Saludos desde Cuzco!
We have now been in Peru a month! Time is flying! We have been back in Cuzco for over a week, and we'll be here for another 10 days or so. Steve's students are in language school and staying with families for the next two weeks. Our family and along with Rachel and Paul and their family are staying in Hostal Magico, a hostel which is part of a larger social project aimed at helping kids in this area. This hostel is equipped with a kitchen and other nice amenities (like computers and Wi Fi), and its proceeds go to fund the social project. The majority of other guests here are volunteering with the social project which is called Aldea Yanapay. Aldea Yanapay is a free after school program for kids ages 5-13. I am volunteering in the project this week and next, and River and Sage are participating. All in all, it is a bit chaotic, but fun! It takes me back to my days of working with youth programs as well as my years of working in bilingual education.
A typical afternoon at Aldea Yanapay is like this: Kids arrive at an unassuming doorway on a narrow street a block from our hostel, and they go through someone's yard and end up in a courtyard area with basic but colorfully decorated classrooms. A host of volunteers are there to greet them with hugs and kisses. Those who have homework or need tutoring help, go to the library, and others go to the art or game rooms. So far, I have been helping out in the homework room with the younger kids. River and Sage have been mainly doing art projects and games. After an hour or so of this, the entire group (nearly 60 kids) meet for a circle time and then go to groups to work on themes and performances. Each Friday (today), every group presents their work, art or performance in a Friday show. This week, each group has to create a Yanapay (means Helping in Quechua) song. I am with the 4 and 5 year old group, which reminds me a lot of my years teaching bilingual kindergarten. We'll see how our show goes this afternoon... ! At the end of the kids' time at Yanapay, each child gets a cup of milk-oatmeal drink before going home. It is a fun, and a fairly rustic experience, all in all. Bathrooms with faulty plumbing, etc. I wish I had brought some school supplies and books for the project, as the project really runs on a shoe-string budget, but the folks and children are resourceful, and it is a cheerful place. It is really great to see River and Sage interacting with other kids and learning more Spanish! This is what they say:
River - "At Yanapay in art class, I have been making a paper mache volcano and cutting out dinosaurs to put on it. It is fun!
Sage - "At Yananpay, I played store in Spanish! And legos! I am learning more Spanish!"
It is all fun, but downtown Cuzco where we are located is crowded and busy, and we are looking forward to moving to Pisac at the end of this month and renting a house there for the months of May and June. Pisac is 45 minutes away in the Sacred Valley, a place we have already visited. It will be a good central place for Steve to supervise and guide students both in Cuzco and elsewhere in the Valley. It is a much more peaceful place than Cuzco (although we have loved Cuzco!) We have been looking for a house in Pisac, and hope to settle on a place soon. We visited a Waldorf school there that looks to be a great place for River and Sage to spend some mornings.
River is learning typical Andean music from a very sweet older gentleman who we met at a Folkloric Dance performance. We will have a few lesson with him over the next couple of weeks until we go to Pisac. It is great to get familiar with the folkloric music!
I am enjoying having family time and helping out with the Yanapay project as well as doing my yoga practice and studies. I have to admit that living out of travel hostels is wearing on me a bit, especially with the whole family. I look forward to settling in and having a bit more of a sense of rhythm to our lives. Nonetheless, it is all a great adventure, and I'm totally grateful to be here!
More notes and photos on our journey soon!
Much love,
Annie
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