Hi everyone. If my lost in time calculations are correct it's been about a week since we last wrote. So much has happened though that it truly is difficult to keep track. We last wrote from Puno, on Lake Titicaca. After a very bumpy ride we made it to Cusco. Cusco is, on it's own, a gorgeous city. We found a place to stay very close to the historical center, and spent the next few days leisurely exploring the area. On the first day, whilst in search of an ATM, we happened upon an awesome Indian restaurant that was also the base for a volunteer organization called OM Project Cusco. www.omcusco.com We checked out their fliers and info, and decided we definitely wanted to spend a day with them volunteering to feed children in a rural village outside of Cusco. It ended up being the highlight of the entire trip for both Chris and I.
We got up early and met the small group of other volunteers and coordinators and took a minibus about 2 1/2 hours into the mountains. Along the way Samir, the founder, made stops at special places like the Inka gates to the old city of Cusco, a town that is known as the bread capitol of Peru, and a museum where they are housing a skull that they believe to be an alien.
When we arrived at the village we were greeted by eager but shy children. There were over 300, which is the most they´ve had to date. Nurses and a few police officers came along with us, and were talking to the children about hygiene (hand washing and teeth brushing) to start off. Then us volunteers had some time to play with the kids. They started with tug-o-war volunteers vs. children. The volunteers were beaten brutally and tug-o-war proved to be a dangerous game due to the prior days rain making the field slick and muddy. Some children chose to play futbol (soccer for all of you Americans out there). I dug deep into my experience working with kids to think of some new games to play. The results: 2 classics, Simon Says and Red Light, Green Light. After a few practice runs and several explanations of the rules in different gringo-fied broken Spanish, the kids caught on and seemed to have almost as much fun as the volunteers did. After some time playing and laughing and attempting to pull the shyest of the children out of their shells, it was time to eat.
We had 6 massive buckets; 3 of rice, 3 of curry. The children lined up and it seemed to go on forever. Wind and sun burned faces with snot drip waiting patiently with a bowl or cup, looking at you expectantly. Some of the children didn´t have anything at all, so we found plastic bags for them to use, and filled them with rice and curry as if they were bowls. Most of them thanked us quietly as we scooped portions of food for them, some of them were too shy, or possibly too hungry and eager to eat. It was a close call, and if by miracle, we has exactly enough food to feed everyone, even though there were at least 50 more than expected.
As the children sat and ate on the edges of the field with their parents, we felt the rain beginning. We scrambled to gather all of our things, said goodbye, and ran for the bus before the downpour started. As we started to leave, the most shy of the children came forward and followed us to the bus, hugging and waving goodbye, and begging me to take 1 more photo.
As the bus drove away children ran behind and waved, as well as ran ahead of us down the road to meet us waving as we wound our way down from the village. I think Chris and I both had a few tears in our eyes. I know our hearts both felt so whole. In Hinduism there is a practice called Seva (Sewa) that is basically the art of giving without expecting to receive in return. When we started out, I know we felt like we were doing our Seva, or Karmic duty for the time. What we discovered was that we had actually received so much in return, more than we could ever hope for. The children brought us happiness, fulfillment, and true satisfaction.
We still haven't been able to post photos, but Tim, one of the volunteer coordinators put all of my photos onto his personal computer and got them uploaded. If you would like to check out the photos that Chris and I took on our trip to the village with Om Cusco, you can check out their facebook www.facebook.com/omprojectcusco under the photo album titled 2012-02-07 Adventure to the Villages. I believe we took all of the photos in this album save for possibly a few. Again, I will do my best to get them up ASAP.
So thank you Om Project Cusco. You have really made our trip to Peru complete and worth while. We would do it again in a heartbeat if we had the opportunity, and we recommend it without a second thought to anyone looking for a short term volunteer project in Cusco.
I´ll be writing more soon, but for now, we've got miles to go...
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