Must be the Altitude

So before going to the orphanage on Monday we decided to buy the kids some underwear and soap because that sort of stuff is really cheap in Peru. We arrived at the orphanage on later that day and there were like 30 volunteers there working on the buildings. It was pretty strange because we had never seen adults at the orphanage other than the director on the first day. So we started talking to head of the volunteer group and she said that they had been coming to this orphanage for several year to help out at the orphanage. Apparently the orphanage has had many donations over the years... in just this last week their were 12 suitcases full of donated clothes for less than 30 kids. The head of the volunteer group says that the directors of the orphanage typically put the donations in a storage shed in case there is an emergency, and the kids have a few outfits each that they wear on a weekly basis: play clothes, church clothes, and their school uniform. They also have a lot of hygenic supplies like toothpaste and soap, and the organization was working on educating the kids about washing their hands often and doing those sorts of things. We had no idea that the orphanage had this sort of support. Some of the kids would rather have money than an extra shirt so a couple of them even went and sold the clothes that were donated to them on the street. So we are going to take some more time to get to know the kids and the orphanage better to see what they need and how we can get it to them. In other words, for those of you interested in making donations, hold off for a bit.

A friend of mine, Eli, who is living in the hostal Ccatán as well started The Sacred Valley Project with a few friends where girls who live in the mountains far from any school can live in a dormitory during the week to attend school in the city and get homework help in the evenings. The girls are technically in 7th or 8th grade by Peruvian standards but their curriculum is more at the 10th or 11th grade level by American standards I found. He said that they really need help with math because most of the volunteers at the project are unable to do so. The project is located in Ollantaytambo, which is about a half hour bus ride from Urubamba. I went over there to see if I could help, and it was really rewarding. The girls are very sweet, and really want to do well in school. So I decided that I am going to go there a couple of times a week with Eli and see how things go. I don´t have any pictures of the girls or the dormitory yet, but I took some of Ollanta which is a really cool city in the Valley. Everyone lives in all the original Incan buildings made of stone and there are many little Incan ruins looking down onto the city from the mountains.



Below are some more pictures at the school. The first one is Toby walking us to school. Today he sat outside our classroom and waited for us to leave the whole time. The kids kept trying to encourage him to come inside, but we had to tell them otherwise. Sometimes the kids are a lot to handle especially the first graders. Grace, Amy, and I can barely run the classroom between the three of us most of the time. Yesterday a kid ran outside so I locked him out. They can be pretty frustrating at times, but for some reason they really love us gringitas at the end of the day.









Urubamba has a Wednesday Market that attracts quite a few tourists at this time of the year. However, our host dad recommends that we not buy anything off the streets... especially the raw meat sitting outside in the sun all day (the bottom picture).