Shower Drama

Hola again. Im in Marcara now. Its my third day here and I still cant get over how beautiful it is. La cordillera blanca and la cordillera negra are separated by a flowing rocky river and all the mountains have sections of different colors of greens and browns for the different crops that grow there. The people here are so nice and the accomodations are incredible. We get home cooked meals three times a day and the rooms to ourselves. They are pretty luxurious except we had some trouble with the showers at the beginning. I was in there the other day and the water stopped after I had just soaped up and I had to wait until they fixed it.

The volunteering part is so rewarding. Today we went to the Tuyo school and cleaned, organized, and decorated her classroom. I think she was really happy with how it came out and we got some sweet before and after photos.

Yesterday, we were introduced to almost all the schools and asked the teachers what they wanted from us. We ended in Huashcar so we played games outside with the little kids and we taught some of the older kids how to say the days of the week in English. It was so much fun and the kids loved having us there.

Our first day here was our introduction day so we were given a presentation about all the things that Urpichallay does and some of the legends and beliefs of the people here. They´re so connected to the earth. One of their deities is la PachaMama and they say that la mama humana, la PachaMama, and la naturaleza are the same because they all give life. They party with music because they believe that La PachaMama is listening and if she hears happy children, she will bring a lot of rain and if even one child is sad, she will take away the rain. Isn´t that interesting? And I didn´t know how sacred the potatoe is here. It´s their everything.

Everything here is an adventure. Even coming here to the internet cafe in Carhuaz. We were walking and this van pulls up like it´s going to kidnap us and our guide tells us to get in so we did. I think there were 21 people in that van at one point but we got to Carhuaz and here I am.

Ciao for now.