The Project in Quillahuata

Tuesday August 25 2009:

Everyone got to sleep in a little today. None of the typical early starts. We were picked up by Peru´s Challenge at about 10:30 and arrived in Quillahuata at about 11:15. The town is only about 5 km as the crow flies from the outskirts of Cusco, but you would think you were in the middle of nowhere. The town in about 500 people all living in adobe brick structures, surrounded by what looks to be reasonably good farmland. In some ways it is reminiscent of the Cariboo due to the contours of the hills and the colours. However, we are nearly 13,000 ft above sea level.

Upon our arrival we were greeted by the students of the local school with songs and hugs. Our accommodation is one of the two classrooms in the school. Two other classrooms have almost been completed by Peru´s Challenge and should open later this year. Right now the school only has kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 2. This should expand over the next 2 to 3 years to cover K - 6.

We immediately got to work digging a foundation for the new chicken coop and moving the adobe bricks from up the road. A wheelbarrow can only carry 4 bricks due to their weight and we had to move about 600. Once school was out, the kids all wanted to be carried in the wheelbarrows back to the site to pick up more bricks. Brad appeared to be the most popular driver.

The chicken coop project is good for the school as it will provide eggs to the children that attend school as well as excess product that can be sold for other food and school supplies. Many of the children in the town only get coca tea for breakfast and then some sort of soup for dinner. Not a lot of nutrition, hence many are very small with pòor teeth and other health issues.

We ended the day with a soccer game against the local townspeople. Canada held it´s own and tied the game 3-3, though the play was a little lopsided with the townspeople having superior soccer skills.

The food is great. We think that they have hired a chef from one of the trekking companies to prepare all our food this week.