Changes are coming!

Alicia — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 18:43:42 +0000

The New Year will bring some exciting new changes for us. We’ve decided to leave Huancayo early. We leave this Thursday! We’ll take almost 4 weeks to meander up the coast of Peru to Ecuador. We found a new volunteer organization called Ecotrackers. They’re focus is to help rural indigenous communities develop sustainable work through ecotourism. We won’t really know what we’ll be doing until we get there. We’ll be at the mercy of the community! We’re really looking forward to the small community setting. We’re told that the electricity is “rudimentary” and that the water is “sufficient”. We’ll be living with a host family.
Last week, Mike and I went with our current host family to their Christmas Eve church service. We arrived at 6:45 for the 7:00pm service. There were 2 other people there. At 7:00pm the church was still empty and the pastor was still decorating the front of the sanctuary. By 7:45pm the church was half full and the service began. Mike and I felt really fortunate, because there was a couple visiting from California. The husband told a story to the congregation in English while his wife translated. It was really nice to actually understand what was being said. Our Spanish is getting better to the point that we sort of get the gist of things, but we don’t understand fully what is being said.
The church service was full of skits and performances. My favorite was one that gave me flashbacks of bad Halloween costumes. There were 5 children dressed as bells. Their bells were made out of cardboard that came down below their knees. When the children tried to step up on the platform, the bells went above their heads and they almost fell backwards! Poor kids!
At 9:45 the service ended. We headed home for dinner. Turkey! The turkey was cooked down the street at a bakery with several other turkeys. At almost midnight we went on the roof to watch fireworks. When we came back downstairs, the dinner was finally ready to be eaten! It was worth the wait.
Our New Year’s was fairly uneventful. Probably because we went out the night before for another volunteer’s last night in Huancayo. We were tired! We went to dinner and then for a few drinks with another volunteer. We were home before midnight. Again, there were a lot of fireworks. Mostly just noise though, because it’s all small fireworks that people set off from their houses. There were a lot of small fires in the streets (set on purpose, not from the fireworks). It’s a tradition in which they burn things from the previous year that they want to say goodbye to, usually old papers or old clothes.
Best wishes for a Happy New year!

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Mike — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 17:52:32 +0000

Here is what our homestay looks like. Juan Jose and Patty (Mosoq Ayllu administrators) are in the picture – they live upstairs with some of the volunteers. Alicia and I live in the ground floor with Aurora, David and Alvaro; the parents and brother of Patty.

A few friends of our we see everyday from the Combi ride home from Coto Coto. I love his expression!

Evening rush hour near the center

Today is Christmas Eve and we will be celebrating with our family. Alicia and I are both still dealing with some stomache issues. We cant figure out why we have been hit the hardest out of all of the volunteers. At least when we are ill we have a comfortable place to stay and relax!

Jankers » Huancayo

Changes are coming!

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