Adios Patacancha!

As quickly as it began, our time in Patacancha has come to and end. Our hard work paid off and the classroom is near completion!

On the Friday before our departure, our friends in Patacancha threw us a send-off and thank you party, complete with the typical Peruvian pachamanca feast. Some of the students participated in the prep work for the feast, including the slaughtering of a sheep, but most of the cooking was done by the teachers and elementary school staff. The food was different from anything we had tried before but it was delicious and hearty, so we eagerly devoured it all.

We were all sad to leave our home. In the short time we were here, our students formed close friendships with the local kids, the families we had come to know, and the construction workers who helped us with our projects. Much of the last day was filled with goodbyes, photos, and final games of yoga ball soccer.

Part of the group decided that our final departure from Patacancha should be done on foot. It is a 3.5 hour walk (15km) from Patacancha to Ollantaytambo, but it is all downhill. It was a beautiful walk, but it proved to be quite difficult! Fortunately, at the end we were rewarded with warm showers and a delicious meal at our favorite Ollantaytambo restaurant.

For the past few days, we have been exploring Cusco and doing a lot of hiking. On Sunday, we took a day trip to Pisac, famous for both its ruins and its weekly artisan market. Yesterday, we wandered through some of the ruins and museums that make up central Cusco and today we hiked up to yet another ruin - Sacsaywaman.

There's lots to see in Cusco, but we are all ready for our big trip to Machu Picchu on Thursday! We hope you enjoy the photos, below.

Saludos!
Hannah and Yaser

The group at Pisac

Enjoying our farewell feast in Patacancha
We were all sad to say good-bye to our construction supervisors, Narciso, Ignacio and Juan
Goodbye Patacancha!
Walking from Patacancha to Ollantaytambo
David buying our breakfast at the market - Pervian english muffins!
Visiting the Inca Museum

At the Sacsaywaman ruins
The girls learned a traditional Andean dance!

The group with Cusco in the background.

Staring contest

A photo update

Michelle putting the finishing touches on the mural she designed.

We finished our big mural. Hooray!

Finishing work on the roof - tomorrow we start on the floor!

Austin on bonfire-duty with some of his local friends.

Some members of the group resting after a long hike.

One of our painting projects - a sign welcoming vistitors to the elementary school in Spanish, English and Quechua.

Saludos desde Patacancha

Greetings!

We are now back in Patacancha full time, hard at work on our projects. We returned to Patacancha on Sunday to get a head start on the week´s work. The painting crew jumped right into efforts to finish the mural and the building crew got a feel for the work that needed to be done this week.

After a few days in the city of Cusco, it was great to be back in the mountains. The local kids were happy to have us back as well! As soon as our bus pulled up, we were greeted by our welcoming commitee all over again, only this time they knew our names. They were yelling "Sarita, Madison, Katie, David!" and begging us to come play with them.

Just two days later, we have made tremendous progress. We finished the mural (hooray!) and tomorrow we are starting a new one designed by our own Michelle. Although the school´s paint job is in good condition, it lacks any bright colors, so these murals are an excellent addition- and many of the elementary kids have told us so!

The construction project is making great progress as well. The classroom now has a roof! Today, we finished leveling the ground of the classroom, a job that required the muscle and efforts of everyone in the group. Tomorrow we will start mixing the adobe that will be used to coat the walls and to support the floor boards. With the help of our three local construction maestros - Juan, Narcisso, and Ignacio - we should make great strides towards finishing the project by the end of the week.

We also celebrated a birthday in Patacancha this week! Sam turned 16 on Monday and we celebrated with a fantastic chocolate cake followed by a 2 hour game of yoga ball soccer! The kids in Patacancha had never seen a yoga ball before and they were enthralled. We had at least 30 elementary school kids running around the soccer field with us, laughing and having a blast. We ended Sam´s birthday around a bonfire with a few of our local friends.

We only have four days left in Patacancha and we have much left to do!

Saludos,
Hannah and Yaser

Greetings from Cusco!

Hello all,

We have tried to make the most out of our unscheduled days here in Cusco. Cusco is an amazing city with stunning architecture to marvel at and narrow, winding, cobblestone streets to explore. We hope to be back in Patacancha and back to work on Sunday. There is much left to do and our trip is nearly half over!

Hasta la proxima!

Hannah and Yaser

Chinchero, Salineras, and Moray

Saludos!

This weekend we went to the nearby town of Chinchero to visit a women´s weaving cooperative. This cooperative was started 32 years ago with the intent of saving the traditional art of weaving. These women get together seven days a week to weave, share stories and teach the once endangered art of weaving to area youth.

We also visited the ruins of Moray - and old Incan amphitheater - and the salt mines of Salineras. There is a lot to do here in the Sacred Valley! We hope you enjoy the photos.

Saludos!
Hannah and Yaser

salt mines of Salineras

women's weaving cooperative

painting a mural

teaching local children

Greetings from Patacancha!

We made it to our community service village on Thursday morning and were eagerly met by the entire school. As soon as our bus pulled up in front of the Patacancha elementary school (grades 1-6), school children started pouring out of the classrooms. They met us as we came off the bus, shaking our hands, introducing themselves and insisting that they help us with our bags. It was the best welcoming committee we could have wished for!

Patacancha is a lovely town. It is situated in a small valley with mountains surrounding us on all sides. We are still getting used to the high altitude, but the school children run and play up and down the mountain as if it is a piece of cake. We are hoping that we will have that stamina before long, too! We took a quick tour of the town and visited the teachers at the elementary school as well as students at the high school.

High schools are uncommon in this part of Peru and so most of the students are boarding students who stay in Patacancha during the week. We met two sophomores who walk 6 hours to get to school every Sunday night and then 6 hours home on Friday! Now that is dedication! The high schoolers showed us all of their weaving projects and promised to join us for a game of futbol later in the trip.

We also had the chance to meet some local women who promised to stop by and show us how to weave the traditional textiles of Patacancha, so we are all looking forward to that.

Our housing is fantastic and – surprise – we have bunk beds! We all were expecting to sleep on the floor during our time in Patacancha, so these bunk beds are a real treat. We also learned that our showers are solar heated, which is great news. Most showers in the mountains of this region are not heated. And our cooks are fantastic. All things considered, this is really comfortable!

Today was our first day of community service work. We divided the group into three groups of six. One group visited the classrooms and worked on teaching Spanish and math to the kids (most of whom speak only Quechua!), one group started drawing a mural that we will later paint and the third got to work on finishing the construction of a classroom. Construction of this classroom began over a year ago, but they haven’t had the man-power to finish it, so it will be great to see this project to its completion.

Everyone worked very hard all morning and by the afternoon, when the local women arrived to teach us weaving, we were eager to try our hand at the task. What we learned is that it is very, very hard! These women work two months to finish a small blanket, up to a year for large, bed-sized ones. What they got us started on were belts, which sounded easy enough but proved to be very tricky! Needless to say, we are all very impressed with the great skill and patience that goes into this handiwork.

We are loving it here in Patacancha. The people are incredibly friendly and there seems to be an endless supply of children to play with. I’m sure that we will be busy for the rest of our time here!

Saludos,
Hannah and Yaser

Ollanta Raymi and the old Inca trail

Hello all,

Monday was the Ollanta Raymi festival here in Ollantaytambo and the town was abuzz with much excitement. On our way across town, we saw llamas being hauled out of trucks by young boys and scores of women in gorgeous, traditional garb. Many children were dressed up in costumes and make up as part of the festival. We watched hundreds of townspeople running up and down the ruins, dancing, playing music and shouting chants. It was a spectacular event which we were lucky to see!

Yesterday we hiked the old Inca trail to the quarry where rocks were extracted to make the fortress. It was quite a hike and we were all incredibly proud of ourselves when we reached the plateau. . . to think that the Incas did this same hike while carrying heavy stones is absolutely astonishing!

Today we are off to our village and home for the month, Patacancha, to meet our hosts. We are all incredibly excited and can´t wait to get there. Hasta la proxima!

-Hannah and Yaser