South American adventure

we have been so busy working that i have not had a chance to write. we leave everyday at either6:15 and 7:30, and get back around 3pm, but i have been taking advantage of the piano downstairs and playing a few hours a day. i have also been running again, behind saksayhuaman there is a road that has beautiful views, but it is very uphill getting there and also at this elevation running is more difficult. but it is a good run and i am training a bit in preparation for our 5 day hike that we will do after Easter. last weekend we went to Pisaq, the first town in the Sacred Valley that has really good ruins. we took a bus there, then started from the bottom and hiked our way a few hours up until we reached the first set of ruins, from there we explored and saw another in the distance. along the way we found 3 other parts of ruins hidden in the mountains, and were very surprised there were so many. we have uploaded photos from this hike, so look on the flickr page. on sunday i went to a young persons retreat which was really nice. there were talks by Father Vincent and his mother played the music during adoration and the Mass. she is from Mexico City but was born in California, the half sister of Liza Minnelli, daughter of Vincent Minnelli famous hollywood producer. i bought my flight home, i will arrive on the 21st of June in Toronto because it was cheaper. i have a 9 hour lay over in Mexico City, and Cristiane (the half sister of Liza Minnelli) will pick me up, and take me to the Basilica in Mexico City which is near the airport. i am excited about this, being able to see Guadalupe. i have been working with the 2nd grade room most days this week, today i helped in the artesania taller, which is working on sewing. i was helping some of the high school girls with their projects that will be gifts for their mothers for Mothers day. in a half an hour there is a Mass with the community that we will go to. Friday i have plans with the 4 and 5 year old teachers, i will go on some house visits with them. they are required to visit each of the houses of their students, and i am interested in going to at least a few. afterwards they asked me to have coffee with them. the 4 year old teacher Neli is very interested in English, she talkes to me in English every chance she gets even though her level is very basic. today she was asking me how to say all kinds of phrases like -I am a teacher, -I like my job, so i wrote down all the questions in spanish and translated them for her to study. she was so happy when i gave her the sheet! i eat lunch everyday with the 5 year olds, they are so funny telling me stories and always hugging me. i have taken some photos of them, and will try to upload them this weekend. Al finally found a computer that accepts his memory card, so this weekend he can upload his photos from the last 3 months that he has not been able to upload. we love working with this community, there are so many good examples of faith filled marriages that is very inspiring to us. Al has been giving a lot of suggestions for the improvement of the English classes and doing his best to correct pronunciations. he has finished scraping all of the buildings of the chipping paint and has started painting a new coat on all of it. he works with a maintanence worker named Raul and loves talking with him while they work. we both eat large lunches at school, i also eat breakfast at school because all the students are offered breakfast and whichever teachers also want to eat can. usually it is some kind of hot drink with bread, the drink usually is chocolate, or polenta, or crushed beans. the bread we eat is made fresh at the City of the Boys where Al works, and occasionally there is yogurt which is also produced there.

we will probably not be doing machu picchu, we have decided instead to do the 5 day hike to chokequirao, which is 2 days there, 1 day to explore the ruins and 2 days back. these ruins have not really been discovered yet, most of them are still covered, and it is much less touristy which we prefer.

chao a todos!

We have been working in the schools for a week now, and it has been really interesting. I have been working in the inicial school with the 4 and 5 year olds as well as a bit of helping in the primary school which is first through 6th grade. when i go into the primary school, they want me to speak in English to the children and show them what i am saying by pointing or gesturing. this is what i will do this week, next week i will start with some English lessons. the dress code requires me to wear a skirt and stockings everyday which i quite like but havent had to do in a long time before this.

on saturday we went to 2 markets, one for local food and another for clothes, where Al was able to find a pair of sandals in his size! there was only one his size in the entire market so he bought them. i also bought another sweater because when it is rainy here it is quite chilly. i am also knitting a scarf. there is no snow, but when the sun is not out it is cooler. although yesterday and today were very sunny and warm, when the sun is out it is about 70 degrees, when it is not it is about 45 degrees. large difference at this altitude, 11,500 feet.

yesterday we went hiking to Cristo Blanco and then to Sacsaywaman which are ruins of an old Inca fortress that sits up above Cusco and looks down on the city. the name Sacsaywaman is Quechua and means tiger because they say that from up top looking down onto Cusco, the city is the shape of a tiger. When pronounced Sacsayhwman sounds a lot like sexy woman, and many people that understand English find this funny. we hiked all morning and part of the afternoon and have some wonderful pictures i am uploading right now. i also uploaded a Cusco album of the day we were in City of the Boys. they make the best cheese and yogurt there i have ever tasted. the cheese is only aged 6 months maximum but we think it is better than the 5 year aged Cuba cheese. Queso andino it is called.

i have a bit of a sore throat and runny nose, i think it is adjusting to the rapid climate changes, my body goes from very hot to very cold. but thankfully the hot water has been fixed in our hostal and our showers have been nice and hot. we moved up a floor to another room that is cheaper and negotiated the price down based on a monthy rate, and now our housing is quite affordable. esto es todo para mi. tal vez Alejandro quiere escribir un rato tambien.

con amor,

Annie

we arrived in Cusco last thursday night after a very long day bus from Arequipa that lasted 11 hours. we arrived at the house of our friends, a missionary couple who have two sons, and they fed us dinner and ... [Continue reading this entry]