Saturday, October 18, 2008

Week 6 at Pumamarca and my farewell

Lunes, 13 Octubre
The usual... Ingles with the 1st and 2nds. We were still doing numbers and going through the alphabet. This is a slow process and it looks like the new vols are going to have to take up where I left off .. which is at the letter ¨G¨.

Martes, 14 Octubre
Construction day.... today the females were touching up the murals on the walls while the male volunteers moved mud bricks around. That was pretty much it for most of the day....

Miercoles, 15 Octubre
All good things must come to an end........
It was my last day up at school and my last day teaching Ingles to the 5th and 6th graders. We planned to have a revision class for the day and went through ¨My family¨and ¨Body parts¨ in english. This topic had already been covered in April, but we found that a lot of the students were still struggling with constructing full sentences about their family so we had to go through it all again. After hygiene and sport, I was called into the 4th grade classroom for my farewell. I haven`t done any English with this grade but I`d done most of their Phys Ed. classes. I had kept myself busy and tried not to think about it for all this time... but as I entered the class and saw all the kids looking at me the tears started flowing. The director and the students all sang a song on the Panoramic view of Pumamarca and then the Sheep song. Romario came and took my hands and got to me to dance with him while the rest sang. The director gave a speech and I got flowers and hugs from all the kids..... and I promised them all I would be back soon to visit.

In the afternoon it was my last round of house visits in the community....
We set up two beds for a family of 6 (they had 4 kids sharing a bed before) and then we went in search of Arturo and Asunta.
As part of the Project for Life program, I will be sponsoring Arutro. This means that I will be contributing a set amount of money each month to the program which will be used for his and his mums welfare. I had been shopping the previous day for goodies for both Mum and son. So, I was introduced to them formally as the Madrina (Godmother) and I handed over the presents. Arturo was thrilled with his araña hombre (spider man) tee-shirt and ran off to show it to his friends. Asunta gave me about 20 hugs and made me promise to return..
Next visit was to the house of Luis and family. As mentioned in a previous post, me and 3 others were at the impromptu inaugration of the house Luis is building and therefore became Godparents of the house by default. Even though it has been inaugrated, the house is not completed yet due to lack of funds. As there was still some funds leftover from what I had raised in Australia, I decided to donate it to Luis` house. They informed us that they would like to put in the doors and windows next... so we went up to get the measurements. The money should be enough for the door and at least 1 or 2 windows. I also found out that Luis` wife- Martha is 21 and they have two kids. They all came came and hugged me and Luis` ran off again to get me a present- some of his own handiwork which is really amazing...
Thank you again to all my friends, family and colleagues for your donations....
Click here for the rest of the photos from my last week in Peru here

My Birthday and last weekend in Cuzco

Viernes, 10 Octubre
Today I had my first Arte class with the kiddies. Now, most of you who know me will know that I can`t draw a stick figure to save my life. Lucky for me I had Julia helping and she had a plan.
We had the 1st and 2nd graders for arte that day and we decided on a couple of topics and gave the kids colours and paper. The drawings that they made are going to be used as place mats for the Peru`s Challenge ball in November. So, fortunately I didn`t have to do any drawings myself (the kids drawings totally outshine anything I would have done!).

In the afternoon Hannah and me skipped Spanish class to go Bungee Jumping. What an experience!! At 122 mts, it is claimed as the highest Bungee Jump in America (north and south). After coming down from school, we made a mad dash into the town where we were getting picked up. We got to the site and had to sign our lives away. There was a group of Brazilians who were doing the jump before us and we were kinda disappointed that we didn`t bring our own possey to cheer us on. But oh myy Godd..... what an amazing experience! When I got to the top I didn`t want to look down. It was THE scariest moment and at the same time most exciting thing ever to step off that platform into nothingness. I screamed all the way down and up and down and up and down again. According to Hannah (and the video evidence), I didn`t appear to have stopped to take a breath in between my screams.


In the evening, we were all set for a night out on the town. Cathy (volunteer from the previous month) was back in town for 3 days and we had a whole new bunch of volunteers too who had flown in in the morning. About 15 of us went out for a Mexican dinner to El Cuate where we stuffed our faces. The newbies left after dinner so they could go home and altitudeize (its now a new word!) themselves while the rest of us carried on. First stop Mythology... had a few drinks and danced on the bar. Yay me! Next stop.. Mama Africa... at this point it was only Cathy, Hannah and me and we proceeded to have a tequilla shot which in hindsight wasnt the best idea and left soon after. All in all, I had a fantastic day- and thanks everyone for the wishes!


Sabado, 11 Octubre
The morning after- woke up and had a glorious bath and then spoiled myself by getting an Inkan massage. This was then followed by a 3 hour lunchen with all the volunteers (old and new) at the Hemp cafe. I had the best pancakes ever.. they were about an inch thick and crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside... mmmm... sooooo good! The rest of the day was pretty much spent the same way.. I walked around town for a bit, took some photos and did LOTS of shopping. The evening was spent pretty much the same way- ate at a pub and then went to Los Perros (if you`re ever in Cuzco.. go here!) for dessert and spanish scrabble.


Domingo, 12 Octubre
I enjoyed rafting so much in Arequipa that I decided to do it again with the guys in Cuzco. The photos will suffice for this one.....


Rest of the photos from the weekend here...

Week 5 at Pumamarca

A fairly slow week at school ....

We had the usual classes on monday... but as the previous months volunteers had left last week we were short staffed. Tracey and Hannah did Art with the kids and Michael and myself did Ingles. When classes were over we did the usual hygiene and sport.

Tuesday there was a strike everywhere due to the rising cost of living... and wednesday was a public holiday. The leftover bunch of vols went up to school on both days though and continued to put the chicken wire on the fencing. The children weren`t at school for our entertainment on either day and it was cold and rainy too which didn`t make our task at hand any funner.

Monday, October 13, 2008

On my birthday....

I jumped off a 122 mt (400 ft) platform over a valley...

yes.... I went Bungee Jumping...!!!!!

heres a few photos for now... all the details and even a video of me sailing through the air to come soon

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Arequipa adventures with Liz and Chris

Viernes, 3 Octubre

After spending 10 hours in a bus overnight... I got to Arequipa at about 6am and went straight to the Liz and Chris' host family house. After a quick freshning up and breakky... we were out the door at 7:30.

We went straight to the GVI (the organisation that the Hughes' are volunteering with) head quarters and picked up the stuff needed for the day. From there it was on to the Colossium where all the Arequipenan schools were participating in the local dance competition. Victor Maldonaldo school was on at about 10am and until then we all sat around saving a space for the kids. The dance put on by the kids was fantastic... they did very well and even had a touch of humor to dance. Things started to wind down at about 1 in the afternoon and we left and headed to the Plaza de Armas....

We wandered around for a bit... found the best Churros in Arequipa... shopped in some of the secret markets... and went back for churros two more times. After we'd had our fill of the churros... we went to Alpaca mundo (world). It was a factory where they process Alpaca/ Llama wool and make garments. They had a few Alpacas and Llamas in a pen at the back... and Chris and myself promptly went in to feed them. Liz of course ran straight back out of the pen as soon at they came towards her when they saw she had food.

In the evening, Liz's host mum Martha had organised a dinner for us. Before dinner, both of Marthas grand daughters Geraldine and Melanie brought out their violins and played a couple of pieces for us. Both the girls are reaallllyy cute. Melanie absolutely adores Chris and calls him her Caballito (little pony). Some of the other volunteers who work with Liz were also invited and Martha put on quite a spread.

More photos from day 1 in Arequipa here...

Sabado, 4 Octubre
The plan for the day was to cycle down a 5000 meter Chachani mountain on mountain bikes.
All the aspiring mountain bikers... and the lazy ones (Liz and myself) were picked up from the HQ early in the morning and were driven up to the top of the mountain and geared up with elbow pads, knee pads and helmets. The start of the ride was ok... it wasn't that great.. but I managed to keep up with the group (sorta) and not fall of the bike. It was pretty scary coming down the mountain because it was a really bumpy ride (I'm still sore) and there was plenty of rocks on the way down that you could not help but go over. After about an hour an a half of riding downhill, we came across a few sandy patches which were quite hard to cycle through. Knowing that the van was not far behind us, I looked ahead at the 3km uphill stretch and decided to give up. I decided I had enough of physical exercise in the past few weeks and so I stood by the side of the track and then joined Liz ... who was already in the van. We rode the van behind the rest of mountain bikers down for about an hour and a half before we reached asphalt and decided it was safe enough to get back on the bikes again. I have to say though... for this 40 min or so stretch... all you really need to know is how to brake and balance on a bike. No other skills needed. There was no pedalling involved as it was all downhill..... and I enjoyed this bit of the ride.

In the evening, it was dinner with some of the GVI volunteers at this really really yummy Mexican joint just off the Plaza de Armas. After dinner... it was on to drinks and karaoke. Chris and Debra were really hanging on to go for karaoke and after a drink at another local place we finally made it to Daddy-Os. Chris of course doesn't need any encouragement... and picked out "Its my life- Bon Jovi" from a vast list of mostly Spanish songs. He worked the floor and got a table of young Peruvians to join in the chorus. This won him a round of Pisco drinks... which I then proceeded to down with Debra. We hung around for a little while longer, danced to Groupo 5 .. who apparently are really big out here and then headed home for a nights rest.

Check out Chris' recap of the day here....
And then click here for the rest of the photos from the day.....

Domingo, 5 Octubre
Woke up at 7:30 to everything shaking around me. I probably shouldn't say this because Mum will worry... but I will anyway... it was an earthquake tremor. Me being me... in my sleep.. I thought.. oh.. earthquake tremor.. someone will wake me up if necessary and I just went straight back to sleep. It only lasted about 30 seconds... and don't worry Mum... it is actually pretty common in Arequipa and we're completely fine. Liz and Chris even slept right through it.

After a little bit of a sleep in, we decided to go into town to have crepes for breakfast. We managed to make it in at about 10 am and I had the best banana and nutella crepe ever at ZigZags. I went on to check out the Santa Catalina Monastery next. The Santa Catalina Monastery was begun in 1579/ 1580, forty years after the city was founded. The monastery was enlarged over the centuries until it became a city within the city, about 20000 sq./m. and covering a good sized city block. At one time, 450 nuns and their lay servants resided within the community, closed off from the city by high walls. I wandered around and took lots of photos for 2 hours and then headed back to the GVI HQ where I was meeting the rest of the gang for white water rafting.

We were driven about 20 minutes away to Rio Chile where we were geared up and given a quick 15 minute lesson on the dos and do nots for rafting. It was soooooooooooo much fun. There was 9 of us.. so we were off in two rafts. The rapids that we went through ranged from grade 1 to grade 4. The scenery was fantasic and the guide we had with us was amazing too. We even had a stop for a quick drink of water and some chocolate. We started off at the lower grade rapids and finished with grade 4. We even went down a 4 mt waterfall .... and we had no casulaties.

After rafting and changing into dry clothes.. I still had about 3 hours to kill before heading back to Cusco. So we all ended up going to the Gluten festival.... and boy was it a gluten festival. Some of the other vols were game enough to try the barbequed corazon (heart).. but Liz and me stuck to food we could identify. We even had more crepes to finish off the day.. this time chocolate icecream and frambuesas (raspberries)... yumm!


Rest of the photos from Santa Catalina Monastery and Rafting here...

Week 4 at Pumamarca

Martes, 30 Septiembre
So upon return from the Inka Trail and after a good nights sleep and a shower... it was back to school the next day for some more manual labour. As we do not normally teach on tuesdays, it was a day for fencing and other random construction jobs. We're nearly finished with the garden fence, but we also took down the Kindy fence and were re-doing it again. This took up all of the morning...
In the afternoon it was spanish classes and in the evening it was the last supper with all the vols who finished their month with Peru's Challenge.

Miercoles, 1 Octubre
English class with the 5th and 6th graders. It is always very rewarding to teach these classes as the kids are very cluey. Julia, one of the other volunteers had sponsored Spanish-English, English-Spanish dictionaries. Our lesson plan for the day was to finish off the "I likes..." and then show the kids how to use the brand spanking new dictionaries for referencing. They were a little dissapointed when they found out that the dictionaries were not presents but were for the new library/ computer room that we had just finished painting.
Next was hygenie and then Phys. Ed. with the 3rd and 4th grade. As most of us were still pooped from the Inka Trail and didn't really have it in us to run around with the kids for an hour and a half... we decided to shoot hoops with the kids. As is usual with the young ones, it was a chaotic hour and half.
Being the last day up at school for 10 of the other volunteers who started in September with me... it was then time for the usual farewells and tears. The Director of the school gave a speech and then all the volunteers got cards, huge bunches of flowers, their certificates and 150 hugs and kisses each...
The mood was somber as we drove back down to the volunteer casa (being the last drive down for most) ... but the moods picked up when we got home to a house filled with Santusa cooking...

After a hearty lunch... Cathy, Mikael and me headed back up to Pumamarca for house visits. Our job for the afternoon was delivering and setting up beds for the two families of Marie-Luis and Elena who are sponsored by Project for life. Both girls are about 15 years of age and have about 4-5 siblings and each have to share their beds. So we set about carrying the beds and them together. After about an hour we done and finishing up when we were invited back to Louis' house.

Peru's Challenge had donated roof tiles to Louis so that he could build a better house for his family and in exchange he was helping Peru's Challenge with some construction work around the community. So, as a thank you.. Louis invited us all back to his house to see the progress on the house and for some thank you Chicha. So we all sat around and took happy snaps with the children of the casa and about 10 mins later we were brought big bowls of food. Unfortunately, the three of us volunteers had to politely decline as we had just had the huge Santusa lunch. When we were finally permitted to leave.... we were greeted at the entrance by about 20 people. Unknown to us... Louis and family had decided to have an impromptu inaugration of the house. Cathy and Mikael got to cut the ribbon.. and Mark broke the bottle of beer as is the tradition. They then announced that we were now the "GodParents" of the house. So Cathy, Mikael and myself are now proud "GodParents" of a house in Pumamarca.....

Click here for more photos from week 4 at Pumamarca...

Thursday, October 2, 2008

I survived the Inka Trail !!!!!!

Viernes, 26 Septiembre
We were picked up from the volunteer share house bright and early at about 6:30am and driven to Ollantaytambo for a breakky stop and last minute shopping. This is where I picked up my walking sticks which just ended up being my best friends for the next 4 days. From there, we were driven to the start of the trail... Km 82.
The start of journey had me fooled... it was nice and easy and the terrain was flat. We had plenty of breaks.. which I think drove some of the pro-hikers in our group nuts.... but I was grateful for. Our first stop after 2 hours of walking was at Llactapata. We rested for a while and learnt about some of the history of the ruins before continuing on for another 45 mins and lunch. Lunch was soup and chicken burgers.. yumm. We had about 7 porters with us... and I am in absolute awe of them. They would carry about 20 kgs each on their backs... get to camps before us... cook up a storm and then manage to pack up and get to the next camp site before we did. They were absoultely amazing! So anyway, after lunch and we headed on again ... walking for another 3 hours. This time, some of the terrain was undulated... but the last hour was all uphill to our first campsite for the night- Wayllabamba. This was extremely painful for me as it was uphill...but I eventually made it to camp about 30 mins behind the rest of the group.

Stats for the day
Altitude at start of day- 2750 mts
Altitude at end of day- 3100 mts
Kms trekked- 12
Estimated walking time for the day- 4 hrs, 30 mins
My walking time for the day- 5 hours (as a guesstimate.. minus all the breaks)
Terrain- Flat and uphill

Sabado, 27 Septiembre
We were woken up just before 6am with tea brought to our tents. After a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast and banana we set off for the hardest day of the trek. We had no ruins to stop at today. Just a long long long day of steps, more steps, mountains and more mountains. Our goal was to climb 1200 mts to Warmiwanusca also known as Dead Womans Pass and then over the pass to Pacaymayu where we were to camp for the night. So while the others powered on along, I decided to stick to my own pace and lagged behind the rest of the group. One of the guides was always with me which was fantastic because as the morning wore on and Dead Womans pass didn't seem to be getting any closer, I needed the encouragement to go on. At about 12 noon, I was still plodding along looking at Dead Womans pass in the distance.. willing my little legs to keep going. Looking at the mountains around me, the sheer drop into the valley and the long trail ahead of me.. I knew that I had no choice but to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep walking. Finally.... at about 1:15 in the afternoon I made it to Dead Womans pass... tired, sore, sweaty and thankful that I made it that far. After taking in the views for a while and some photos as evidence that I made it to the highest point on the trail I started on for the journey down into the valley where we were to camp for the night. After about an hour of walking down massive stairs... it started to drizzle and I estimated I still had half an hour to get to camp. So, I put on my poncho and continued on downward. And then it started to pour... and I continued walking... and then it started to hail and I still kept walking... determined to get to camp. I definitely fell flat on my bottom a few times walking down the slippery steps.. but I managed to get to camp at 3pm.. with wet shoes, socks and pants and cold and shivery. 3 hours after the rest of the group.. but I made it!

Stats for the day
Altitude at start of day- 3100 mts
Altitude at end of day- 3500 mts
Altitude Climbed- 1100 mts
Kms trekked- 12
Estimated walking time for the day- 6 hrs
My walking time for the day- 8 hours
Terrain- Stupidly uphill

Click here for the rest of the photos from days 1 & 2 of the trail

Domingo, 28 Septiembre
Halfway there and that was the only thing that got me out of my sleeping bag that cold, cold morning. We had a good 17 kms to trek and a few ruins to see along the way. We had two passes to get over that day... but none as high as the previous day. Our first stop was at Runkurakay about a 40 minute walk from camp. I don't really remember much about the info on this site because I was still huffing and puffing away from the walk and was annoyed about my wet shoes and pants. Anyway, so after a brief stop for photos and air.. we continued on up and over the pass and to the next ruins which were Sayacmarca. Don't remember much about these ruins ... ok, yes, I'm quite hopeless! From there it was on to an early lunch and then 4 hours more of walking through the jungle. I have to say that the third day of the trek would have been the one I most enjoyed. The walk was nice and easy (well, easier than climbing 1200 mts) and the views along the trail were breathtaking. There was a few Inkan passages along the way and so much beautiful flora. As usual I was trailing behind the rest of the group and only got to the second pass of the day Phuyupatamarca at about 2pm. We were able to see down into the valley at the town of Aguas Calientes and I had my first view of Machu Picchu (the mountain). From here, it was a 2 hour downhill walk to our camp for the night. The steps were steep for the first 1 hour and one had to tread very carefully so as to not fall over... which of course was inevitable for me. At about 3:30pm, I looked to the skies and saw the dark clouds and heard the distant thunder. That certainly spurred me on, because I decided there was no way I was walking in rain with soggy pants and shoes again. I even overtook a few people on the path that day... (ok, so one or two of them may have been over the age of 60)... but, I made it to camp an hour later.. thankfully dry!

Stats for the day
Altitude at start of day- 3500 mts
Altitude at end of day- 2500 mts
Kms trekked- 17
Estimated walking time for the day- 9 hrs
My walking time for the day- 10 hours.. ish
Terrain- Up and down and all over the place...


Lunes, 29 Septiembre
The last day of the trek and only 6ks to Machu Picchu. Our earliest start yet... wake up call was at 3:45am. Breakfast was at 4am and we were standing in queue waiting for the checkpoint to open at 4:30am. After standing in line for an hour, we got through the checkpoint and everyone made a mad dash for our destination. The 2 hours of downhill walking from the previous day had me extremely sore and in a fair amount of pain. So, there I was.. trailing behind the group again. At about 7am, I finally made it to Intipunku- the Sun Gate to Machu Picchu. The rest of the group were waiting for me and when I got there and got my first view of Machu Picchu all the pain and sweat and grumpiness from the early morning start faded away. The view was aaaaamaaazzinngg and after a brief rest, we all stormed on down for the last 1 hour of the trek to the top of Machu Picchu. All the hard work from the previous 3 days was forgotten as I stood at the top and took in the views. I caught up with the rest of the group and we all did little dances of joy and congratulated each other on making it through the long journey... which was completely worth it!

Stats for the day
.. hmm.. don't really care... I survived the Inka Trail and made it to Machu Picchu... yay me!

Click here for the rest of the Machu Picchu photos...


Friday, September 26, 2008

El Trecera semana a Pumamarca

Week three and we're finally getting into some sort of routine......

Lunes, 22 Septiembre
1st and 2nd graders english on the monday as usual. Our lesson plan for the day was numbers and colours. So we chanted the numbers from 1 to 10, ran around the classroom in a train and tagged colours and threw balls at each other in an attempt to teach the young ones their numbers. After doing the 1.5 hour walk up to the school that morning... it certainly was no easy feat. But its made it all worthwhile when I was walking across the field and one of the 6 year olds came running up to me yelling..."amiga amiga.... one two three four five".

Martes, 23 Septiembre
Another one of those days where we get nothing done. It was "Students day". We weren't scheduled to take any classes that day and the fencing was under control. Most of us spent an hour or so in the kindy class watching them dance, eat, sing and then dance around the piñada. At about noon, all the kids came out of class and set up their chairs around the field. The teachers of all the grades and the principal of the school put on a couple of dances of the children. But no, it didn't end there. All the vols were sitting around watching the show and we got dragged onto the field for a dance too. And then of course.. there was the piñadas for the rest of the grades. These were set up on the stage and somehow all 150 kids were able to squeeze onto the stage and under the piñadas ready to pounce on all the goodies. As is traditional, most of a kids had a go at hitting the piñada blindfolded. There were a few of the inevitable thuds as some of the others got hit instead of the piñada and of course all of us have the piñada song tune stuck in our heads as we very quickly realised that the whole piñada thing can be a very very very long affair.

Miercoles, 24 Septiembre
A productive day at school with english for the 5th and 6th graders. We started class with brainstorming words in english for animals, food and colours and then got each of the kids to stand up and frame sentences with "I like ... ". We took it a step further with the 6th graders and got them to make little booklets with things that they like which they will read out in class next week. After this, we had hygiene as usual and then more festivities as it was Mark's (volunteer manger) birthday and Beth's (volunteer who has been here for 3 months) last day. The kids again brought their chairs out to the field and then there were speeches and more speeches and flowers and more flowers and cake (1 cake was amazingly enough to feed all 150 students) and then both Mark and Beth stood and endured 150 snotty hugs and kisses from all of the children.

Jueves, 25 Septiembre
At home all day today..... only had cooking classes with the lovely Santusa and Spanish classes. The menu was Qinua soup, Aji chicken thingy and milo caramel cake. We all helped Santusa... peel the onions and potatos, shred the chicken, cut the cheese, skin the beans .... and 3 hours later we all had a feast. The Qinua soup was one of the best I've tasted so far... and the chicken.... to die for! The cake... even better.... we were practically licking the caramel off it.. I kid you not. And then I spent most of the afternoon and evening packing and stressing about tomorrow....

.... the 4 day Inca Trail ...
wish me luck!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Weekend Trip to the Sacred Valley of the Inkas

Sabado, 22 Septiembre
We started off about 9 in the morning.... 15 volunteers and 2 tour guides. The drive is about 40 minutes by bus out of Chuzco to our first stop Chinchero. Here was an Andean village rich with Inkan history. The Inkas used to call this village the "Birthplace of the rainbow" and you can tell why. The views from the top were absolutley spectacular. The valleys and the shadows cast over the mountains was just beautiful. It was hard to peel ones eyes away from the scenery. There was also the colonial church of St. Franics Xavier which was built over the Inka walls with an elaborately decorated interior and where they had a replica of the body like the one preserved in Goa.We also got to sit in the original chairs carved out of rocks for the Inkan Kings.

Leaving Chinchero, we were driven down in the Sacred Valley stopping at a few lookouts along the way. When we descended into the valley, we stopped for a buffet lunch at a restaurant overlooking a beautiful garden and river. The food as usual was fabulous and the dessert even better.

Once we finished lunch, we continued on to one of the largest Inka ruins, Ollantaytambo whichh is located on the banks of the Urubamba River. Legend states that this name was given to the site because of Cacique Ollanta who fell in love with Inka Pacahakutec's daughter, Kusi Qoyllur. It is also one of the only locations where the Inkas defeated the Spanish during the conquest, although their victory was only short lived. Ollantaytambo is the only Inkan site whose buildings are still used as homes by the locals today. The ruins are amazing. After a slow, long climb to the top of the ruins, we got to the Temple of the Sun which is built which HUGE rocks and hauled in from across the valley. We walked around the ruins for a good two hours and learnt much about the history of this advanced indigenous civilization and how they created such magnificient structures and how they preserved food. We then descending down to see the Intlwatana- bath of the princess with the fantastic 'magic' fountain system.

Leaving Ollantaytambo, we stopped at a local "Chicha" brewery. Chicha is a Inkan beer that is made from corn. I saw purple and red corn for the first time ever. We learnt about the brewery process and got an opportunity to taste the normal Chicha beer as well as Strawberry beer. It tasted a little strange.. like beer and wine mixed together. The locals apparently drink it by the bucket load.. literally. We also indulged in a traditional game of 'Sappo' (frog) .. which was basically us throwing gold coins into the mouth of a frog on a dressing table contraption. Apparently, the locals sit around in the brewery drinking beer and betting on games of 'Sappo'. I wasn't very good at it ... only got one coin in.


Rest of the photos from Chinchero and Ollantaytambo here
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040619&l=9954d&id=212900300

Domingo, 23 Septiembre
We had a late-ish start fortunately and also got a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel before heading up to the Pisaq ruins on the mountain-side, above the hotel and the town. We were driven to the very top where the ruins and terraces were. As we walked through the ruins, we were explained the cultivation purpose of the huge sytem of terraces... but I was concentrating on taking photos and not falling off the mountain so I don't really remember much. We also saw the unique burial system of the Inkas which was basically holes cut into the cliff face. We walked from one end of the terraces to the other.... up treacherous (by my standards) paths and into small dark passage ways. We finally got to the other ruins of Pisaq where we saw another Sun Temple and took lots more photos. The views were..yes, amazing. We were even able to see our hotel from the top. And then we had to endure the long long long long long walk down the mountain to the town. All in all, it took us about 3 hours of walking... but it was definitley worth it.

When we got down to the town, we all rejuvinated ourselves with some fresh orange juice from one of the local ladies before heading to lunch and then some shopping at the famous Pisaq artesian markets. The main square of Pisaq was jam packed with textiles, crafts, food, jewellery and much more. It was shoppers paradise. I spent about a half hour shopping before I had to help Charlotte with the shopping for "the Ball". Peru's Challenge is having a ball in Sydney on 15/11/2008 to raise money and awareness for the school and all the work we do. So Charlottes and my job for the day was to buy the bulls which are to be used as centre pieces on the tables and lots of Inkan table cloths. After about an hour of hunting and barganing, we managed to seal a deal. But, it did take a fair bit of effort on our part, because we asked for one size of the bulls... but when we did a random check, found that we had about 4 different sizes. So, we had to make the ladies unpack it all get us the right sizes.
After all that hard work, we decided to treat ourselves to some cheesecake and then made the journey back home with about 6 huge bags full of bulls and table cloths...


More photos of Pisaq and the ruins here....
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040620&l=18e06&id=212900300

El Segundo Semana al Pumamarca

... the second week at Pumamarca

Martes, 16 Septiembre
So after a long night on the bus and returning home from Lake Titicaca at 4am, all of us were up bright and early again to go up to the school.
On tuesdays, the volunteers do not have any classes with the kids.. so we just made ourselves busy. I helped Hannah, Jes and Cathy with painting the computer/ library room. This room was previously used as storage, but Peru's Challenge have been able to source about 11 computers which we will have by of the end of the year. So all of us set to work getting our hands dirty with different shades of green. It took us all morning to do and I've still got green fingernails from last week...

Miercoles, 17 Septiembre
Wednesdays is english class with the 5th and 6th graders. Cilla, Lyn (the other Lyn) and myself prepared a lesson plan of the "who, what, when, where" to go through with the kids. But we found out that this was actually too advanced for them. So we had to improvise and come decided to only go through the names and numbers of the kids. We broke up into smaller groups and spent the better part of the 45 minute lesson with the 5th graders going through "My name is xxx .. I am xx years old". Next we had the 6th graders, but they were busy dying wool and preparing for the "fiesta" on friday. So we had to can that lesson plan and find other ways to make ourselves useful.
I decided to help with the fencing as I hadn't helped with that before. We had to chip off the ends of the poles and then drill and nail them on to the poles that had been rooted into the ground. Wasn't easy with one drill, one hammer, one chipper thingy and about 8 volunteers.. but now, two weeks later.. the fence is almost finished. All that is left is to hang the gate. Yay for us!!

In the afternoon, I was rostered for house visits again. We visited the same family as last time who were meant to get the bamboo sticks for the walls. They hadn't done it yet as they did not have access to the stuff when Peru's Challenge were not around. So, we went up to the school, got all the bamboo out from the yard... and then proceeded to carry it across fields and down into a valley and out again to the family. It took us a good half hour of lugging around bamboo on our shoulders as we were following one of the young boys and suddenly lost him. So, we were following Mark (the volunteer Manager) who was following a puppy. And of course, we got to the edge of the hill and didn't know where to go. After some backtracking and shouting across the valley, we had the young boy come back to show us the way. I kept walking into the trees with the bamboos as there were twice as tall as I am. But we eventually made it and Syliva (not Jessica as I previously thought) and her family should have some walls pretty soon.
After all that manual labour, we only had one more stop and that was to drop off the hairdressing course completion certificate for one of the mums. She is part of the project for life programme and the money from her sponsors helped her to enrol in and complete a hair dressing course. She will be practicing next week on the kids up at school.

Jueves, 18 Septiembre
No classes up at the school... so I didn't do much for most of the morning. Just bummed around at home and then sat on the couch with Hannah and watched 6 hours of Srubs in the evening.

Viernes, 19 Septiembre
The day of the fiesta ....... as part of some festival, the kids were putting on a dress rehersal for all the volunteers on the dances they were doing. The actual day of the festivities was on saturday in the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco centre, but we were not going to be around.
When we got up to the school, we knew there wasn't even going to be the 1 hour of classes that we had planned for. The kids were running about everywhere in their colourful costumes and getting their hair braided and having their photos taken. So we sat around for a bit, took lots of photos and the show started at 11am. All the grades from 1st to 6th put on a different dance. They were absolutely adorable as usual and very entertaining.

A BIG thank you to all my Aussie friends who contributed money as some of this was used to rent costumes for the kids. While this may seem like a small thing, it actually means a lot to the children. As I understand it, some of them have costumes made by their parents, but those who are not living with their parents for whatever reason would have had to go without.
Thanks for your contributions....
Vikram
Frank Moore
Anh T.
Kim Trang
Bosco, Ginette, Nathan
Judy, Chris, Hayley
Siew Gin
There is lots of money leftover from the donations and we are still deciding what to put it to.

Rest of the photos from our second week at school can be found here...
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040457&l=e0365&id=212900300


...and photos from the fiesta are here...
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040618&l=f620f&id=212900300