Jacob in Peru, Day 8 (ish)

Ok, today is Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 11:25 PM Peruvian time, 10:25 Utah time.

Sorry i havent written for a few days, things have been pretty CrAzY!!! haha. ok, well, i guess the last time i had a chance to write was on sunday night, so i will start with MOnday.

Monday, August 11, 2008 (Day 6)

We woke up at around 6:30 on Monday morning, because we were doing things a bit different.

We had to leave by 7:30 because we were going out to work on the Farm for El Girasol (the sunflower, the name of the orphanage we were working at). One of the other groups that has been here in the past helped start a farm for El Girasol to help it be self sufficient. So, we ended up splitting into two groups, Dad Grandpa and I went back to the orphanage and everyone else went to the Farm. They were using pickaxes to dig a channel for water to reach a trout pond they are build, and they poured cement in some other places, i dont really know all the details. Anyway, We went to Girasol to help Antonio finish the Guardhouse we had started building earlier in the week. The basic structure was there, the walls and the windows and door, but it still needed the top half of the back wall, another few layers on the walls, and a roof. So we started to help finish it.

We started out by mixing a huge pile of mud using sand we had sifted on saturday and buckets of water from a rain barrel. This was used as a kind of mortar, wierd, i know. Then, we would give him buckets of Barro ( mud) which he would spread all over the adobe bricks already in place, then we would give him the bricks for the next layer. it was very cool because he uded a string and a weight as a plumbers line in order to keep everything level. Also, he was more or less balanced on the wall, and he would just keep standing on what he had just built in order to build the next level!! the back wall is what we mostly did, and it started about 5 feet tall, but when we were done it was like 15 feet high!!! at the top, he used a string tied to a bamboo pole to set the blocks so the wall ended in a point, like a triangle, but just on the one end. After we finished the wall, we had to use the new chainsaw grandpa had constructed ( with the help of about 10 adoring orphans) to cut up logs for the framework of the roof. We cut the logs into long segments, then had to carry them onto the roof and kinda piece it together so we knew where to cut the ends to make it sit solidly. We used the chainsaw to cut it. Then, we used big long nails (clavos) to hold them together. The shape of the roof was like one of those circular hawaian huts cut in half, like half an octagon.

As we worked, one of the boys, a 14 year old name John, was being adopted by a couple we had been working with, the Andersons. it was really cool to watch how the orphans and the adults handled the adoption. Each of the boys said something about their time together, then they would hug. It was so much fun to watch, one of those bitter/sweet moments. He had to leave his friends, but now he had a home in the USA. I was way happy for him.

Then we had a fiesta!!! We played games with all the little kids, but really they played, and we helped them figure it out. We had races, where they had a starburst on a spoon and had to run around a cone and back, then pass it to the next teammate. Then, We did a lot of different games with jumpropes that i learned. We had badmitton, tetherball, tons of stuff, the kids loved it!!! We were all extremly tired, but it was tons of fun!!

Ok, now for Tuesday August 12, 2008.

This was by far the most interesting day so far, i think. I think you will agree for obvious reasons.

Today we went to a small village called Tucson (Tuck-sawn) like in arizona. WE were going to help them pour cement for a new schoolhouse and help them bathe kids. The thing was, it was built on a fairly sttep hill with flat spots for houses. First, we had all the men get together. We had to take a cement mixer, and get it probably 200 yards uphill!!! it was so tough, but we found a way to get it up switchbacks!!! IT was a fair sized mixer!!

NExt, we had people take buckets, and we had to carry sand all the way up, ususally we could only take half a bucket at a time, because we had to go so far uphill, it was way hard, but all the peruvians were helping carry it up. ( right before we took the mixer up, we had to carry 90 pound bags of cement mix up the mountain to the schoolhouse) We finally got all the sand up after a few hours, but right as we were down to the last few bucketfulls, he drove up with a whole other truckload!!! He started to dump it there, but Grandpa and I convinced him to drive it up the same way we took the mixer. it was such a relief!! By this time, it was almost 12:00 noon. We had been there for hours!! ( this whole time, the women had been showing the village ladies how to bathe their kids with soap and tubs they had brought.) ONce we got the majority of the sand up there with the cement, we started to mix it up. We had four wheelbarrows going, one right after the other!! the wheelbarrows would get the cement, then you would have to get a running start to get it up part of this slope. Then you had to go into the schoolhouse (we had just finished laying big stones for a foundation) and go across the stones and dump the cement wherever the two guys who were spreading it out wanted it. All of this was happening at the same time.

We were supposed to be leaving for the orphanage at noon, but we didnt leave until 2ish becasue we had to finish the floor. When they were done, they had a ceremony where they hung a clay pot full of cement mix over the doorway, then Will Love and Dad got to break it using a hammer. It is considered the christening or something of the house. Then we went down to the main plaza of the village and they wanted to have us participate in some ceremony. It turned out that we had to dance with them to the music, and this one guys kept pulling the girls out of the chairs and dancing with them (he had like 1 tooth, and he was like 3 feet tall) they would dance and he would randomly start yelling!! it was way wierd. Then we sat and they brought out food for us to eat..... And you know that it is offensive if you dont eat it....

Well it turned out they had this really big pieces of corn and wierd nuts, but that was ok. Remember they dont have refrigerators... Next They brought out Cuy, Freshly caught and cooked. I have been looking forward to trying Cuy, but in a proffesional restaurant, not in some backwater town!!! Anyway for those who dont know, Cuy is basically Guinea Pig. There you go! Well, I ate it, and it was suprisingly good!! once i got past the fact that there was a little bit of fur on the end of the leg, and you could easily see the little claws on the end of the feet, i had two!!

After, we went back to Girasol for the last few hours we would get there. We helped put the bamboo poles on the roof, and nail them down. Them they were covered with mud and clay tiles for roofing, but we left before it was finished. Then we hopped on the train to Machupicchu.`

Well, I it is 12:30, and i am going to bed. I will write early tomorrow about today, If i can.

Lova you all!!!
Jake Lythgoe