act I...

 

 

 

At the end of the Talleres session, all mothers crowded into that little classroom leaving a tiny space at the front of the room, awaiting for our play! It was about alcohol abuse, the need to work hard and the importance of hygiene. It promoted active discussion amongst them together with our social worker Iris. We can't be that bad since we have been asked to go back next week to do another play depicting domestic violence.

talleres

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This afternoon we had the twice weekly talleres for mothers in the community up in Pumamarca. This group has grown from less than 10 persons to more than 100 persons in less than a year. The growth is the reason why we are painting the new building for them. We arrived at school with less than 5 mothers sitting outside the classroom waiting. In less than 5 mins, tens of people flooded into the school and started queueing outside the classroom. They are waiting in line to receive raw materials for knitting and making friendship bands. Many of the mothers bring their children with them. Some of the school kids get materials to make friendship bands too. We were making bags, cards and jewelries in the classroom with some other ladies, while the rest of the mothers spread themselves out in the school field and started on their masterpieces.

sports class

 

 

Have been taking the sports class (for Grades 1-6) at Pumamarca - doing stretches, tug-of-wars, runs, skipping, soccer, etc...The kids have very short attention spans and will wander off to do other things if our activities are too long or not interesting enough.

a ride in the batman

flowers...they make me happy!

 

 

 

 

  

los perros

 

 

Los Perros...this is where I get my coffee fix! Was previously co-owned by an Australian and a Peruvian but now only the Peruvian owner. Popular hangout for aussies as they serve coffee just like back in Oz...they have flat white! Great coffee and huge hot chocolate. Food is good too and if you remember, Alvin posted that it has the best hamburger in Cusco.

update on dropping flies...

Everyone has now been down with some sort of illness... Since the last blog reporting 6 remaining healthy ones, two more have gone down with salmonella and parasites. The rest had some sort of cold. Both Alvin and I were fortunate enough to have only a mild cold which didn't require any doctor's attention. So far, 4 out of 16 have ended up in the hospital for treatment. The doctor was doing house call at the volunteer house almost daily for the last 2 weeks. Hopefully we won't see him around the house in the near future.

progress at school

 

 

 

New workshop for mothers...sanding of the building has completed. The undercoat is up and now the first coat of paint is done. "Veggie patch"...all weeding is finally finished! Can you see the difference on the before and after photos? Anymore weeding will drive us nuts. Hard work and tough on the back. Picked some peas for the kids too. Potatoes will be harvested soon. Classes...this is a major challenge. As we were told...the Peruvian clock is very fluid...11am can mean 1pm, thus classes are sometimes cancelled or changed on the spot. The kids seems to run in and out of the class anytime they like, there aren't enough local teachers for all classes, sometimes they refused to listen to the gringo (us the foreigners) and can be very rude and rough. Grades 5 and 6 are good and easy to manage but Grades 1-4 are tricky.

riding at 3600m

 

Have been riding up to the school at Pumamarca..Our volunteer house is at about 3400m and the school is at about 3600m. Takes about 45 mins going up and 20 mins coming down...The ride down is exhilarating!!! BTW, the machine is a GT Avalanche 3.0 hardtail with Shimano Acera 24 speed running gear and Tektro V-brakes...

cuy (guinea pig) for dinner?

yum....