Running here and there

¡Hola!

I am beat. Today was another busy day. The people running program the volunteer program have almost every minute of our day planned this first week. There is little time to relax between activities.

Today was my second day at the nursing home. I decided to change from the soup kitchen to the nursing home because there wasn´t enough work to fill the morning at the soup kitchen. The nursing home at least keeps me busy. I work in the women´s section, playing with whomever is willing and able to interact with me.

The nursing home is clean and bright and not depressing. The place doesn´t smell. And the women sit outside in a courtyard surrounded by flowers and plants. There is a cage with three peacocks, and there is a small tucan who visits with the women from time to time.

The home is divided into male and female sections. I work in the women´s section. These ladies are native Quechua, and dress in the traditional dress. They are really quite striking, even in this environment. Most are about half my height. They are so tiny. While the cognizant ones understand Spanish, most tend to speak in Quechua. That makes attending to their needs difficult as I don´t understand Quechua. Yesterday I played catch with some of the women. Some of these ladies have quite an arm. We also played with Leggos, and I massaged lotion on their arms and legs.

Today the ladies preferred to sit in the sun and sleep. Guess I wore them out yesterday. So today I helped the girls who clean the diningroom to clean the diningroom, to serve food, and to hang up laundry. It made the day pass quickly, but I was exhausted when I left.

The girls who work in the diningroom are cute. There are very giggley. One is 18 and one is 14 years old. The 14 year old lives at the nursing home and travels home to visit her family once a year. She tried to teach me some Quechua, and I taught her some Chinese and Japanese.

After lunch I started private Spanish lessons with Gustavo. Gustavo is the handsome young Spanish teacher who teaches at the residence. All the women have a crush on him. By chance he also teaches my private lessons. The others are jealous. I will take four hours of class each week. Classes are inexpensive at $5 per hour.

Then I had to go to dance practice. This weekend is the start of carnival. The volunteers will dress up and perform a traditional dance on Monday. Today we had to practice. Luckily the dance is not difficult. they also want us to sing a quechua song, but that´s not going to happen. Quechua words are very long, and so trying to memorize a song is impossible. It´s enough that we have to dress up as Quechua women.

Yesterday we visited the site where the Peruvians defeated the Spanish and won independence. The site is located in the mountains. The ride was spectacular. This part of the Andes is even more dramatic than the part outside of Quito. And there are alot of cactus growing everywhere. They grow on rocks and on the walls of houses (used instead of glass shards to keep theives out of the yard). On the way home we stopped at village that makes ceramic sculptures. And we also visited the ruins of the Wari culture. The wari preceded the Incas. For me the scenery on the way to the sites is more interesting than the actual destination.

Tomorrow I will go on a two-day llama trek. We will hike at 14K feet ASL. Vamos a ver....

cheers,
Stacey