We will be seeing all of you at approximately 1:10pm Canadian time at the Pearson airport.
Thanks so much for following our blog, it really means a lot to us!
KB
Friday, June 17, 2011
Goodbye Cusco!
Sorry that we have been slacking on the blog posts! We have been having an awesome time in Cusco over the last few days. We had a great time visiting and spending time with Greta and her lovely daughter Maria. We also had a wonderful time visiting kindergarden classes, seeing the beautiful Macchu Pichu, and spending our last few days in Peru together. We are starting our journey home soon, and as excited as we are to share our many experiences with all of you, all of us are very sad to be leaving the wonderful country of Peru.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
An Uphill Battle!
Saturday was the last day of the pilka dig and boy were we tired! It was difficult to hike up to the pilka let alone dig a two meter hole in the ground after already digging the previous day. Our human power was dwindling at this point as we were becoming physically and mentally exhausted from the culture shock and labour intensive workload. We decided to stop at lunch.
After lunch our group embarked on a trek across the mountainside to see how the women of this community really grow their coffee. Saturdina and her sister lead us along the mountainous terrain that they take every day to work. It showed us a great apprication to what a five minute hike means to them. It also gave us a broarder perspective of an honest day´s work; In North America we take for granted the simplest things. Saturdina stopped and showed us the various fruits in the area, and made sure to point out any topics of interest as we walked. We continued walking and they gave us the best oranges of our lives. Heading back along the path a few of us followed Saturdina up to where they peel the coffee. On the way there, we passed by a banana tree and one of the locals with us cut down a bunch of fresh bananas. They were absolutely phenomenal! Continuing on our journey, we passed where the coffee beans are layed out on tarps and sun dried. What a process!
When we all arrived back to the village, the locals challenged our group to a game of soccer. It was amazing to see that despite the language barriers our groups still overcame this challenge and became closer as an entire community.
Saying goodbye to our new found home was difficult to do. The entire community came into our dwelling, where we both expressed our feelings of graditude for one another. We cannot thank this community enough for all the life lessons they have taught us. They welcomed us into their community with open arms, giving what possessions they had and offered them up to us. They demonstrated the power of family and friendship to our group. They greeted us with smiles and sent us off with enriched hearts, demonstrating that material possessions have little value but a realtionship between each other is what matters.
Regardless of the fact that they had been mourning the loss of their brother, they did all that they could to ensure that our last night was a memorable one. It is in their culture to refrain from dancing two months after a loved one has passed away, however they still hosted a dance party for our departure. The music went on for hours into the night as we danced under the stars. There were smiles all around as we enjoyed dancing to the local music, however, at that same time participating in something that is very familiar to Canadians. A party is party no matter where you are!
On Sunday we began our trek back down the moutain at 6:15 in the morning. Covered in bug spray, sunscreen and stocked with plenty of fluids we were prepared for our three hour hike. As we travelled through the mountains, the trucks awaited us at the top, rock music blasting, to continue our journey back to Chiclayo. Upon our return we had our final dinner with Glen Lombard. Isabel met us at the hotel to see how our adventure went and to provide us with Cafe Feminino Coffee to bring back to our families. We packed up our things to prepare for our early flight to Cusco the following morning.
Love Meg, Jess, Natalie and Jordan
After lunch our group embarked on a trek across the mountainside to see how the women of this community really grow their coffee. Saturdina and her sister lead us along the mountainous terrain that they take every day to work. It showed us a great apprication to what a five minute hike means to them. It also gave us a broarder perspective of an honest day´s work; In North America we take for granted the simplest things. Saturdina stopped and showed us the various fruits in the area, and made sure to point out any topics of interest as we walked. We continued walking and they gave us the best oranges of our lives. Heading back along the path a few of us followed Saturdina up to where they peel the coffee. On the way there, we passed by a banana tree and one of the locals with us cut down a bunch of fresh bananas. They were absolutely phenomenal! Continuing on our journey, we passed where the coffee beans are layed out on tarps and sun dried. What a process!
When we all arrived back to the village, the locals challenged our group to a game of soccer. It was amazing to see that despite the language barriers our groups still overcame this challenge and became closer as an entire community.
Saying goodbye to our new found home was difficult to do. The entire community came into our dwelling, where we both expressed our feelings of graditude for one another. We cannot thank this community enough for all the life lessons they have taught us. They welcomed us into their community with open arms, giving what possessions they had and offered them up to us. They demonstrated the power of family and friendship to our group. They greeted us with smiles and sent us off with enriched hearts, demonstrating that material possessions have little value but a realtionship between each other is what matters.
Regardless of the fact that they had been mourning the loss of their brother, they did all that they could to ensure that our last night was a memorable one. It is in their culture to refrain from dancing two months after a loved one has passed away, however they still hosted a dance party for our departure. The music went on for hours into the night as we danced under the stars. There were smiles all around as we enjoyed dancing to the local music, however, at that same time participating in something that is very familiar to Canadians. A party is party no matter where you are!
On Sunday we began our trek back down the moutain at 6:15 in the morning. Covered in bug spray, sunscreen and stocked with plenty of fluids we were prepared for our three hour hike. As we travelled through the mountains, the trucks awaited us at the top, rock music blasting, to continue our journey back to Chiclayo. Upon our return we had our final dinner with Glen Lombard. Isabel met us at the hotel to see how our adventure went and to provide us with Cafe Feminino Coffee to bring back to our families. We packed up our things to prepare for our early flight to Cusco the following morning.
Love Meg, Jess, Natalie and Jordan
Sunday, June 12, 2011
I feel Full
Hello everyone! It is 10:00 PM here in Chiclayo and we have just finished saying our goodbyes to Isabelle and Victor, the presendents of Cafe Feminino. We also had the oppertunity to purchase some Cafe Feminino Coffee of our own from them, which I am sure we will let you taste when we get back to Canada.
I now have a bit of down time to tell you a bit more about the mountains. So to pick up where Jason left off....
We were awoken by the rooster at around 4:30 AM, then the pigs at 5:00 AM, then the donkeys, then the goats, and lets not forget the dogs that roam the community. Breakfast was at 7:30 so we could begin our work on the pilca around 8:00. We were all very tired from our journey the day before, but still put on all our sunscreen, bugspray, and carried our water bottles up the mountain side to help out the male workers of the community.
Are those men ever in shape! They worked just as hard as they did the day before and did not show an ounce of tiredness. Us, on the otherhand, we slowing down a fair bit. When lunch time rolled around, it was clear that we were struggling. One of the women of the village, Saterdina, noticed this and was quick to tell Rebecca that we should take the afternoon off and get to know the community and appreciate the place that we had come to visit. We were of course happy to take up her offer, but I did feel a little guilty about leaving the men to do work all afternoon while we got to rest. Saterdina explained that we should not feel bad at all. Just bringing the materials for the pilca with us we were helping the village.
We took this oppertunity to branch out in small groups and get to know this lovely community that we were living in. It turns out that the community is essentially one large family. The grandmother and grandfather live in the main area with some of their children and grandchildren, while other children of theirs, Saterdina included, live at nearby farms with their families and hike into the main area every day.
While the men were busy working on the pilca, the women spent their time doing chores and crafts and watching over the children. Kristina, Natalie, Jason, and I decided that we wanted to play with the children. We met the cutest little boy who looked ot be about 5 years old. We played with his truck and had took turns trying to make him laugh. Soon his little brother and and other little girl had joined us and Jess snapped some really great photos. I loved spending time with the children because I find them to less intimidating to get to know, especially if your spanish is as poor as mine. It is amazing how much you can communicate just by smiling and laughing.
We moved into the main house area and Kristina brought out some bracelet making tools. We showed the younger women who were looking after the children how to braid the bracelets. I also multitasked by entertaing the two little boys I mentioned earlier by tossing a ball of yarn back and forth. Meanwhile, Becca, Megan, Jenna, Jess and Barbara chatted with Saterdina and Megan tried to learn how to make a blanket from scratch. We had a good laugh at her because it certaintly was not as easy as Saterdina made it look!
Before dinner, we took a walk with Saterdina back to her farm. She chatted more to us about what life in Peru was like and also showed off the beauty of our surroundings. She truely is such a spectacular women and I can´t even begin to describe the love that we all felt toward her.
After saying goodbye to Saterdina, we chatted about the day together on our way back to the community. Jenna and I talked about our frustration that we just couldn´t find a good word to describe how we were feeling and how amazing this experience has been so far. Becca came up with what I think is the best way to describe our feelings when she said ¨I feel full¨ Meaning that our hearts are full of love and happiness to be in such a spectacular part of the world and that we now feel some sort of new completeness. This still may not describe my experience perfectly, but it is so close!
Much love and talk to you all soon!
Kat
I now have a bit of down time to tell you a bit more about the mountains. So to pick up where Jason left off....
We were awoken by the rooster at around 4:30 AM, then the pigs at 5:00 AM, then the donkeys, then the goats, and lets not forget the dogs that roam the community. Breakfast was at 7:30 so we could begin our work on the pilca around 8:00. We were all very tired from our journey the day before, but still put on all our sunscreen, bugspray, and carried our water bottles up the mountain side to help out the male workers of the community.
Are those men ever in shape! They worked just as hard as they did the day before and did not show an ounce of tiredness. Us, on the otherhand, we slowing down a fair bit. When lunch time rolled around, it was clear that we were struggling. One of the women of the village, Saterdina, noticed this and was quick to tell Rebecca that we should take the afternoon off and get to know the community and appreciate the place that we had come to visit. We were of course happy to take up her offer, but I did feel a little guilty about leaving the men to do work all afternoon while we got to rest. Saterdina explained that we should not feel bad at all. Just bringing the materials for the pilca with us we were helping the village.
We took this oppertunity to branch out in small groups and get to know this lovely community that we were living in. It turns out that the community is essentially one large family. The grandmother and grandfather live in the main area with some of their children and grandchildren, while other children of theirs, Saterdina included, live at nearby farms with their families and hike into the main area every day.
While the men were busy working on the pilca, the women spent their time doing chores and crafts and watching over the children. Kristina, Natalie, Jason, and I decided that we wanted to play with the children. We met the cutest little boy who looked ot be about 5 years old. We played with his truck and had took turns trying to make him laugh. Soon his little brother and and other little girl had joined us and Jess snapped some really great photos. I loved spending time with the children because I find them to less intimidating to get to know, especially if your spanish is as poor as mine. It is amazing how much you can communicate just by smiling and laughing.
We moved into the main house area and Kristina brought out some bracelet making tools. We showed the younger women who were looking after the children how to braid the bracelets. I also multitasked by entertaing the two little boys I mentioned earlier by tossing a ball of yarn back and forth. Meanwhile, Becca, Megan, Jenna, Jess and Barbara chatted with Saterdina and Megan tried to learn how to make a blanket from scratch. We had a good laugh at her because it certaintly was not as easy as Saterdina made it look!
Before dinner, we took a walk with Saterdina back to her farm. She chatted more to us about what life in Peru was like and also showed off the beauty of our surroundings. She truely is such a spectacular women and I can´t even begin to describe the love that we all felt toward her.
After saying goodbye to Saterdina, we chatted about the day together on our way back to the community. Jenna and I talked about our frustration that we just couldn´t find a good word to describe how we were feeling and how amazing this experience has been so far. Becca came up with what I think is the best way to describe our feelings when she said ¨I feel full¨ Meaning that our hearts are full of love and happiness to be in such a spectacular part of the world and that we now feel some sort of new completeness. This still may not describe my experience perfectly, but it is so close!
Much love and talk to you all soon!
Kat
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