am at Adella|s house for a .....shhhhh....hot shower.  Tomorrow we head into the mountains for our overnight hike which will go up to 12k feet and end at a natural hot springs.   The stomach issues seem to have subsided so hopefully we are past that.  By the way, did I tell you that there are SIXTY guinea pigs living in my home stay kitchen.......ahh yay ya......  Kids will be back on the blog most likely Monday night after our hike.  We love them! Senora W

Day Five

Hola, it’s Annie. In the last few days my homestay partners and I have gone through some really different experiences in our home. Last night Sara, Anna and I walked in the front door of our house and found our “mama” walking towards the door telling us we were going to milk a cow. Although we were a little hesitant we followed her out of the door into the fields. We walked around in the dark for about 30 minutes, jumping at every sound we heard. We helped our family milk the cow, and then brought it home to drink with dinner. Today, we started our day with a basket-weaving workshop. Every student got the chance to weave their own basket for about 3 hours. We learned that William has a hot shower at his house and we are all giving him a hard time for it. After the workshop we had a lunch break then came back to the school to work. At the school we all hammered bamboo to put on the roof of the kitchen, then found rocks to make the floor. Fam, if you’re reading this, love you all and can’t wait to come home to a meal other than soup.

Day Six

Hola familias. It’s Andrew, or Gringo as most of the population of Piscacucho likes to call me. These past six days have been a ride. We’ve woven baskets, played futbol with the little niños, and rafted in sub zero degree water. So far today we have laid the last of the adobe bricks, established the logs as the structure of the roof, and currently we are placing the bamboo on top the logs. The trip has been a blast consisting of random stampedes of the Peruvian children and sincere bonding between our two cultures,and we’re constantly distracted by the little ninos and ninas seeing as they’re only a step away from where we are working (it’s too hard not to). I haven’t stepped in manure yet so that’s got to be a plus; all in all this trip so far has been a culturally eye opening and wonderful experience.

P.S.-  The mountains---- muy beuno

Hola – Es senora Wallace.  The kids are doing great and for the most part strong and healthy.  We have had a few stomach upsets, but so far so good.  Knock on wood if that is your thing please!   Yesterday the group had a bit of a low as the “honeymoon” of the homestays wore off, and kids were tired and longing for more familiar foods.  Plus our work day was very hard yesterday and the sun was blazing strong at this altitude.   But today, everyone bounced back with wonderful attitudes and we have done more work today than the rest of the days combined.   The team has been a total work machine today.    Today the instructors stepped back, and we put the kids totally in charge of the work with the Peruvian construction crew.  It has been amazing to watch them divide the labor, decide when we break, and negotiate the language barrier (no one learned the words for a level or ax pick in class!) Tomorrow we head to a festival in Ollantaytambo for a full day and return to our families.  Sunday and Monday, we will head out for our overnight Andes hike.   I am so excited to have a night in the mountains.   Anyway – you kids are really doing well.  I am so proud of them.  If my kids are reading this – I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!  And you too Paul! J

Day 4

¡Hola,  soy

Anna! Right now, we are all staying with native Peruvian families in a small village called Piscacucho and though at first I know we were all a little apprehensive, I think all of us have learned to become accustomed to the wild dogs, stray horses, and energetic children running around. Today, while starting our first real day of work, I looked down at the soccer field and saw a horse running around the field and the children playing didn’t seem phased at all. Right now, we are all working to build a kitchen for the school so the kids can have a big lunch each day. Speaking of lunch, the food here has been surprisingly good! Everything that Hilda (said “Ilda”) makes for Sara, Annie, and me has been very fresh and natural. We eat a lot of chicken, and last night while we were playing Uno with Joseph and Jean Paul at the dinner table before we ate, Ilda brought in a dead chicken and told us it was our meal for tomorrow…and it was. The chicken is fantastic, but the guinea pig we ate was definitely not my favorite. The families loved our gifts that we gave them, and they were so thankful, especially Ignacio, the father, for his Leatherman and said it would be helpful for work. It’s been a few days without a shower but thanks Mom for the baby powder and wipes to at least disguise my disgusting hair. So far, we have gone rafting in freezing water while we were in Ollyantaytambo (I definitely spelled that wrong woops), played soccer with the kids, listened to a bizarre yet cool Shaman ceremony, and right now we are peeling bamboo for the roof of the kitchen. Today was the first sunny day we’ve had which gave us the chance to finally see the snow-capped glaciers, which are a pretty awesome view for when we’re working. I miss my family and I’m missing my bed, especially since our guide Diego has warned us of lice and bedbugs in the past, but I am having so much fun here and the beauty of the village/country is surreal. Tonight, like most,

Day 1

Hey, it’s Jake here! And yes, we did make it. After a total of about 12 hours of layovers, 1 cancelled flight, and some struggles with baggage, we did in fact make it. Dinner came easier than expected, and was actually quite good. Bed bugs were quite a scare to Mrs. Wallace, as she too has a lice phobia like most mothers. But other than that everything’s going well so far, and we will make sure and check back in with y’all often. See you in two weeks!

Day 2

This is Sara.  Today we woke up at the full moon lodge and ate breakfast there before we left to go rafting. This was our second Peruvian meal and it along with the first was really good. Their food is so much more natural and fresh than our food. The rafting trip was about an hour and was extremely cold even with wet suits. My raft had Annie, Anna, Jake, Andrew, William, and two guides. It was a lot of fun and Annie, Andrew and I took turns sitting on the front of the raft during the rapids. The guides had a good sense of humor and helped us with our Spanish. At the end of the trip we pulled off to the sided and changed in a tent. A meal that had been prepared for us was brought into the tent and we ate lunch there before we went to shower to meet our home stay families. This was our last hot shower and for some last shower at all for the next eight days. Once we got to the village each house meet their moms and dropped our bags in our houses. Annie, Anna, and I are staying together right next to William and Jake. Our houses touch they are so close our two families are related to each other so hang out. We still hadn’t met the kids or dads of our houses until after we left to see the school. The school is walking distance and we played soccer with the kids. We then went back to our houses and the kids and dads of our houses came home. We attempted to help make dinner but were to slow and dangerous with the knives so we sat to the side and got to know the family. They are all very welcoming and generous. They help me especially with my Spanish and are patient with me. Everyone is so giving and share the little that they have. Waiting for dinner we gave them the gifts we brought and they couldn’t have been more excited and thankful. Dinner was a really good soup with tea that we have every meal. We were then to exhausted to stay up any longer so went to bed.  So far I have loved every bit of this trip and the experience has been amazing. While I have been writing this in the school where we’re building a kitchen little kids have been aiming leggo guns at me and pressing all the keys on the computer. They have been watching me write this even though they don’t know what I’m saying. See you in two weeks we are having a hard time uploading so we are uploading whenever we can. Love ya fam.

Day 3

This is Mitchell reporting from Piscacucho.   Aison, Andrew and I slept very well after a delicious soup and watching Power Rangers in Spanish.  It takes about 20 minutes to get to the school for our project, so we had to wake up extra early.  We gave the gifts this morning and our mom was so happy to get them.  The two boys gave us big hugs with big smiles, and we ate breakfast, which was a warm tea, toast, and jelly.  We got to the school a little early and played with three of the younger students.  After playing with the kids, a Shaman came dressed in very colorful attire.  We spread wine and Chicha (I think) across the worksite to bless it and we went inside of one of the classrooms to cleanse our Aura and create a small pile of different objects that all had a meaning, such as happiness.  The best part of today was playing soccer with all of the kids.  The two teams were the Americans and the Peruvians.  After about five minutes of playing soccer, all of the Americans were out of breath, and the Peruvians were very energetic.  After some confusion about who the winners were, we moved a lot of adobe bricks.  At lunch, we ate Guinea Pig, yes, the part of our adventure that you’ve wanted to hear about most.  I cannot describe the taste of the Guinea Pig because I was just staring at it half of the time.  Besides the Guinea Pig, there were potatoes, Quinoa rice, and a salad.  We went back to our houses after a big meal, and our mom wanted us to come to eat lunch.  Again.  However, we didn’t refuse because, one, she makes delicious soups and, two, we didn’t want to disappoint her.  She gave us a huge bowl of one of her great soups, and surprisingly, we finished it all.  Today was very fun, but we miss all of you.