For the last ten days we have been living in Achupallas. Achuapallas is a rural village located about 40 minutes from Otavallo. Many of the people there speak Keshwa, the indigenious language, but much of the younger generations now speak spanish. The people who live there are mostly subsistance farmers, and much of our diet while there consisted of potatoe and rice soup.
We spent our days doing work in a locat tree nursery, where we mixed concrete, shoveled sand and rockes, or moved saplings. And during the evenings we were in homestays. Everybody had different houses amoungst the community where in the evenings we spent getting to know our familes and playing with host siblings. The days were long but we got to know all the members of our group really well. Some of uswoke at 5 and went to bed at 7 (which i am sure we all allready do back in the states ;)).
My family consisted of 9 people including myself. My family lived on a Hacienda which meant I had a hour walk to and from school everyday, but the views of the Andes mountains every moring made it worth it. All of the cooking was done in one building over an open fire, and everyone slept in another. We grew everything from Quinoa to Cabbage, and had all types fo farm animals. Every morning I would wake up at sunrise to help my host father milk the cows and gather any eggs for breakfast. The lifestyle these families live was unlike anything i or many of the other mebers had experienced.
The work we partuke in was with a foundation called Tandana Foudation which consisted of 4 American volunteer works and one manager. Our work was varried but consisted of building a new house for a ranch manager who lives on the tree nursery. Anything from hard physical labor to playing games like signs and ninja. We moved more rocks then one can imagine. The coolest part of the labor was working in the local school teaching kids from ages 7 to 11 English. They loved to work with gringos and laughed at all the mistakes that we said. On the outside of the school we sanded an old mural off and repainted a new one. This was so much fun and our work will be in this small community for many years to come.
Tomorrow We are goign to summit a a 14er and have one more free day in Otavalo. This is a crazy and life long experience we have only just begun to scratch the surface of! Love always!!! Dan and Coleman