Aldea Yanapay School

Dearest parientes y amigos,

This week we started volunteering with an awesome and inspiring organization called Aldea Yanapay. The organization was started by a man named Yuri and has been successfully surviving for at least half a decade. Its purpose is to act as a social project for the children without opportunities of Cuzco. It was created for the kids and as Yuri says, the kids are always and forever the most important part.

We love Yuri.

Yuri´s dream is so unbelieveably altruistic that we immediately threw our all into helping the kids our very first day, Monday. Monday was chaotic as we adjusted to the kids and being ¨professors,¨ or as the kids called us - ¨¡Profe!¨ We loved the term of endearment; it gave us fuel to continue even when class was going rough and multiple kids were misbehaving or even bleeding.

We were figures to look up to and we took our responsibility very seriously. We did art projects with the kids (including but not limited to making a tree made out of paper mache and creating juggling balls out of balloons), read with them, helped them with their homework, played both educational and recreational games with them, and tutored them. This went from three until five, when the Circle of Expression time comenced. This was a time when all the kids (ages 5 - 13) came together to discuss issues of cultural importance or simply Pokemon - it depends on the day. After circle time, we split into our families (groups of kids of similar ages) to learn about Incan legends (for this week anyway).

These groups were often chaotic to say the least, but we´ll miss their adorable faces. They progressed well on their projects and we wish we could be there tomorrow to see them perform or explain their drawings. We would have been willing to spend more time at the school; there is so much we could do. Sure we passed out flyers to get people to eat at the restaurant (Aldea Yanapay Restaurant) but we still want to do more. Thus we post links and encourage everybody to spread the word about the really cool Aldea Yanapay School. Anything you can do will help them out in their time of need. They are currently looking for a new building and every little bit helps! So if you are ever in Cuzco, look them up. You could anything from volunteering in the school to eating at the restaurant to staying at the associated hostel (Aldea Yanapay Hostel).

We wish we had more time to hang out with the people we´ve met at Yanapay. All the volunteers are cool people from all over the world that it´s a shame to not know better. Actually, there are hard goodbyes all around this week as we leave Cuzco. We had our last classes this morning with our fabulous professors from FairPlay. We´ve learned a lot and there is still so much more to learn - not just about Spanish, but Cuzco as well. Cuzco is rich in history. We could live here for months! Unfortunately, it is time to say goodbye again - it always comes too soon...

So, love to all at Yanapay, FairPlay, and home as we move into the Amazon rainforest. We aren´t expecting to have internet connection in the village of Infierno (literal translation: Hell), but we are expecting to have a lot of fun! So sorry if there are no updates for awhile, Hell doesn´t have good internet connection.

Love,

Catherine and Emma

P.S. Camera difficulties again... Shoot!