Otra construcción!!

It's been a while since I've posted in here. I have been really caught up in my classes lately (or at least stressing over them) and other things going on with me. I have two midterms on Monday which I am pretty nervous about, mainly for my literature class. We had soooo much to read for that class and I've spent most of the semester thus far feeling more or less lost as to what we actually needed to read out of the bibliography for the class. Luckily, a few girls from my class decided we were going to split up the supplementary reading because we realized it would be humanly impossible to get through them all and actually understand them before the exam. We are also going to get together with one of our site coordinators who has a doctorate in literature and has read a lot of the books for our class (including the novel!) so he can help clarify things for us. So that is definitely relieving.
Okay, on to more exciting topics...
This past weekend I volunteered again building houses, again in the same city: Chincha. I was more or less a jefe de cuadrilla (group leader), but at first I only had ONE other girl with me to build an entire house... But I talked to someone and we ended up getting a guy who was a veteran at the whole construction thing to help us. Everything went really smoothly with the construction and we even finished early.
The family we constructed for was really great. The mom's name was Nelly and the dad was Walter. The had 3 kids: Ronald (Ronny) was 14, Fiorella (I think that was her name) was 13, and Melina was 9 I believe. They were so hospitable and cooked amazing food. Walter was a huge help with the construction and Ronny helped a lot too. The older daughter was always bringing us gelatina (jell-o) to refresh us from the hot sun, and the youngest girl was always around, smiling and curious. It was so wonderful to get to know this family and to hear their story.
Nelly told us about their experience with the earthquake. She had been outside of the house when it happened and her kids were at home. She ran home and couldn't get into her house to get to her kids...imagine how she must have felt...so desperate and afraid. Luckily, she finally got in and they all were safe, but a lot of their home had crumbled. She told us about how thieves would come in the night and take everything and anything because they and all the neighboring families had to leave their homes unattended to stay somewhere safer for a while. Help came in the form of trucks full of supplies like clothes and food for all the families affected, but I'm sure they lacked so much. I can't imagine how it must have felt to lose your home and all that you've worked years to build up for yourself.
Our little celebration for them once we finished was really exciting. The parents were so grateful for what we had done for them. They said that they would always remember September 28 as the day when Jamie from the U.S., Charli (Carlos), and Estephanie from Lima gave them their new home and would celebrate it every year and remember us. Charli expressed that this home wasn't just a house, but it was a symbol of what they can accomplish for themselves and their children. It was an incredible moment.
Aside from the actual construction, I had a great time meeting other volunteers, including a girl from Germany who I hung out with the majority of the time when we weren't working. I didn't speak a bit of English the entire weekend, which felt amazing. :) I can't wait for the next construction in November, which is 4 days instead of just 2, which I'm sure means double the soreness of my body when I get home. Haha... Anyway, that's all I have for updates for now. I'm sorry to say I don't have any photos from this construction, but I do have a few from the previous one. Here they are:

Un techo para mi país

This past weekend, I went to volunteer for a program called "Un techo para mi país," which literally means "A roof for my country." It's a program in Peru that works with volunteers and donations to build houses for people who lost their homes in several earthquakes that have occurred in the past few years. They work with people in very poor pueblos, many of which lost practically everything they had in the earthquakes, including posessions, their families, and their dignity. Building homes for these people means they can have a new place to live and reconstruct their dreams. They hope that it will give them more confidence that they can advance and that their children can be educated and get good jobs, etc.
So...as I'm sure you can imagine, I had SUCH an incredible experience, for so many reasons. First of all, I had to speak Spanish the entire weekend. I only spoke English a little bit with Aaron, who also went, at night and in the mornings. We worked on separate teams building separate houses. I got to hear all kinds of words and phrases, both relating to construction, and of "jerga" or slang in general that I don't hear at home. I met so many people who were so interested in me and where I come from. It was really good for me to be entirely immersed in this experience, no matter how intimdating it was.
I got to see up close and personal a different part of Peru, a different sort of life. The families we were constructing houses for fed us lunch and talked with us. I got to spend time with the children who lived in the area, who were so intrigued by what we were doing, but also getting quite in the way...haha. I, with only 4 other people, built a wooden house of 3 by 6 meters in only two long days. I slept on the ceramic floor of a school in a thin sleeping bag, but loved every part of it.
This has probably been one of the best experiences I've had thus far in Peru. I am exhausted and every part of my body hurts today, but I am ready for more. I am thinking about going back again this weekend to the same place where they're going to construct more houses. Aaron and I both really love doing this for so many reasons (Aaron wants to try to become a "jefe de cuadrilla," or the person who leads the construction of a particular house). I can't think of another more rewarding way to spend a lot of my weekends. I couldn't possibly explain how good it felt when we had finished and let the family cut the string of inauguration for their new home. It was so surreal to think, "Wow, I just built a house. These people are going to LIVE here." It was incredible.

website for Peru photos!

fyi...this is the link to Aaron's photo storage website. There's pictures from Machu Picchu and more that I haven't been able to put up yet. Enjoy!

http://aaronrotchadl.shutterfly.com/

10K, Cuzco, and MACHU PICCHU!

Last Sunday, I ran in the Nike Human Race, a 10K race that took place in about 25 cities around the world, including Lima. In Lima alone, 8,500 runners came together to run 6.2 miles through the city. The sun was out (a rare sight in Lima), making it a wonderful day to run. We started at Parque Kennedy in the district of Miraflores, ran around the district a bit and along the Malecon (the waterfront), and finally finished back at the park. I ran an even faster time than I expected at around 47 minutes (even with stopping for a potty break at kilometer 7), although my exact results never showed up online. It was an awesome experience and I'm hoping to run at least one more race in Peru.
The past week of school was relatively uneventful. I went to class and bought and began reading a book for my literature class called Corazon tan blanco by Javier Marias (have any of my Spanish speaking readers read or heard of it?).
On Thursday, we flew out of Lima very early in the morning for Cuzco. Cuzco is a city even higher in altitude than Huaraz, my previous travel destination. It was really difficult to try to adjust to that difference. Cuzco is without a doubt the biggest tourist destination city in Peru. It is absolutely gorgeous with its mix of Inca and colonial architecture and flavor. The first day we just relaxed and walked around a bit, checking out the artisan market where I found plenty of treasures and stopping to eat at a pizzeria/peruvian food restaurant where I ate some very unsatisfying lasagna (Italian food is very popular there for some reason...not sure if this is because of tourists' likes or Italians living there). I have come to realize that the tomato sauce here is just not up to par with the stuff we have back home. In the evening, we went to a concert/demonstration of traditional music. It was really interesting to see one man play about 20 instruments and to see how passionate he was about keeping this music alive.
That night, quite unfortunately, Aaron got really sick and was up all night because of it (as was I to take care of him). We skipped out on the next day's activity with the group. The rest of the group went to a bilingual school and hung out with kids for several hours. I was pretty disappointed to miss out on this, but was definitely not feeling up to it after no sleep. Aaron felt much better by that evening and we were able to venture out for some fresh air. I was a little sad not to be able to explore Cuzco as much as I might have, but I was just happy Aaron felt good for the next day.
Saturday was completely amazing. We woke up early yet again to take a bus to the city of Ollantaybamba where we took a train to Aguas Calientes, at the base of Machu Picchu. From there we took a 20 minute bus ride up the mountain side to the entrance of the cite. I could not believe how amazing and how mysterious it all was. Machu Picchu is an Inca ruin cite about which little is still known. It was discovered in 1911 by an American explorer. No one really knows exactly when it was built, how it was built, why it was in such a remote location, what it was for, or what happened to it. We took tons of pictures (I'll put some up soon, I promise!), which all look fake, because this place is something I've only seen on postcards and calendars. I was just in awe the whole time about being there. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to see it.
We were exhausted, sunburnt, and bug-bitten at the end of the day, but still had to take the long trip back to Cuzco. We arrived back in the city by 9:30 and went out to eat at a peruvian restaurant. After that, we wanted to go out and enjoy the city's famous night life, but ended up just passing out at the hotel. The next morning we got up and enjoyed a big buffet breakfast and then returned to Lima. It was quite an eventful weekend.

More pictures

Here's some more pictures from my recent mountain trip...