We've had a huge day today. I'm shattered (again - I thought this was supposed to be a restful holiday!), so I'm breaking this blog post into 4 parts:
1. What we did at school today
2. This isn't your typical farmer's market
3. A well deserved break
4. Sampling Peruvian delicacies ...
So to begin with ...
What we did at school today
We have all fallen in love. Gladly not with each other (though now that I think about it, our tour guide Mark does seem to hang around Nicole a lot ...), but with an absolutely gorgeous charity called Chicuchas Wasi ("Children's Project" in the native Quechua language).
Chicuchas Wasi began in 1987 with a project to help abandoned children living hand-to-mouth on the streets of Cusco. The current Director, Ruth Uribe, joined in 1989 and the next year they changed their focus to helping girls only - due to the extra significant cultural disadvantages these girls faced. They began a school for these incredibly wonderful but desperately needy children, totally funded by charity. The girls come from the most destitute and impoverished families in what is already an incredibly poor area by Western standards, many suffering from one or more of physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Chicuchas Wasi is committed to breaking this devastating cycle for these girls through education, increased self esteem and financial independence. They are doing a wonderful job and please go to www.chicuchaswasi.org to learn more about their fantastic program.
We visited the school as part of the trip, and they received a table-full of school supplies bought with money donated as part of our trip cost.
We met all the children - they were lovely with the youngest greeting us with songs, and the older girls also in English, and then we joined them outside where we served lunch to them all. This was followed by some singing by us (if you could call it singing - a rather pitiful rendition of "Skippy the bush kangaroo" with a complete role-model action by Mark; followed by an even sadder attempt at "Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie" - seems difficult to stuff that up but we managed it).
One example of these lovely kids is 'Flo' who entranced us by being able to speak in Spanish, Quechua and also English - despite coming from a very troubled home and only being 10 year's old. Other young girls - as young as 5 - walk for over an hour through ravines and over mountains each morning to reach the school, and then the same back home each afternoon. And then when Paul asked them what was the best thing about the school, the most common answer was study and the future that the school provides for them.
After lunch their Director, Ruth, thanked us and passed on comments from one of the girls - this day was the best in her life, because she had been fed lunch by us, she had been made to feel very special, and she was so happy. Such simple things to make such a profound difference in a young girl's life.
This evening I made a donation to Chicuchas Wasi through the Glocal Development Foundation website. Please join me in helping these wonderful children - every donation, no matter it's size, will make an incredible difference to a child's life.
The Australian donation page is:
https://www.globaldevelopment.org.au/donations.php?for=J644N_Chicuchas_Wasi_Childrens_Project
Donations from other countries can be made using the directions on the Chicuchas Wasi website.
Here are some of the videos:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhJYe71VDQc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjOJuur-D7s
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TufypmGUSg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnj5smZllB4
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