Whistlers of the night in Cuzco - take two

Hi everyone, if you were wondering what happened to the other blog under this title, nothing there as a result of a power failure just as we finished writing. So here goes again. Andrea had written a quite long blog so she will need to find time to do it again. I just wanted to tell you about the whistlers of Cusco or at least those here. All night long we can hear whistling. It's the security guards who patrol the streets on foot. They are located at every corner and they blow a whistle to each other to let everyone all is well. My theory is they whistle to let their comrades know they are OK. But is does bring a good feeling of safety and no doubt they prevent criminal activity. It's 7.30 am here - Sunday morning. I woke up to the whistling and barking dogs. There must have been 20 dogs having a go just in front of our house. really having a go in all ways. Never heard so much commotion. As you can expect a few more dogs will be wandering the streets in a few weeks time.

We have now settled into a sort of routine. Three days aweek we go up to the village. Andrea in the kindergarten, me teaching English and helping with construction of a new kindergarten. Teaching english as a second language is an interesting task. The topic in Shopping, so I have introduced various fruit names and the estudiantes, have to say the names in English as well as, This is a banana. One Banana please, Here is your banana. Next wek will the test to see if I have been successful.

On Thursday we enjoyed a long day commencing with horse riding. This, along with visits to The sacred valley, Manchu Pichuu, and Lake Titicaca are part of the package Perus Challenge offers us. Ok, horse riding. In bus for a distance up ino ther mountains high above Cuzco. Then each given a mountain steed - not quite valium dosed but quiet for the likes of Andrea and I. Up the mountain we go, rough paths, across little streams of water. I was able to some what control my headstrong horse and soon was riding like John Wayne- well not quite. Andrea had a local on foot to help guide her steed which made her much more comfortable. The others inthe group were doing OK. Thr ride took us to some Inca ruins where Selvie explained everything - he is really very good. Andrea thinks Selvie is a real hunk - not much hope for me now. We spent all day with lunch included visiting the sites high above Cuzco. I have heaps of photos. OK all from me. Now it's Ange to relate some things.

HELLO to you all and  a big thankyou to all of you who contributed so much towards peruschallenge.  The school needs are great and all those goods are being greeted with great delight from the teachers and students, a family in PUMAMARCHA can live on 20 dollars a month and many are incredibly poor which I will explain about and knitted toys, and personal products are very much appreciated.

I will tell you about the grim realities of our work here and then finish off with some fun.  Jane and Selvy have a wonderful programme which balances our work in Pumarmarcha which is quite confronting and upsetting, with fun activities.  The people of Pumamarcha live 400 metres higher up the mountain than Cusco - havent mentioned the altitude as we have managed it quite well although the slightest of excertion finds us puffing - even just walking up  half a dozen steps and if you are carrying a small bag of groceries we really feel it  but on the whole it is quite okay.  Many of the people in Pumamarcha - and I will write about them specifically although we are living amongst the very poor here in Cusco as well but dont know them personally like the villagers - are amongst the poorest of poor.  Many of the people of the village do not have water, electricity. sometimes no furniture, dirt floors and bamboo roofs for their mud brick room they call home. Of course no toilets.  If they have any clothes they have no where to hang them so they are piled up on the dirt floor - with chickens and guinea pigs running around.  No one likes or wants to live like this and these people have feelings of depression, happiness, and sadness just like the rest of us.  Jand and Selvy have established a wonderful relationship with these people and in building a school for them through volunteers they have really gained enormous love and respect from the villagers.  As we wind our way up the hill in the mornings in our van along a somewhat trechurous mountain road the villagers wave and greet us.  When we walk into the classrooms the children squeal with delight and the kindergarten teachers now give us a big hug.  Selvy and Jane have a social worker employed and she identifies the homes of greatest need.  They have a wholistic approach to the help they are giving this village.  When help is given to a specific family then there is an expectation that the parents must do something in return.It may be that the father has to help with construction once a week or the mother comes to craft classes to make goods to sell .  They know that children who are unwell, and suffering malnutrition will not be able to learn, so each school day children are fed healthy food, clean their teeth, have muti vitamins and learn to blow their noses, and use a toilet.  The government is very slow to help these communities and have no inclination or money to help the poor so without help from outside the poverty cycle would never be broken and these people would live in these appauling conditions for generations to come.  Remember too that it is very cold here at night and of course they have no heating and with bamboo roofs it must be terrible.

At the school 2 toilets have been built for the children to use.  The children have to be shown to sit on a toilet, and not be afraid of doing so, as many of them have never seen a toilet, and certainly not seen one flush.  I have gained incredible bladder control since being here as the only toilets for us to use are the ones the children use.  So far I have not had to use them.

Guinea Pigs -  We went to a cafe for a meal where alpaca and guinea pig was the speciality although Trevor and I settled for pollo -chicken - but 2 of the men had guinea pig and when they arrived the were presented with the whole animal lying on its back legs up in the air - baked and covered in some kind of sauce.  They said they tasted okay but were a lot of work to get the meat off them.

Ive done a lot of teaching in my time as you all know but the other day the year 1 teacher had to go to a meeting and Selvy asked me if I would go into the classroom for an hour with another volunteer and teach maths to the children.  Of course they dont speak English so. The classroom is basic to say the least with wooden floors covered in thick dust, dogs wandering in and out, and sleeping under the tables, children all over the place, pulling and pushing each other and yelling out amigo -FRIEND - the way they address their teacher.  Somehow, by the end of the hour, some of the children had managed to write some addition in their one and only book with their chewed up 2 in ch long pencils.  I had to brave it and show them how to touch and count on their - i have to say it filthy -  fingers but we eventually got their, and in the meantime I learnt to count to 10 in Spanish but it was a very long hour.

Enough from us know, but every day here is so full of amazing experiences it is hard to believe that we have only been here just a little over a week.  So till next blog we say goodbye from Cusco and thanks to all of you who have sent in comments.  Love from Andrea.