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).

Bienvenidos a Urubamba!

I got to a small town about on hour from Cusco called Urubamba a couple of days ago. We were told the place we´d be staying is someones home but it´s actually a hostel called Ccatán, and it is soooo beautiful. Our room has lofts in it, and there are all these gardens. Our host parents are really nice too. They sit down and eat all their meals with us. They speak English about as well as we speak Spanish so I´ve learned a lot since I´ve been here because of that. Our host dad also is a trek guide and he offered to take us to all the Incan ruins around here. It´s so exciting! Urubamba is a small town with hardly any tourists and the people are so much more authentic here... they wear the traditional Peruvian clothes where in Cusco people only wore them so people would take pictures with them and give them money. No one harasses you to constantly to buy things from them. It is so nice.

Also at Ccatán is two dogs named Toby and Gitaña. Toby is my little Peruvian Ruby. He is white and fluffy but has really matted dirty fur. He is such a sweetheart though and sometimes goes a little taz with Gitaña. I took a video, and I´ll see if I´ll be able to post it on the blog.

The school that Amy, Grace, and I started working at is pretty intense. There are about 150 kids in the school and it´s the only public school in the area so quite a few of the kids seem to have problems. I worked in a first grade class these past 2 days and the teacher didn´t have anything planned so I pretty much took over. I just drew pictures for them and they colored them. He also doesn´t discipline them at all. A couple of boys will randomly hit girls or take their things and the teacher doesn´t do anything about it! It was pretty exhausting and I was only there for 2 or 3 hours. I went into a 5th grade classroom later though and all the kids were way better mannered. And all the kids really love us. They just run up to us and hold our hands and stuff. They always shout Mira! Gringitas! which means Look! White people! Then the rest of the kids come running.

We also work at an orphanage in Wayabamba that is about 20 minutes bussing and 20 minutes more walking. The orphanage was not expecting us and they were really hesitant to let us in. But once Miguel (our host dad) told the director the organization we were from and how we were there to work as volunteers but not for money, they couldn´t stop thanking us for coming and being there. The kids at the orphanage have a lot more self discipline and control than the kids at the school. I was trying to help these two 13 year old girls with their math and it was such a struggle because I can´t speak Spanish very well. They were subtracting large numbers but I didn´t know words like borrow or take away or anything. And the last part of their homework were word problems and that just wasn´t happening. But there is a guy here from New Jersey staying in Ccatán and he works at a private school in Urubamba. He said they really need help with math because he doesn´t remember any high school math so he wants me to go to that school, help them, and he can translate what I say. We will see how things go…

Last days in Cusco

Here are some of the pictures that I took in Cusco. Amy, Grace, and I did a lot walking and shopping for souvenirs. We met a couple of Peruvians named Salva and Daniel that showed us around the cityand took us all out. It was a good time!

Arrival

So I got into Cusco, Peru early in the morning yesterday. The 18 hour flights with layovers wasn´t as bad as I thought it would be. Amy, Grace, and I are staying in Cusco for most of this week. I think we will be heading to Urubamba on Friday most likely. Amy and I were sent off to our homestay first thing in the morning. The house is really nice, our host mom is really sweet, and I will probably post some pictures once I take them. She has been giving us lots of Cuca tea, which apparently helps with altitude sickness. I definitely feel our of breath after walking up stairs and sometimes light headed, but I think the tea is helping. There are several other people staying in the 3 story house from Canada, Mississippi, Missouri, and Wisconsin, who are also pretty cool. We walked around our neighborhood somewhat and there are street dogs everywhere! They look really happy and nice, but I´ve been careful not to touch them or draw any attention. There is a little tan fluffy one near the house thats my little Peruvian Ruby. I´ll post some pictures of her later as well.

We had the orientation today for our projects. It sounds like Amy, Grace, and I will be the only people heading to Urubamba. We will be working at their local school starting next week teaching the kids games and art at first since we can´t speak Spanish very well yet. We can also go to the orphanage to teach them as well as helping do random chores. Our projects will only run for a few hours a day, and then we will have lots of time to explore the city. They also offer a four-week TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) Certification program in Cusco that I may want to do with Grace later on since we will be here for 3 months.

Hope all´s well in the US!