June 26 and 27

Note to parents and friends: We will be on our overnight hike through the high Altiplano Region on June 28 and 29th. On those days we will not be able to update the blog, but will do so on the 30th.

June 26, 2009
Chilca, Peru
James’ Blog

Hello Nashville,

I hope all is well there, everything here in Peru is great. Today was our second full day of work here in Chilca and it left us all tired and sore, but eager for more because our work is beneficial to the school and people here in Chilca. Our work today consisted of: hauling adobe bricks closer to the building site, stripping bamboo of its exterior covering, moving many rocks that are to be used in the floor of the building, and cutting down cacti and cutting off their spikes. I spent a majority of my time with the cacti which proved to be a pretty hard job. I had to climb up a steep hill, axe in hand, and chop down some of the most vicious cacti I had ever seen or been around. Chopping the plants down was the easy part, on the other hand moving these individual cactus plants was extremely difficult. I couldn’t grab the cactus and just throw it down because the spikes tore right through my gloves, so I had to maneuver a rope around each one and swing it down like there was a lasso on the end. Once we were all done with our work day, everybody went back to their host family’s houses and proceeded to eat their lunches and rest. I finally got to shower after two days in Chilca, and it was refreshing even with the freezing cold water. Today we had to members of our group go down from illness, being Garrett and Sam, but I am sure that both will recover by tomorrow. Right now we are taking vans back to Ollantaytambo to make some pottery which should be fun. That’s all for now, see you all soon.

James

June 27th
Hello it’s Sammy J.
The trip has been an adventure, that’s for sure. Today we are working on the adobe cafeteria building. It is pretty tough work but nothing to cry about. Everyone is having a pretty good time, the food here is really good but sort of repetitive, I can’t wait for some Mazatlan. I am getting pretty dominant with my Spanish but I have a lot to improve on because we have a lot of awkward silences at the table. I don’t think I have gotten used to waking up to a bunch of chickens running into the room. Tomorrow we leave for our hike into the mountains, it should nice to get away for a little while. After our two day trip into the mountains, I only have 2 more days of working on the adobe and its all fun and games after. I have learned a lot of different things so far and think I will definitely appreciate everything once I get back. Love you family adios.