Sacred Valley

The last 3 days were probably the best in all the time I've been here. Friday was a particularly successful day at the school. My first and only class for the day was with two other volunteers, and seemed to go very well. The class was quite small, only about 8 kids were there. First, we sang Heads and Shoulders Knees and Toes with the children (in Spanish!) and then, with the help of the teacher, we asked the children to draw people, because what do people have? That's right! Heads and shoulders knees and toes! As well as other things, which we later asked them about (is your person missing eyes? How many eyes should your person have?) At the end of the class we all sang the song again, before leaving to do some construction.

My job was cleaning the tiles in a new classroom. We had just put in the grout a few days ago, which now needed cleaning off. It was a bit difficult due to a lack of proper equipment. But not too long, the room looked quite presentable. A further feeling of satisfaction came when those working on the bathrooms declared it complete! This meant that in that week alone they had finished painting it, inside and out, lovely bright colours, they had finished tiling it, and the doors were on the cubicles, whereas at the start of the week there was only a bit of tarpaulin covering each toilet. There is even a shower! After our work the teachers ordered us to wait, wait, because they were baking bread in the school oven, which we had to try. We did this and then left with a great feeling of accomplishment! That night we celebrated one of the group's birthday by going out on the town, an intriguing experience as we somehow ended up in venues that seemed to have only tourists as their patrons. Not a very authentic experience, but for sure the ride there was, as at every frightening swing of the taxi, a number of cement blocks that were in the boot would topple around!

The weekend was also very enjoyable, involving a bus trip where we stopped at a number of Inca sites. We spent the night in a hotel in the Sacred Valley, which had... bliss... hot water, a bath, and a heater! Today, the end of the weekend, we drove to the top of a mountain where the Incas had constructed a number of sacred temples and walls and steps... yes, lots of steps... in fact, we walked all the way down this mountain (approximately 2 hours of work), down many many steps.