Hola, buen dia!(:
Namaste! Hello, family and friends of SAM 2014! I apologize for the delay/procrastination on this blog post. These last couple of weeks has been quite a turn of events. Amazon week turned into student directed travel week and and student directed travel week turned into a volunteering week in Pisac and Cusco. It´s been quite hectic for the leaders and Carpe Diem but everyone´s been pretty mellow about it. Many have been sick, minor colds are floating around now. No one has escaped diarrhea so far. Yay! Also mucho procrastination on presentations for class/classes. I finished mine for International Development class and so has Brianna and Kelsey. Robbe did his Economic class presentation as well. Yay! Just a couple more to go and our daily life maps is down to 2!
Sloths would like to say hi as well.
It´s been around 2 months since the start of this trip and meeting all the wonderful people in this group thus far. We´ve had joyous and interesting encounters with amazing people throughout this unforgettable journey Our Spanish has improved beyond our imagination. Being surrounded by a Spanish speaking community has helped improve our Spanish a lot and we have gotten better at bargaining as well.(; We´ve learned many phrases from our time here in South America. Buen dia was a phrase that was most said by Juan Carlos, our host at the Banana farm. Regardless of the humid weather and different type of bugs all around, I enjoyed my time there very much due to the people there. Juan Carlos and his family are very kind souls. (: ¨Namaste¨ was something we learned from Chaitanya back at the yoga retreat which means a sign of respect, and acknowledge as well as a sort of greeting when you say hello or goodbye. I enjoyed my time at the yoga retreat very much as well, the wonderful people, delicious food and beautiful environment. We´ve learned much about our well beings, being at peace with oneself through numerous meditations and yoga and just being present. I have some awesome photos of everyone doing yoga up in the mountains but the computers here aren´t liking my memory card so I´ll have to put a raincheck on that one.
As bummed as I was about not going to the Amazon and going sloth searching, this week has been replaced by a new realm of volunteering, inspirational encounters with wonderous people, familar voices and a week of fun activities as well as delicious food. Because we´ve been spending a majority of our time in Cusco, we all wanted a change of scenery so we all voted to move to Pisac for the week. Props to our casa of the week, Erin, for picking a hostal that was close by almost everything; a pastry shop, grocery stores, markets, restaurants, and ice-cream! Lucuma ice-cream has been the best ice-cream I´ve had here so far. Although the macaroons ice-cream I had at the Lima airport was pretty amazing as well.(:
Anyways, we volunteered with Sonco Wasi this week, teaching and volunteering with disabled and disadvantaged children in Cusco and with the children in Taray. Sonco Wasi is a non-profit organization for disabled and disadvantaged children founded by Karol. The school Karol has in Taray is the only source of education for the kids there. Karol is an amazing woman, aside frombeing an awesome dentist who did my teeth cleaning, she provided education for these kids.(: A dentist during the day, teacher around the afternoons-evenings and back to being a dentist! She´s a very busy sweet woman and a bundle of joy to be around. (:We were split into two groups; the education group and the art group. I was part of the art group along with Arturo, Brianna, Casey, Olivia and Rachel which focuses more on art stuff such as drawing, singing and etc. The education group consists of Abi, Erin, Kelsey, Maddie, Maggie, and Robbe which focuses more on doing presentations on a certain topic or teaching English, sports and etc. Each day we would switch off, the art group goes to Cusco and the education group to Soncowasi at the Sacred Valley then the next day art group to Sacred valley, education group to Cusco and the cycle goes on. The art group volunteered in Cusco along with Blake, a former Carpe Diem latitude student from last semester who went to Southeast Asia! We also met Megan, who is also a Carpe Diem student from last semester that went to India with Matt! The first day, we just chilled at the park after a long adventure due to the buses going different routes because it´s the holidays week aka semana week. It was very interesting to learn and meet these wonderful group of kids; some had walking disabilities, some are emotionally bipolar and would be happy for 2 seconds then crying the next, there is also one who would simply like to examine your joints, and then one whose smiling and laughing all the time whenever you look over at her. These children laugh at almost everything and it makes me laugh along, seeing their smiling faces naturally turns my frown upside down!(: There are many other volunteers as well and I really appreciate their time and effort as well in helping these kids and holding their hands as they tend to wander off a lot (not that I´m one to talk though).
Playing with the kids in Cusco!
Learning(:
AND MUCH HUGS AND LOVE!(:
The education group traveled to Soncowasi, just about 10 minutes outside of Pisac and taught English their first day and some painted murals on the walls as well. I also managed to finish my own little mural.(:
First day of volunteering at Soncowasi, we got attacked by water guns. Ashley was not a happy panda. Off to a good start. 🙂 We held a birthday lunch party for Erin and Matt on Wednesday with a yummy birthday cake, oreos, candy and jello! It was a nice little warm gathering of hugs and love before we all set out to our destinations for volunteering. Matt also got a huge cinnamon roll hug from all the kids at Soncowasi afterwards.
We got a free day on Thursday as it was a holiday and had a nice gathering for a picnic at the park on Saturday with the kids from Soncowasi. There was various activities such as soccer, hula hoops, partner musical ¨jackets¨because instead of chairs we used jackets, water guns with no water, ropes, candy, and 2nd attempt on the mentos and pop experiment. Afterwards, we helped made a little fire and roasted marshmellows.(:
Smiley faces all around!(:
Our beautiful smiley faces (Brianna and Erin)
The pretty awesome group. Oh they look so happy(: (Rachel and Kelsey)
Maddie and Maggie being fabulous(:
Our babyfaces (Mary and Ashley)
Our young yogis at work.
Abi and Olivia!(:
The goof brothers. (Robbe and Arturo) just being themselves.
Cool Casey.
Then graceful Casey.
Then we have carefree leader, Matt, doing his daily meditations.
And a smile surrounded by all those facial hair.(:
Matt helping with the fire. Always there to lend a hand.
¨Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.¨
This week has been a fun and joyous adventure! Special thanks to Karol for making this possible for us. I had a lot of funs with the kids and they were all adorable.(: It has been a wonderful experience and I look forward to the next 2 weeks together. By the way, for Easter, we decorated eggs prior and had an egg hunt the next morning! Not tryna brag but I was the champion for that. 😀 Mwahaha.
Guess whose who(: I spy a me in these hurdle of eggs.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Now I´ll leave you with this sloth.
¨The one thing that matters is the effort. It continues, whereas the end to be attained is but an illusion of the climber, as he fares on and on from crest to crest; and once the goal is reached it has no meaning.¨
Hope all is well. Carpe Diem!(: Have fun and find joy in all the things you do.(: