Volunteer Project

Whew ok where do I begin...admittedly I've been slacking a bit on writing my next blog entry because well...my days are quite full. Yo tengo Spanish classes every morning from 9-11, then I leave to my volunteer project in the afternoons at 2:30. In between I work on my Spanish with a tandem partner, or try and schedule the weekend treks outside of town. My volunteer project via Maximo Nivel worked out to be the perfect fit for me. I am really lucky. I really love the kids and the project director Williar is quite a character.

The project is Wara Associan and originally revolved around Futebol. It has since taken on a bit of a different form in that we work with the kids on their homework after school, teach them a bit of English, and then play Futebol until the sun goes down. I have a bit of experience working with kids through my mentorship with City of Dreams, this however is a community that is at a whole other economic level. The community Huayllarcocha is a Quechuan community about 25 minutes out of Cusco in the mountains surrounding the city. The entire community consists of about 80 families. The houses in the community don't have bathrooms or showers and the families primarily subsist off the land. Most of the families have about 5-7 kids and make about 5 soles/day. To offer some sense of what that means, 3.15 soles= 1 USD. To make money, the community sells soil, potatoes, farm animals and pottery that they create. For those of you who don't know Quechua was the established language of the Incan Empire and the entire community speaks Quechua and Espanol. I have learned a few verbal exchanges in Quechua as it is important to be respectful of the native language in addition to Spanish.

Every day there are either pigs, mules, alpacas, cows, dogs, sheep, you name it, wandering the property of our project building which keeps it interesting. After all the homework is done we play futebol the last hour of every day. Needless to say with all the animals I have trekked home more than my share of poo on my pants. I was even lucky enough to take home with me one of the smaller animals....the Garapata one night. It must have stuck to my jeans and got cozy in my sleeping bag...I wound up with about 25 bites on my leg until I found the little sucker 2 days later.

I feel like since we are the 2nd round of volunteers at this project we could make a big difference. Additionally I have offered my services to help build a basic website for the organization. I must say ...I have really taken to the kids. I think there a few that could actually make me want to have kids one day which in itself is a miracle. I'm including a few in this post for you to see.

How many Coca Leaves does it take....?

What a weekend....I feel like things are slowly falling into place. I've met some really amazing new friends, feel extremely comfortable living my Peruvian family, and I am in close proximity to some of the most incredible archeological sites in the world.

This weekend our nueva amigas Veronica and Susanme took us to the local Inca ruins of Pisac and Ollyantaytambo. I know I have seen pictures of Incan ruins online or in magazines, but to see this up close is absolutely incredible. First of all-we're talking about the Andes mountains. These crazy mo'fos decided to build a civilization in terrain that is around 10,000 feet above sea level, and its not just the height of the land, the sheer steepness of the terrain is mindblowing. Additionally to see in person, up close the SIZE of the rocks that are used for the buildings, temples, etc is pretty unbelievable. I have a hard time envisioning how this could be created using the modern technology of today-nevermind cerca 1400. Let's face it, the Incas were not known to be the largest people.


Both in Pisac and Ollyantaytambo you can also clearly see their crop terraces. According to Wikipedia - and a tour that I eavesdropped in on, these terraces permitted farming on otherwise unusable terrain; they also allowed the Incas to take advantage of the different ecological zones created by variations in altitude. So they'd actually test to see which crops worked grew best at which altitudes.


You can still today even see the intricate canal system that they built for irrigation and obtaining water. It still works!!! I could see the water flowing, and this was built out of stone in the 1400s~! Amazing!! According to one report I read, expert hydrologists believe that the Incas actually estimated the runoff from tropical downpours, then designed a drainage system to channel water through small holes cut in the rock. This allowed them to avoid significant erosion and landslides at these altitudes.

However many coca leaves it took-these sites were impressive, though I was told by the girls that these sites are nothing in comparison to Macchu Picchu. Although I think its something that is hard to grasp in pictures, I threw in a few to hopefully give a brief sense of the sites we visited this weekend. Also threw in a few from romping around town.

Como se dice?

"Como se dice??".... this has to be the phrase I have said more than any other in the past week. I say it at least twice at breakfast, at least 10 times at school and find myself hearing it in repeating over and over in my head as I drift off to sleep at night. During the past week I have developed a whole new appreciation for language and communication. I have to wonder-what do I actually sound like to the family I live with when I'm trying to say easy phrases like, "I am cold", "I am hot" "I am tired", "I go to school now", "I like food", "I help you?"......Since I've actually only officially learned Spanish verbs in the present tense, I'd imagine I sound mildy ignorant....like a very young child learning to speak for the first time or like I need to be enrolled in Special Ed. Then toss in all the words that are one letter away from being different from one another and that I's are actually pronounced like E's, E's are pronounced like "A's" and so forth....you get the picture. I am lucky that the family I am living with is very patient. The other night I accidentally said "I want a man" instead of "I am hungry".....you can be sure I will not be living that one down.

I must admit though-I love the challenge. I haven't felt the need to study like this in years! I won't lie...it's frustrating, but simultaneously excites me - my brain has switched brain back into the "on" position. Each morning I try and study a few new words to bring to the breakfast table and so far its been going well....or so I think....maybe I make no sense..but at least it feels good-and I can tell my family appreciates me trying. I've had 4 hours a day of Spanish classes, 1 hour of tutoring and about 2 hours of family talk time per day in the past week. Slowly but surely things are starting to make sense. I've become friends with Veronica, a girl from Cusco (pictured to the left) who is willing to work with me daily. I will in exchange be tutoring her in English over the next few weeks....I haven't broken to her yet that I went to Engineering school and had just about 1.5 English classes in the past 11 years. Every time we talk about it I see Ralphie from the Simpsons pop up in a bubble over my head saying "Me fail English-that's un-possible."

I think that if I have learned one thing so far this trip it's to never again be impatient with someone who is learning and attempting to speak English-its not easy to learn a language outside of your native tongue. Secondly I have learned to not be embarassed to keep trying...the worst I can do is sound like a second-grader right?......so when they look confused I just smile pretty, play a short game of charades, and say "Como se dice??"

Día uno en Cusco

Wow! I am on very little sleep and slightly oxygen deprived at the moment. Arrived in Cusco in the very early AM. Been traveling since Thursday night and ready to be here. Flying into Cuzco was absolutely beautiful-the Andes shrouded in big chunky clouds partly lit by scattered beams of sunlight. I landed and instantly when I got off the plane I felt a difference in my breathing from the altitude. Cusco is 10,000ft above sea level....I've been to Aspen before, but this is a whole new level.

I was met by a representative of the local volunteer organization, Maximo Nivel . We also collected another chica de Estados Unidos, Jessica. After a brief intro and a quick tour of the building in downtown Cusco, we were taken to our homestay at Senor Americo's house. Americo has lived in Cusco his whole life. He welcomed us in and I think both Jessica and I were blown away by the accommodations. Beautiful view, clean house, and Americo es fantastico. So welcoming! He showed us our rooms and fed us some tradicional Peruvian cuisine. He has 2 kids both in their 20s and at university, and a wife who we get to meet Monday night. He speaks un poco English but its great! I think I doubled my Spanish vocabulary in 24 hours. He is very patient. Luckily Jessica speaks quite well and has been translating a bit. I am really really excited to be forced to use Spanish daily.

Although I have been a pescatarian for 11 years I realized that this trip-I am just going with the flow. In the past 48 hours I've had sopa de pollo, sopa con pork I think...not sure what the meat was...haha and breaded chicken...how's that for jumping in? The food is amazing. Many of the dishes contain some form of potato or papa. Papas were originally from Peru......There are 3000 different varities from Peru alone....Ireland eat your heartout! ;-) So far I am impressed by the cuisine. Everything we've been eating is home-cooked and Americo is excited we are eating it and loving it. Apparently the last girl he hosted drank water and shoved tiny morsels around her plate. He hasn't seen anything yet...Me Gusto Comida!! ;-)


Jessica and I walked to the Plaza de Armes after our siesta-the plaza is mostly cobblestone streets surrounded by cobblestone walls and was originally built by the Incas. Esta muy bonito - with a cathedral and a center market. At the market we bargained for homemade goods such as wool purses, fruita and much more, however I must admit, it's really hard to bargain when you're getting a handcrafted wool purse for 3.00 USD ....The dollar goes WAY far here. Cabs cost less than a dollar to go anywhere in town!
On our walk there we traversed through some of the main local markets..there were people EVERYWHERE. I saw a box of baby chickens, kids manning the stores for their parents, a girl carrying a goat in a blanket. I almost felt like I was on a movie set. Buses road by with people packed inside-all wearing multicolored woven wool wraps, and big hats. The faces of the older women on the streets were etched with distinct, deep crevices indicative of either smoking a pack a day for the last hundred years, or being exposed daily to intense sun...I'm guessing the latter.


Cusco has many similarities to San Francisco, steep streets with beautiful views, a rainy season and a dry season, both from Nov-March and then March to Nov. Its altitude keeps it cool at night and when there is sun-esta muy caliente.

We ended the day with getting lost on our way back to the house, even though I was given three maps and a piece of paper with our address by Americo before we left...all conveniently keeping the kitchen table warm back at the house. Luckily we got home before the break of day.

I can't explain it-but my initial instincts tell me that things are aligning and are beginning to point me in some important direction in life-I think I'm going to like it here. :-)

Hasta Manana

My flight is when you say???

I would consider myself a fairly anal traveler. I always have printouts of my itinerary, stapled, categorized by being marked with a sharpie, and enclosed in a color coated folder for the trip. I have gotten a ribbing from Craig about this many times-he knows not to mess with the folder –you can look but not touch until we get out of SF. I’ve actually started to let him pick the folder color just so he feels more a part of the process. J I always have a folder in my Gmail account that has all important emails for the trip labeled in case they need to be pulled up quickly. And I make sure to create lists in my phone and on paper a few days leading up to the week of my travel so as not to forget anything. Around 3pm Thursday afternoon I was still in my pajamas going through my itinerary one last time online, when all of a sudden I looked just a little more closely at the time and date and realized….ummmmm 00:35 Friday, March 6^th….yea-that is actually Thursday night….WTF!!! Two months TWO months I’ve been planning this and never once did I think I was leaving on Thursday night….WTF. *sigh*

In a way it was perfect-I needed to get moving –one more day and I’d have a fourth bag to carry. I managed to get most of my stuff in a WAY overstuffed backpack….and 2 small carry-ons. Three months is a long time!!! After a few cervezas with mi amigas Jamie, Sarah & Rikki I was off to the aeroporto. At the gate I sat next to an abuela who was also heading to Peru and had mucho pics to show me of her hija y her hija’s esposo. This is when I knew -all those Pimsleur CDs will only take me so far on this trip…I’m definitely going to be getting a life Crash course in espanol!

Got picked up in Lima and taking off to Cusco early Sat morning. Can’t wait to find out where I’m staying!