First Day at Huayllarccocha

On Sunday I was picked up from Inkarri and taken to the volunteer house that I`m now staying in. The volunteer house is BEAUTIFUL! It´s like a palace. There are about 15 other volunteers staying there as well, many from the U.S, a couple girls from Canada (Toronto and Vancouver Island), a woman from Australia and a guy from England. We´re all up by about 7 in the morning for breakfast and then we all go off to do our own thing. I´ve taken some pictures of the place but it may take a while to get them on facebook. I´ve decided to stay in Cuzco for a while longer before changing my program to the jungle conservation in Manu. So yesterday I started a different project working at a place called Huayllarccocha. Two other girls are doing this project with me, both from Canada. The place literally feels like its at the top of the world. We take a bus (which is like a minivan) up there and its about a 30 minute car ride to the top. We pass both Jesus and ruins called Sacsayhuaman and when you reach the top you come to this tiny little community where there are pigs, chickens, dogs, and sheep all over the place. So I am now working in a little community center there for the children of the community. They can go there to play, get help with homework, and at about 5:30 get some sort of healthy snack. The volunteers try and teach them that they need to wash their hands and faces and brush their teeth. So thats the first thing they have to do when the volunteers come, before they are allowed to keep playing. It´s hard for the community because they don't have clean water, and the water they do have should not be consumed but is being consumed not only by the children but by the animals they eat. They also do not have a proper bathroom in the community, so they either go to the bathroom in these little dug out holes or just wherever they want. And then they don't have a place to properly wash themselves afterwards. So the people at Maximo Nivel built them a bathroom, and are now waiting on the city to give them a permit to rip up some of the road and connect two water pipes together so the bathroom they built will actually have water. So that´s hard to see, the fact that now they even have a bathroom but cant use it because the city still has yet to give them a permit to complete it. But even though their conditions are not great the children there are in such good spirits, they are really lovely and playful. Straight away they get you to pick them up and spin them around. One little girl got me to read to her in both English and Spanish. I played Uno with two little boys and it was hilarious the rules seemed to change after every hand. Eventually after playing with them for a couple hours we made them a snack that would give them energy. I think it was a drink with oatmeal, something else and chocolate powder for taste. I go again later on today and I can´t wait! I gotta go to Spanish class now! Ta