Hola queridos,
Here is an account of daily life for us and others in Pisac...
Pisac, as I have described before, is in the Sacred Valley with the River Vilcanota running alongside it. It is so beautiful here. There are mountains all around us. The Incas and their modern descendents believe the peaks (apus) to be Gods, and they mountains are venerated as an expression of Pacha Mama, Mother Earth.
Now most of the cornfields have been harvested and there are piles of golden corn cobs lying all along the valley floor. The corn will dry and then be de-grained and stored for the year. Other vegetables that have now been harvested in the valley are: quinoa, fava beans, and many fruits.
In the highlands, potatoes are now being harvested as well as more quinoa. Wheat and barley are still growing.
Pisac is famous for its artesanias (crafts) market. There are such beautiful things: ceramics, instruments, weavings and textiles, knitted alpaca sweaters, socks, hats and much more. The artisan vendors sell everyday, but the main market days are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. On these days, f0lks come down from the highland communities above Pisac with their potatoes, vegetables, etc. There are also fruit vendors with fruit from the lower lands: papaya, bananas, watermelon, pineapple... I love the market!
These days, our kids are going to the Kusi Kawsay school from 8:30 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. Perfect! They both really love it, and are learning lots of Spanish as well as cursive (River) and vowels and consonants in Spanish (Sage). They do lots of singing and movement in Spanish and Quechua as well as handwork (knitting, crocheting and weaving). Recess is awesome. They play outside and climb around on big rocks and build houses out of weeds and sticks. I wish they could stay all year!
We have our favorite lunch spots. Lunch costs about $1.30 and you get a daily soup and a segundo (second course) which could be some sort of meat or noodle dish, rice, potatoes, maybe a salad, and a drink. We also have our favorite chicken soup vendor at the market. This senora is so wonderfully sweet and kind. She blesses all who come to her stand with her steaming hot soup filled with yuca, potatoes, cauliflower, carrot and chicken. Today is a chicken soup day for us as it is Tuesday - market day!
On Sunday, we caught a ride up to the highland Quechua communities above Pisac. Some of Steve´s students are doing home-stays there right now with Quechua families. We took the opportunity to check in on some of them and to take a fabulous hike around 3 of the high lakes up there. This is up at about 13,500 feet, a windswept and chilly place to live. Nonetheless, all around are homesteads with hearty Quechua folk with their stone corrals to keep out the wind and keep in the animals. There are alpacas, sheep and llamas. Lots of potato fields all over the place. It is incredible that they grow up so high! But, of course, this is where potatoes are from. Potatoes, olluco, and oca are the root crops of the high Andes. These days, folks are digging them up and storing them in their walled in homesteads. They are also freeze-drying and soaking and drying some varieties to make chuno and moraya, two types of dried potatoes products that are consumed all year in soups and stews. Sage and River are mighty hikers! I call it the alpaca training program, and those two make good little alpacas. They love to hike and be up in the mountains! How fortunate we are!
I love it down here, and it also is serving as a wonderful pause in my life. I find that being down here is erasing much of the daily grind. Life is much calmer. Family life is much more harmonious than in Olympia. I never have to drive or car-pool. The feeling as as if so much as been stripped away: my usual Olympia identity, my usual chores, etc. It is great, and also challening as I find myself, especially in meditation, sitting with the big questions of life: how do I best serve in this life? All of my past experiences and endeavors are coming up for me: my various living experiences abroad, my studies of Latin America, my years spent in bilingual education, my years spent studying and teaching yoga, parenting, education... All of these themes are dancing in my awareness awaiting to be sorted and contemplated. I am contemplating changes and how to integrate my many passions... My latest dream is to create a sliding scale yoga class in Oly with proceeds to benefit local and international programs and organizations, especially those aimed at sustainability, education, health, etc. I really feel the desire for yoga to accessible and a means for true change and transformation in the world. I want also be more a part of local and international efforts and projects, both for myself and my family. I welcome any of you readers´ideas related to this!
And, there is the parenting and homeschooling sadhana. Wow! River and Sage are in school, and it is pretty great for all of us. I wonder what that means for our future in Oly. Well, we´ll take each day as it comes and live it fully.
As for me, I am open and being transformed which were my main goals of this adventure. How wonderful to have the sustained time for my practice and study as well as for my contemplation of life as it has been, as it is and how it shall be. Wonderful!
Hasta luego!
Annie
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
May 12, 2010 - Steve's 40th Bday and our life in Pisac
Hola Amigos,
Saludos desde Pisac, our new home for two months. We have rented a spacious and comfortable house here in Pisac, the Sacred Valley of Peru, 40 minutes from Cuzco. We are sharing the house with Rachel and Paul's family. We have two spacious bedrooms, a living room, a big sun room, a bathroom, kitchen and a garden. The garden has pear trees, fig tree, an avocado tree, bougainvilla, call lillies, some vegies and herbs. The kids are delighted to have a space to call our own for a while, and so are we!
Steve turned 40 on Friday of last week. We celebrated on Saturday with a fabulous adventure party. The day began with a bus ride to Chinchero, a Quechua highland community where our friend Natalia's family lives. A group of Evergreen students joined us. We shared chocolate caliente and birthday cake in town, and then hiked up to the family's potato fields at 13,000 feet! The tradition this time of year, potato harvest, is for entire families to spend the harvest day, digging potatoes, and then building an earth oven and roasting potatoes and eating them right there in the field with aji (spicy chile sauce), cheese, chica (corn beer) and maybe pisac (liquor). It is Steve's kind of thing! So, we all harvested potatoes and ate potatoes and spend about 5 hours up there with incredible views of 20,000 foot snow capped peaks (apus) all around. Epic! We didn't get back to Pisac until 9:30 that evening. It was great fun!
This week, River and Sage started school here in Pisac. They will go to school for 7 weeks. My homeschooled kids are getting their first taste of full time school in Peru! The school is called Kasi Kawsay which means in Quechua: Live Happy. It is an alternative school founded by a small group of parents from this area who are looking for an alternative to the state schools. This school has a Waldorf pedagogy and funds from a Canadian Waldorf School in Nelson B.C. have helped make the school a reality. The land itself is incredible. The school sits above the town with a view of Pisac, the surrounding mountains and the Sacred Valley. The adobe classrooms are lovely and surround a courtyard area with several huge boulders which the kids play on at recess. Everything is open air and sweet. Lessons are taught in Spanish, and additional lessons are taught in Quechua and English. River and Sage are happy and challenged! There are two recesses where the kids run around outside, climbing on rocks and building forts.
Sage is learning his Spanish vowels and River is learning cursive. They both love the movement lessons. River is doing knitting too. They are both learning and using tons of Spanish, which is the main reason I wanted this for them! School is over at 1:30 which leaves us plenty of time for afternoon rest and recreation. I am super pleased!
Steve's students are beginning their 4 week independent projects. Some are continuing to study languages, others highlands agriculture, medicinal plans, weaving, bee-keeping, coffee growing, education, etc. All the projects are so cool - I'm excited for them! Steve has several field trips organized for them over the next few weeks as well as his own research and investigation with Rachel around their common questions of the links between language and agriculture in this region. I have been busy setting up the school situation for the kids, as well as the house, and doing my yoga studies and practice. I love meeting new people and sharing stories. The people of Pisac are lovely, and I'm enjoying myself!
Hasta luego!
Saludos desde Pisac, our new home for two months. We have rented a spacious and comfortable house here in Pisac, the Sacred Valley of Peru, 40 minutes from Cuzco. We are sharing the house with Rachel and Paul's family. We have two spacious bedrooms, a living room, a big sun room, a bathroom, kitchen and a garden. The garden has pear trees, fig tree, an avocado tree, bougainvilla, call lillies, some vegies and herbs. The kids are delighted to have a space to call our own for a while, and so are we!
Steve turned 40 on Friday of last week. We celebrated on Saturday with a fabulous adventure party. The day began with a bus ride to Chinchero, a Quechua highland community where our friend Natalia's family lives. A group of Evergreen students joined us. We shared chocolate caliente and birthday cake in town, and then hiked up to the family's potato fields at 13,000 feet! The tradition this time of year, potato harvest, is for entire families to spend the harvest day, digging potatoes, and then building an earth oven and roasting potatoes and eating them right there in the field with aji (spicy chile sauce), cheese, chica (corn beer) and maybe pisac (liquor). It is Steve's kind of thing! So, we all harvested potatoes and ate potatoes and spend about 5 hours up there with incredible views of 20,000 foot snow capped peaks (apus) all around. Epic! We didn't get back to Pisac until 9:30 that evening. It was great fun!
This week, River and Sage started school here in Pisac. They will go to school for 7 weeks. My homeschooled kids are getting their first taste of full time school in Peru! The school is called Kasi Kawsay which means in Quechua: Live Happy. It is an alternative school founded by a small group of parents from this area who are looking for an alternative to the state schools. This school has a Waldorf pedagogy and funds from a Canadian Waldorf School in Nelson B.C. have helped make the school a reality. The land itself is incredible. The school sits above the town with a view of Pisac, the surrounding mountains and the Sacred Valley. The adobe classrooms are lovely and surround a courtyard area with several huge boulders which the kids play on at recess. Everything is open air and sweet. Lessons are taught in Spanish, and additional lessons are taught in Quechua and English. River and Sage are happy and challenged! There are two recesses where the kids run around outside, climbing on rocks and building forts.
Sage is learning his Spanish vowels and River is learning cursive. They both love the movement lessons. River is doing knitting too. They are both learning and using tons of Spanish, which is the main reason I wanted this for them! School is over at 1:30 which leaves us plenty of time for afternoon rest and recreation. I am super pleased!
Steve's students are beginning their 4 week independent projects. Some are continuing to study languages, others highlands agriculture, medicinal plans, weaving, bee-keeping, coffee growing, education, etc. All the projects are so cool - I'm excited for them! Steve has several field trips organized for them over the next few weeks as well as his own research and investigation with Rachel around their common questions of the links between language and agriculture in this region. I have been busy setting up the school situation for the kids, as well as the house, and doing my yoga studies and practice. I love meeting new people and sharing stories. The people of Pisac are lovely, and I'm enjoying myself!
Hasta luego!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Cuzco update, May 1, 2010
Hola Amigos,
I tried to update my blog a couple of days ago, and for some reason, it was erased! So, I'll try again today. I have to admit that I am speaking so much Spanish these days, that the words don't flow as well in English...
We have been in Peru for nearly 6 weeks now, and in Cuzco for the better part of the month. We finished our last day of two weeks of volunteering with Aldea Yanapay http://www.aldeayanapay.org/. This past week, I spent in the younger kids' gameroom, playing puzzle, Uno, and board games with kids ages 4-7. Sage and Rebecca were in the room with me. After games, we played "store" and "restaurant" in the courtyard. River spend most of his time in the artroom, making paper mache projects. Every Friday, there is a show in which the kids display art projects, present new learning, sing songs, etc. All in all, the project was a lot of fun. I admire the aim and work of the project: to provide a warm, fun and educational opportunity for kids in Cuzco. The project teaches values such as tolerance, respect, and non-violence. Most of the volunteers are other travelers which makes for a worthwhile service experience. The greatest part for me has been to see my kids connecting with other kids in meaningful, fun ways in Spanish!
We just returned from visiting and dining with Natalia, the Quechua friend of Rachel's here in the Cuzco area. She has a 4 year old son who played with River, Sage, Rebecca and Arlo. Natalia and her husband Alcides treated us to a delicious stew and we brought chocolate cake! It is really nice to spend time in someone's home and really see how they live, their interests and values, etc. I look forward to more such experiences in the second half of our stay.
We have enjoyed city life in Cuzco: the beautiful plazas, cathedrals and churches, cobble-stone streets and Incan stonework. We are used to crowded streets, exhaust, colorful vendors and too many street dogs. We are at ease in a crowded bus and even with crazy taxi drivers. Nonetheless, we are ready for a more tranquil spot, so tomorrow we leave for Pisac. We successfully negotiated a house rental for our family and Rachel and Paul's family. It is a quiet, secure spot and we're looking forward to the amenities of a home compared to a travel hostal! River and Sage are going to go to the Pisac Waldorf School (in Spanish). They will spend their mornings there. It looks to be a great opportunity. This will be the first time River and Sage, who have been homeschooled, will go to school daily. I think it will be fun and will give them the chance to learn Spanish and meet other kids. We'll give a full report once it begins!
Those of you who know my passion for yoga may wonder if I'm connecting with other yogis on the trip or teaching any asana. Actually, I am simply enjoying doing my own practices and considering parenting and doing volunteer work my seva (service). It feels more like a time for personal practice (sadhana) and less a time for teaching. Perhaps this will change as time goes on...
What I really enjoy is connecting with other people and seeing life from their perspective. Life is much more simple here in so ways. Smaller homes, less possessions, more ease. Even in the busy city, it still seems that life is more relaxed here. I hope I can absorb this and keep some of this relaxed attitude when I return home. I love, for example, that my kids don't have their rooms full of toys, so that they make do and play with what is available, like empty water bottles (they can either become swords, or pins for bowling!). Kids simply play in the streets here with whatever they can dream up: hide and seek, rhyming games, maybe an impromptu soccer game. Many people live in homes with only a few rooms. For example, Natalia whose home we just visited, is only two rooms: one bedroom and a kitchen. The bathroom is outside. I also love that our family has only the clothes, books and possessions that we brought. It is easy to keep track of it all, and I'm not missing cleaning my house in Olympia or maintaining the car!
Of course, one could also glamorize this simplicity, and I don't mean to do that either. There is a lot of poverty here: poor living conditions, limited opportunities, poor hygiene, nutrition, etc. There is education and work to be done to improve this, of course. And, there are many opportunities to get involved in service work, education, and more. This next month, Steve and Rachel's students will begin their independent projects which can involve research, volunteer work or internships. Even though I can't be in all places at once, I find it exciting to learn about al their different projects. I look forward to becoming involved in some local projects and the school in Pisac.
More adventures ahead, amigos!
Hasta luego!
I tried to update my blog a couple of days ago, and for some reason, it was erased! So, I'll try again today. I have to admit that I am speaking so much Spanish these days, that the words don't flow as well in English...
We have been in Peru for nearly 6 weeks now, and in Cuzco for the better part of the month. We finished our last day of two weeks of volunteering with Aldea Yanapay http://www.aldeayanapay.org/. This past week, I spent in the younger kids' gameroom, playing puzzle, Uno, and board games with kids ages 4-7. Sage and Rebecca were in the room with me. After games, we played "store" and "restaurant" in the courtyard. River spend most of his time in the artroom, making paper mache projects. Every Friday, there is a show in which the kids display art projects, present new learning, sing songs, etc. All in all, the project was a lot of fun. I admire the aim and work of the project: to provide a warm, fun and educational opportunity for kids in Cuzco. The project teaches values such as tolerance, respect, and non-violence. Most of the volunteers are other travelers which makes for a worthwhile service experience. The greatest part for me has been to see my kids connecting with other kids in meaningful, fun ways in Spanish!
We just returned from visiting and dining with Natalia, the Quechua friend of Rachel's here in the Cuzco area. She has a 4 year old son who played with River, Sage, Rebecca and Arlo. Natalia and her husband Alcides treated us to a delicious stew and we brought chocolate cake! It is really nice to spend time in someone's home and really see how they live, their interests and values, etc. I look forward to more such experiences in the second half of our stay.
We have enjoyed city life in Cuzco: the beautiful plazas, cathedrals and churches, cobble-stone streets and Incan stonework. We are used to crowded streets, exhaust, colorful vendors and too many street dogs. We are at ease in a crowded bus and even with crazy taxi drivers. Nonetheless, we are ready for a more tranquil spot, so tomorrow we leave for Pisac. We successfully negotiated a house rental for our family and Rachel and Paul's family. It is a quiet, secure spot and we're looking forward to the amenities of a home compared to a travel hostal! River and Sage are going to go to the Pisac Waldorf School (in Spanish). They will spend their mornings there. It looks to be a great opportunity. This will be the first time River and Sage, who have been homeschooled, will go to school daily. I think it will be fun and will give them the chance to learn Spanish and meet other kids. We'll give a full report once it begins!
Those of you who know my passion for yoga may wonder if I'm connecting with other yogis on the trip or teaching any asana. Actually, I am simply enjoying doing my own practices and considering parenting and doing volunteer work my seva (service). It feels more like a time for personal practice (sadhana) and less a time for teaching. Perhaps this will change as time goes on...
What I really enjoy is connecting with other people and seeing life from their perspective. Life is much more simple here in so ways. Smaller homes, less possessions, more ease. Even in the busy city, it still seems that life is more relaxed here. I hope I can absorb this and keep some of this relaxed attitude when I return home. I love, for example, that my kids don't have their rooms full of toys, so that they make do and play with what is available, like empty water bottles (they can either become swords, or pins for bowling!). Kids simply play in the streets here with whatever they can dream up: hide and seek, rhyming games, maybe an impromptu soccer game. Many people live in homes with only a few rooms. For example, Natalia whose home we just visited, is only two rooms: one bedroom and a kitchen. The bathroom is outside. I also love that our family has only the clothes, books and possessions that we brought. It is easy to keep track of it all, and I'm not missing cleaning my house in Olympia or maintaining the car!
Of course, one could also glamorize this simplicity, and I don't mean to do that either. There is a lot of poverty here: poor living conditions, limited opportunities, poor hygiene, nutrition, etc. There is education and work to be done to improve this, of course. And, there are many opportunities to get involved in service work, education, and more. This next month, Steve and Rachel's students will begin their independent projects which can involve research, volunteer work or internships. Even though I can't be in all places at once, I find it exciting to learn about al their different projects. I look forward to becoming involved in some local projects and the school in Pisac.
More adventures ahead, amigos!
Hasta luego!
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