Adios Cusco- Hello Lima

Friday: Every one was tired, but in good health. We had a tour of the cathedral and the Inka Museum. After lunch the kids rested while Joaquin and I took care of travel confirmations. Our plane from Cusco to Lima was changed to an earlier flight. There was a problem with the date of the flight and changing it took a long time. Thank you to Joaquin and his contacts for making the change possible. We left Cusco at 7:45 Lan Peru flight 24 instead of at noon. Our plane tickets in Delta were confirmed without difficulty.

The earlier flight from Cuzco allowed us a few more hours in Lima. Aima had contacted the headquarters of our project´s foundation, La Tierra de Ninos and we hoped to meet its founder, but it did not happen.


Joaquin provided a beautiful closing exercise at the end of the day. It was heartbreaking to see how much the group has grown together and how much they enjoyed the service project, the highlight of their stay. I am thankful to Mac for not giving up on the trip when people did not easily sign-up. We had a transforming 15 days.

Sunday 15-Wednesday 18

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Continuation report of end of project: We finished the project and had a tasty Pachamanca to celebrate.
It served about 45 people who included all the volunteers from Ollantaytambo and Casady, the Manco Inca School children and adults, the carpenters, their families and few dogs.


The kids sanded the playground and when it was partially finished, we saw how happy the children were. We have a great sense of satisfaction for all our hard work.


On Wednesday evening, since I am writing this on Thursday morning, Aima, the Tierra de Ninos coordinator gave a financial report of the total cost of the playground as of $1,200. Our $700 were matched by El Albergue and Tierra de Ninos resources to make the playground a reality.

As we left Ollantaytambo on Monday, the playground was as finished as we could leave it.
On our way to Macchu Picchu we received a report that the children and the carpenter had finished it and the children were playing but sad that we were gone. When told that a new group was coming, they said it would not be the same. Last night, Aima thanked the Casady kids for having made the time with the children unforgettable. She said, "You made them feel special when you played and paid attention to them, something they do not all get at home or at school. "

We were so sorry and sad about David that we concentrated in communicating with Casady and Jared in China. Thank you, Joaquin for understanding and changing schedules.


Then we continued the Market Place of ideas. The kids divided in groups decided what will be the next steps to keep the momentum going and bring sustainability to the leadership and work we started together in Ollantaytambo and when we go back home.

After suggesting creation of Tierra de ninos at Casady; following-up the book project, which is only at the preliminary stage with Internet penpals, and having a Speak Week; the kids decided that the easy thing to do as a group was a SpeaK Week. A week to focus on volunteering and fundraising for the next trip to Peru needs at Ollantaytambo and to provide funding for interested students who are unable to afford the cost of the trip independently. Students will work in collaboration with Student Council and officers of other clubs. Students discussed the projects and voted for Speak Week.
The Speak Week was tabled until the beginning of the school year.


On Sunday we took a field trip to the weavers' place.
The kids were very tired. The field trip was somewhat dissapointing because we did not get to see the weavers weaving, just working on a lesson on natural techniques. It was very cold and some of the students and I started to get a cold. I bought some local medicine for the group, which worked well.
Nina saw a practical application of Mrs. Zesiger class and everyone was invited to eat the local potatao with local salt and ginea pig. Some also bought weavings

Since it was father´s day, some kids e'mail parents from El Albergue. We did not have Internet at Las Orquideas. I was sick, so I went to sleep after dinner. Thank you Joaquin for allowing us to have a special good-bye dinner in Ollantaytambo.
It has been a memorable experience and you made it possible. Hope you will want us back next year!!! Nina bought chocolate roses for Joaquin and our day ended in a good note,

Monday June 16: We took the backpacker train to Aguas Calientes. The Presidente Hotel was nice.


We had a hike to Mandor Valley and Joaquin tried to have a fair trade talk with the students which I did not think went very well. mostly because everyone is very tired and sad about David.
Then we went to the thermal baths and had dinner at a place that was nice, but the kids did not enjoyed the food that much.

Tuesday June 17: The day started with Jake having something in his eye. We took him to the local medical post and headed to Macchu Picchu. Since his eye continued to bother him, Joaquin stayed behind and saw the doctor on duty at Macchu Picchu who cleaned-up his eye and placed a patch for prevention since he had scratched his eye.
Jake and Joaquin joined us in the hike to Hayna Picchu and Moon Temple.

When we returned to Macchu Picchu we were so tired, it took some time to get the kids to be willing to continue with the tour of the historical santuary.


At the end of the day we boarded the train first and then the bus to pick-up our luggage for our transfer to Las Chulpas where we stayed over night. We were exhausted.

Las Chulpas was a nice rustic, secluded retreat. The choice of meal was not the best. The rooms were very very cold. The water was cold in my bathroom so I could not take a shower that evening, which was fixed early next morning. Although the place was interesting, I do not think I will go back just for a night; too much work loading and unloading luggage in a remote area with hard accessibility to rooms. The owners of this hostel were very nice,

Wednesday June 18: Today is my son´s Brian B-day. We stopped in Pisac for the kids to buy crafts and to have lunch. The menu was nicer than the day before, but had quinua soup once more. It is a delicious soup,but a variety of soups would have been welcomed.
After lunch I found out that Mac had misplaced her camera. After looking around, we concluded that maybe it was stolen, but since we were already on our road to Cusco, there was nothing we could do.

At Saqsayhuaman, the kids tired and I with the heaviest cold, were reluctant to keep hiking, but it was interesting and the goal setting session in the beautiful environment was effective.
Here Rosie told me that she had also misplaced her camera, which was the camera we were to leave with the kids of Ollantaytambo. She thought she had to look at one one place to make sure and that she would do that as soon as we arrived to the hostel.

We had a couple of hours to shop in Cuzco after checking in San Isidro Hostel. Then we had dinner and Nina´s enthusiasm for dancing took the group to some discos.

Today is Thursday June, 19. We will tour Cusco and I will ask the kids to brainstorm their presentation because we cannot get together until August again after we go back, Grayson might not be able to be there and Rosie will go to another high school next year. Every one is a little more rested but with mild colds.

Saturday

We are very sorry about our friend David Childs. What could have been a great date to report because we completed our project is now a very difficult time for our team.

June 12-13

I did not have time to blog yesterday because we moved to our new hostel and we worked from 9-5 p.m. We were exhausted and sorry to move from El Albergue, but Las Orquideas is ok. We continued our work inside and outside the classroom,


Today we also worked all day and we finished preparing the area to pour sand and then the playground should come. We also cleaned up part of the school. Rosie, Mac, and Kendall were not feeling 100%. Today was somewhat of a difficult day. At the end of the day, we started our pottery introduction, ancient ways to make bowls.

Joaquin´s daughter had a b-day. It was interesting to see a two year-old birthday party in Ollantaytambo.

June 11, 2008

Today we went to the Salt Mines and saw the Concentric Cirles.
While we admired the Inca architecture, we worked on the personality tests and bonded as a group with Joaquin.
We also visited the Salt Mines. The scenery was incredible and the Urubamba river and valley beautiful. Our driver was the same man as last year incident with the flat tire. He now has a huge bus. I am so glad to see such progress in his life.

When we returned from our excursion, we cooked lomo saltado and cookies under the guidance of the Albergue chef, Juan. After that we did the egg drop challenge and continued trying to figure our leadership styles and how to use that knowledge to accomplish our goals, enhance our performance on our group project, and continue our transformation from a group to a team with a common vision.

I had the opportunity to talk to Aima about presenting her project in the USA, finding funding for the project with collaborations with What kids can do and the Shinnyoen foundation, NYLC and Clemson university. Aima told me that she wants training in education, which I will try to help after I return.

As we prepared to leave el albergue, the kids feel sad because this place has become a home away from home and the staff is very nice. We need to give a chance to Las Orquideas. We will see.

June 10, 2008

Everyone is fine and the group is becoming a team.

Work day 2: Kids were divided between Tierra de Ninos work and English teachers. The classes at school Manco Inca were large, the teachers were welcoming, and the children loved the Casady kids.

After work, we had our ceramics workshop. It was interesting.

Monday, June 9, 2008

10:00 a.m. Urubamba river rafting. It was almost perfect because one member of our team did not attend. Louisa was not feeling well and she decided to stay at the hostel under the care of Adela, a kind and caring hostel clerk who is like Joaquin´s aunt. Louisa had stomach ache in the morning, but a good rest allowed her to be with us at dinner and as we speak she is winning every action game the group is playing in the other room.

Back to white water rafting: The Urubamba river was beautiful and kind to our two boats. Everyone enjoyed themselves. Our instructors were professional and their equipment allowed us to take the rapids in comfort. I should not have feared the rafting so much. The view was breathtaking and after several level three rapids, our group felt accomplished. Sorry this dial-up connection is so slow for pictures. We had a good lunch and returned to the hostel to rest for a while. The kids were so tired that they decided to not play soccer today.

After an evaluative time with Grayson, we had our readings discussion. It was difficult for the kids because they and I had not read the books. Joaquin understood the circunstances and the worst part is now over. I hope the discussion will motivate the kids to read, but if not, at least they are aware of the intention of the project with the reading.

We had dinner at 7:30 and the kids and the Peruvian facilitators have been playing games for almost two hours.

Well, all is well in Ollantaytambo so far. We will see what tomorrow brings.

Sunday, June 8, 2008. Tierra de Ninos, ofrenda

Greetings from Peru:

I guess today was the first ¨real¨ day of the trip. We ate breakfast at 8 again, and afterwards, we discussed the plan for the day. Following our discussion, we gathered tools
and walked to the school where we will be working on our project, known in Spanish as ¨La Tierra del Ninos,¨ or the ¨Children´s Land.¨ When we got there we were all thinking the same thing: what did we get ourselves into? The land was a disaster. However, after just a few hours work you could already see a transformation. We spent the morning cutting trees,
hauling dirt, and throwing rocks. This is the ¨pre-work¨ that needs to be done before we can begin to put together the children´s play area. The land needs to be level and clear. After the hard work of the morning hours we had some fun. Local students, from ages 2-15 or so, came to assist us and had a call taking pictures with the cameras that were donated for our project. They prepared potatoes for us in a tradition outdoor Peruvian oven, made of rocks and covered with dirt. We ate potatoes and drank fruit juice while enjoying a break in the shade. After our work we went to eat at a restaurant in town,
followed by the opportunity to watch a local soccer game. We took showers before dinner as we were really dirty from working, and for dinner we had a simple soup and ham and cheese sandwiches. We also had the opportunity to experience a spiritual offering from a traditional high-altitude tribe shaman. It was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. Afterwards we enjoyed the music of Cesar, one of the hotel employees. Everyone is pretty tired; however, I think they are all excited for the white-water rafting tomorrow. So far everyone is doing well; it´s hard to believe it has already been four full days!

We have dial-up Internet connection. The kids are writing their entries in this blog because the other one is not responding. I cannot enter my e-mail from school either.

Everyone is doing fine. We had our first day of Tierra de Ninos work. It was hard labor, but very rewarding to meet the children and some of their parents. We have many pictures. We are uploading them to our laptop.

The children loved taking pictures, filming,working, and playing with the Casady teens. Their school is poor and the land provided is in poor condition. Our kids were amazing workers. It will be rewarding to see the before and after pictures.

Our day started at 8:30 and we worked until 3:00. The children baked potatoes for us in an oven made of rocks as a snack. After work, we went to eat to another good restaurant. After lunch, we went to a soccer game between the Vilcabamba and Ollantaytambo municipalities.

We ended the day with an offering to the earth for good luck with the children´s project. The ceremony was interesting and different. I did not know anything about this side of my Peruvian culture. It is nice to learn so much about my heritage in the company of students.

The kids are now singing with Cesar´s guitar. Tomorrow we will do white water rafting.

Saturday, June 7

I cannot update the WlS blog, Here is what Nina wrote:

Hola Parents from Ollantaytambo!

Today was our second full day and it started off early at 8 in the morning. Breakfast was great! After breakfast Paul took the whole group around town and gave us a brief history of the Incan culture. We climbed these Incan ruins today and it was beautiful because you could see the entire city. That was exciting! Sleepiness plagues the group. Everyone is always looking forward to siesta! Lunch was amazing with a soup called sopa de creole. That was one of the best soups I’ve ever had. Now we have just returned from our meeting about the project and it built up excitement. Dinner is coming soon so that is the last update until tomorrow. Hang Loose!

Love,
Nina B

8:00 A.M. Breakfast eggs, pancakes, juice, toast, home atmosphere, nice people, beautiful children!

Goals session: It was interesting to hear the kids goals. Learning Spanish,about the culture, making sure they completed their project, learn to be good listeners..

Joaquin read to us our itinerary and warned us that there were already some changes.

Tour of Ollantaytambo: Guided by Paul who speaks Spanish, English and Quechua. Paul loves his village and knows its history very well.

1:00 We had lunch at Pachamama Restaurant and the kids loved the criolla soup.

The kids were very tired and slept from 2-4.

4:00 Sessions with Aima, Joaquin´s wife and her school project The children´s land. I cannot believe how beautiful this project is. We are very lucky to be part of it. Grayson already visited with the carpenters that have been working on the playground needs and tomorrow we will, for the first time meet with the children and their parents to clean-up the area where the playground will be built.

7:00 Joaquin made the kids their favorite meal so far: Lomito Saltado. Everyone was very tired and went to bed after dinner because we have to be ready to go by 8:30 tomorrow.
Before bed I had a dance lesson from Aima and discovered that el Albergue has a eucalipus sauna. It is a refreshing way to end the day, but one needs to be careful of the spiders!

The group is becoming more cohesive, but we still have some ways to go. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Problems with e-mail

Dear parents, Mark and Ross,

We had good flights from OKC to Lima. The kids had a great time at the jacuzi and the sauna at our hotel. Our travel agent in Peru had a wonderful guide waiting for us at the airport. We checked luggage and went to the spa, which is lovely. They tasted their first Lomito saltado and Inka Cola. The reviews were good.



We had a good flight from Cuzco. All the kids did well adjusting to altitude. Joaquin gave us a lot of water to drink upon our arrival to Cuzco and in a nice van we were on our way to Ollantaytambo.

The kids were very tired, but loved their accomodations. Grayson was vocal about how much he loved our hostel.


Kids had to adjust to the Peruvian meals. They are not used to three course meals and soups.

After lunch, we had an orientation to Ollantaytambo in a scavenger hunt. The levels of comfort of the kids were tested, but everyone did very well and as a result, when we had to draw a map of the places where we had been, we all did very well. The group decided that the hunt helped them get to know our small home away from home well in a few hours. The town is small and welcoming. The people are friendly and are willing to help with a smile and a good attitude. The children are beautiful. It is a town of contrasts.



Expectations and fears sessions:It was interesting to hear the kid´s fears and later on their goals. Three people in our group are not looking forward to white water rafting. Joaquin made us read the expectations we had dinner. We all went to bed soon after due to exhaustion.