Paltas en el Cielo

Hola otra vez!

I don´t even know how to begin. The day after my last blog, there was a big Mother´s Day celebration at the Urpichallay office. All the employees and all of us had a nice meal that was made by all the men (as is the tradition) with poetry in Quechua, a silly song by me, and lots and lots of dancing. I think we danced for more than two hours. It was crazy fun! I think I danced with 5 different men, including Andreas. Don´t let him fool you into letting him sit on the sideline. And Beatriz (the Ashoka fellow of Urpichallay) and a couple of the employees told me I ¨have a swing¨ which means they thought I was a good dancer. That was news to me but I thought Sandra was kicking butt on the dance floor. We all got up and did our thing. It was a great time. Then, we hung out with a few cusquenas and had a discussion until late about the different pronunciations of similar English words that was pretty funny.

On Sunday, the actual Mother´s Day, we gave Beatriz a card with a note from each of us and some chocolates. She was so surprised and thrilled, it was a great start to the day. Then, we went to Huaraz to see the tsecktas (or however that is spelled) and have lunch. It was so cool. There were so many people in the plaza and watching all the different parades of people. I think we saw at least 4 differently dressed groups that were dancing and druming and chanting. It was an amazing sight to see.

We were pretty disappointed the next day because the school that we had so adamantly prepared for was closed yesterday and today so we spent yesterday and today at the Tuyu school helping the teacher with her garden and with making the school yard look better outlined by clearing out the space around the plants and outlining them with white painted rocks. Today, Sandra and Meghan helped the guys build a kitchen for her. I definitely felt like we were making a difference. She was sad to see us go. It was our last day at Tuyu. Only four days left here! Isn´t that ridiculous?

For fun, we´ve been having bonding moments laying together on our terrace watching the stars. We saw about 6 shooting stars the other night. So incredible! And I know Meghan was excited about finally getting to play futbol/soccer. We started playing with all of us minus Sandra and Erasmo and Lucho from the office but after watching us for a while, a group of like 8 guys wanted to play with us. They won of course but it was really fun anyway. I was goalie (not a very good one) which is probably why we lost but I think the girls have forgiven me. ; )

Trying not to think about having to leave…

Ciao for now.