This week - it is almost as if I returned to school

Instead of going three times to school this week, I will be going four.
The week has just started and after being sick on the weekend, my strengths are renewed too.
This morning, I was tilting more in the direction of against going to school because it was one of these nights, laying in complete darkness, my brain  would not stop working, and so I got very very very little sleep- which I LOVE and misse dearly.
I put all my energy together and was almost late for the bus...

But I am very happy I went.

The class I spend most time in and the one that really gives me the feeling no ones is scared of me- except for this one boy- is the 4th graders. I have kind of invaded their class, not really with their teacher's permission. I just ask her if I can join, she always mumbles something but I go in anyway. I sit next to Judith

She must be the tiniest girl in the class. I just sat next to here; it was the only free space in the class.

Now that I think about it, it may be the perfect solution for the teacher, Madalaine, who is more than lazy. As we all 'climb' the mountain together with the help of the bumpy road,she has no excuse saying she has problems with her car. But she always comes at least 5 minutes late to class in the beginning of the day. Today she came 15 minutes late, and Jessica, the head mistress had to leave her first graders, and tell me to take the class up to the computer room and just do something with them. Madalaine came 10 minutes later, explaining that the normal woman who cooks lunch for the children, one of the mom's from Poques, is not coming to school today, and that she had to cook. If I would have that excuse for my teachers, they would say- is there NO ONE who can help you? You have a class waiting! (She doesn't see that. Ho well...)
In the computer room with the class and her it was not too great because she doesn't really know what to do and when I try and explain to her she look at me as if I fell from hell. When she arrived, I asked her what their class was, she said, ho I don't know. All those weeks together we did maths and now she doesn't know??                                                     She FINALLY left to some other place and I showed small groups of children how to draw shapes in paint- they are doing fractions now- and cut them into the the desired amount, colour some parts...
Then very quickly the lesson was over and we went down stairs- where their class room is.
Two American ) I think) 16-year-olds stay in Poques for two months- how they don't go crazy that is a mystery to me- but they came to the school a few weeks after I did and they go to each class of the primary, six, and teach them something about health, cleanliness, and maybe other things but I don't really know. They are not allowed to leave the community nor walk through it into the further-away sections.
They had a short class TRYING to teach the class about food. They told each child to draw their favorite fruit and put in on the board in the 'goods' or 'bads' section and tried to explain in their very American Spanish what to do. It was quite funny.
It was probably mean but after they left both Madalaine and I had to laugh very hard. America's trying to speak Spanish in a very strong American accent does NOT work very well.
After that I had a great time with the class in the break. There is a group of five or six boys who I always play football with, other classes also mix, and we made jokes and were just free. They have so much energy to run around at that height. After about 45 minutes of playing very hard I really need a break. They just continue.

This was before school started so only very few children were playing outside. I was too tired from my sleepless night I just watched.


Peruvian girls are quite sneaky. At all ages. They manage to stare at me from the most uncomfortable angels and a very long time.

I caught them this time.

The reason WHY I am going four and not three times to the school is because tomorrow- Wednesday- is a big party at another community situated at the mountain opposite of Chumpe Poques. The community, Huama, also has a school, run by Jessica's husband Richard.
The party is something like the founding day - or something- of Huama. It is (hopefully) going to be very colourful. I wonder how similar it will be to
Snor Torrachallo's birthday...

Returning to Machu Picchu's birthday- with a little round-about ___ 50126 School

Finally I have decided to give you some information about the school:

I go up to the school three times a week- Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, situated between two little villages Chumpe and Poques- Poques is actually very big, in a sense of stretching hours into the mountains.
Surprisingly and sometimes even thankfully, I have only gone twice fully the three days- they have a teacher's day like yesterday, and day for the teachers to play volleyball- tomorrow is the second time this week; they decide not to have school on those days.

But the days when I DO go to school I have to wake up at 5:15, leave at ten to 6 , take a bus from Urubamba leaving at 6:10. There I meet Jessica, the principle and her sister Liz and very often Jessica's husband Richard ( quite the opposite of Peruvian names, no?) who is also a principle of a school but one situated on the mountain over looking Chumpe and Poques, a community called Huama. I have talked to both Jessica and Richard and they have agreed that next week either Thursday of Friday I can go to Huama. But anyway, we take a bus to a little city, on the way to Pisaq, there is only one road, for 50minutes/ one hour and get off in Lamay. There we have to wait until 7:30- if we are lucky it's less than 30 minutes, until the rest of the teachers who come from the bottom gather and we all take a car up up to Chumpe Poques, 30/40 minutes on a dirt road. We are lucky if we are only seven that day, but it has only happened once since I have gone up- forth week now. A record ( I have counted ) 11 grown-ups, including myself, and a baby. I never understand how these round Peruvians managed to squish two in the front next to the driver, four in the back and 3, 4 grownups in the very back with their big stinky sacks. With children it's more than a double more.
So we drive this winy road up up, passing houses, children walking to school, grown- up going to work working in the fields with their cows, donkeys, pigs, sheep.
Then we get to Poques.

These are the mountains over looking the school. There look very brown here. In real life they are mostly green and yellow, and yes, brown. This building contains two classrooms- first and second. To the right is the main building and to the left is a part of the play-ground, exit, library, toilet....

Inside the class- fourth grade- situated in the main building. Very often, it's mostly the boys, they have traditional hats, and the girls have these cheap Chinese ones. No one has here...

 

In the computer room- that's supposed to be my main job, even though it is more complicated than is sounds; this breaks down, missing, does not work....

Here the fourth graders- I think- are quite lucky because they have lower tables. They are some other children that have a hard time looking up at the screen.

I will put some more picture on later- my computer just breaks down suddenly and it takes me HOURS to do everything again...

Ho yeah, about the birthday. Today there is supposed to be a huge party in
Aguas Calientes, and probably many many tourists. Some children had no school in Urubamba today. When I returned from the school today, Antonia- one of the workers- asked me if I had eaten a cuy- guinea pig. They grow guinea pigs at home, 10, 15, 20, for months. Then, on a special occasion, eat them all. I did have one at the school two weeks ago, the day before a holiday for a Cuzco area, including Pisaq, Lamay, Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu, the famous Incan festival, Inti Raymi.  But THAT's another story for another time.

Machu Picchu's 100th birthday

100 years ago today, an American researcher, Hiram Bingham the 3rd, 'rediscovered' Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was built in the 1450s but abandoned in 1572 due to the Spanish Conquest. It was officially rediscovered on the 7th of July 1911 by the American explorer. However, people do believe that other people have been to the sight before Hiram and after the Conquest.

Leaving out the rest of the world;
But according to the Peruvians, it was discovered today 100 years ago.

All the past week I have noticed people putting the mountain in their everyday lines- Luisa's son had to research about it, yesterday I went to their house and we talked about it; so even the people who have never been or have but years ago, think it's an incredible discovery.  

CHANGE OF TOPIC- I will come back to this later...

Yesterday:
On Wednesdays is market day in Urubamba- not that there is no market everyday, but on Wednesdays people from Cuzco come and sell mostly electronic devices.

Fruit/food section.

 I was wondering whether the two white hats the lady was wearing were for sale, or she didn't realize she put two hats on in the morning or just for fashion.

 I went with Livio- you can see him in the blue jacket- to Urubamba to get some fruits and vegetables.

On market day these rows of ladies sit all around the market place- which is quit big- and sell their goods.

 A lady forgot her hat or had none to buy one so she used her broccoli leaves for protection- doesn't the leaf look as if it's starting to lose its water?



My original plan of the day was to go with Livio to the market and then go to Luisa's house and hang around there- we had not had any contact the whole week and I wanted to see if everything was ok- and also het out of Willka Tika.
But Luisa called and said that she wouldn't be home that day because it was 'teacher's day' so everyone had free and she wasn't sure if she would be home.
But we ran into her, her son, sister and her son in the market- next to the brcocoli lady.

 I have had better visits to her house- here it is- it was quit boring. They watched TV most of the time- even though the food was very good.

Me returning to Willka Tika- this is their street- their house is at the very very back.