Hello family and friends of the WHS program in Peru. The students are heading home! Unfortunately their flight from Lima to NYC is currently delayed by 2 1/2 hours. They will do their best to update the blog but please monitor the flight for the new arrival time. Thank you for your trust and support!
Erin Hawk Executive Director Things we learned in Peru--a partial list:
How to communicate across language barriers. How our host families live lives of quiet dignity amidst poverty. How much things we obsess over often don't really matter much. How freeing it can be to be off social media for awhile. How to communicate and collaborate within our group. How thinking and acting patiently and slowly are often the best strategy. How to withstand minor discomfort and inconvenience. How to overcome exhaustion and feelings that we cannot conquer a challenge. How to not give up. How resourceful cultures can be. How beautiful the Peruvian landscape is. How hard it is to breathe at 14,000 feet. That no matter how high you go on the mountain, there are llamas and alpacas higher than you. How a smile is understood across cultures. How to knit and weave bracelets. How to make pottery and carve wood. How to encourage younger students. How leaning on peers can allow us to accomplish goals we could not achieve alone. How an attentive mode of travel can create insight and erode stereotypes. How rewarding it is to make the effort to connect with people, across the globe or within our own school. How to try new foods or politely decline. How many ways eat potatoes. And how many ways one can make soup. How a steep mountain valley enables Laura to project her voice for a mile. How intense Uno can get. How optional hot water is when you need to get clean. How lively Cuzco is at night. How incredibly skilled and artistic the Quechua weavers are. How the ancient traditions customs remain palpably present. How skilled the bus drivers are. How learning together can be rewarding. We bid farewell to Ollantaytambo and the many fine people encountered there, and also gave a silent salute to our families as we drove past Puente Inca on our way out. We stopped at Chinchero, part way to Cusco, to visit a weaving center. The head of the center, assisted by about a dozen Quechua women, demonstrated their dyeing, spinning, knitting and weaving skills. Those of us who worked with Awamaki found it familiar but it was a very thorough and fascinating presentation. They gave us ponchos to wear during it and served us tea to make sure we were warm and comfortable. We then had a chance to do some shopping.
Cusco was choked with traffic, in part due to demonstrations in support of a nationwide teachers' strike. Eventually we made it to the glorious Sacsayhuaman site, the remains of an imposing fortress from when Cusco was the Incan capital and one of the most impressive cities in the world. The scale of the stone work is staggering. Then, on to our hotel, lunch, museums, a bit of shopping and dinner. There is no quit in this group, and if there is we push right through it to squeeze the most out of our limited time here. And it has been spectacular. Alex:
If you have ever seen Machu Picchu in pictures, or have heard about it before, you have no idea how beautiful it actually is, until you have seen it in person! Luckily we were able to visit it today, and it was stunning! After taking the train and arriving at the train station, we met up with our tour guide, Jimmy, and then took a bus further up the mountain. The view was AMAZING once we reached the top! There were many different ruins and each part of the ruins had a different explanation as to why it was built, or what it was used for. An example of one rock's purpose, during the Incan times, was that it was used as a sun dial. When it was the morning time, the shadow of the rock was visible, but when the sun was directly above the rock, midday, there was no shadow. As the hours passed throughout the day, the rock's shadow would travel around the base of the rock, like a clock, and the Incans would be able to tell what the time was. After our tour ended, we took the bus back down the mountain, and stopped at a delicious restaurant called "To-To's House," where we were served pizza for dinner. We ended a great day with a quiet train ride home, some UNO tournaments, and beds to crash in at the "Full Moon Lodge!" I can't wait for Cusco tomorrow! Thanks to all the blog viewers for reading! Goodnight! Emily: Perú has been like an amazing rollercoaster ride. As a group we had many ups and downs. However, today has definitely been a good day! We were able to see one of the wonders of the world and learn some history behind it too. Machu Picchu was breathtaking up close and we were able to see many native animals. We saw two llamas, a lizard and a chinchilla! We were also fortunate enough to learn a lot from our tour guide, Jimmy, who showed us pictures to further explain the information. One thing I found the most interesting was the way the buildings in Machu Picchu were organized to be shaped like a condor. We also learned the gruesome way one girl, aged 8 to 13, would be sacrificed by being mummified alive. After touring around Machu Picchu, we all were able to get back healthy and in one piece to our hotel "Full Moon." Hopefully, tomorrow will continue being as great and as amazing as today! Wish everyone luck from Perú! Thank you for reading ! 💖 Porfirio and his crew heated stones for three hours and then put together our pachamanca feast. First, they laid down a layer of stones, then the chicken, another layer of stones, then pork ribs, potatoes of several varieties, rosemary, more stones, enormous green beans. Then it gets covered and buried in the earth to cook. Delicious and abundant!
Aside from our NGOs several of us have been able to visit other artisans around Ollantaytambo. I have been lucky enough to have visited two of these craftsman. These two would be a potter and a wood carver. While visiting each of their workshops I was able to get not only a demonstration but was also allowed to make my own piece. The potter we met was named Eduardo and we gave us some of the clay he dug out of a mountain 20 km away. His technique was impeccable and he helped us along to make our, semi-decent work. Secondly I was able to work with the wood carver, José. He gave us each a piece of a frame to work with and showed us the process in which he made the wood right for carving and helped us to create a specified design. José was equally patient and clear teacher as Eduardo. Despite there being no need for either artist to teach us about their ancient trade their love for sharing it showed through.
--by Kelton Dazlyn:
Today was the last day we spent with our homestays, and it was a day well spent. The Kuska School group helped finished the fence around the garden and we repainted signs to make the garden look pretty and fun for the children. We also had the chance to listen to the music classes from the school and they were really good. Then we went to observe how they cook traditionally a variety of meat and potatoes seasoned with rosemary, called Pachamanca (earth bowl in Quetchua), and it was really interesting to see how they cooked the meat in an earth oven. We met all the families back at the lodge and I had guinea pig for the first time! It was sad to say goodbye to our families but we had a great time with them and I will never forget this experience. Tomas: Today we said goodbye to our home stay families. They made us pizza for breakfast and that was pretty cool. Our Peruvian feast midday was fun. Not gonna lie I don't remember most of the things that happened today as I am not feeling great to be honest. Also Machu Picchu is tomorrow so that should be really cool. Alex: Hello family, friends, and other blog viewers! Happy Pachamanka day! Today was tons of fun, as some of us spent our morning learning the art of wood carving with a friend, Julio. He taught us how to carve beautiful designs using tools he bought and made himself, and our finished products looked great! After our wood carving lesson, we took a short walk to where the food for Pachamanka was being prepared. It was so awesome to watch because the food is cooked using heated rocks with tarp layers placed over the stones and food. After a fun morning we arrived back at Full Moon Hotel, and played with our host families, while also enjoying the Pachamanka food! It was delicious, but I steered clear of the guinea pig! After the fiesta, it was really sad to have to say goodbye to our host families, but I will definitely keep in touch! I can't wait for Machu Picchu tomorrow! Hope everyone enjoys our posts and pictures! (PS: If Marty is reading this, I hope you arrived back home safely! I miss you a bunch, and I hope your tooth is feeling better! Love ya! -Vargie) Much love to all families from the whole Perú group! Mom, Jeni, and Nick, miss you guys! I'm having tons of fun, and I can't wait to see you, and Phillis! :-) Love you! |
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