just one last thing...

I just want to add a few more Chumpi Poques photos...
And that is it- no more talking about school :)

Making the decorations for the anniversary

Yovanna- in the pink shirt and blue pants, sitting on the floor

I thought this was really funny. Whenever Madalaine left the class, which was often, two girls would take a large piece of cloth, like the one they use to make their bags, only this cloth is for warmth. They would cover themselves in it, and start chatting, like they are in the their own world. 

Wilfredo, me, Yoni and Yudit. ( Me wearing Yudit's hat) :)
The hat is basically a disk, the black part on top, decorated with shiny things and threads. Then there is this piece of  cloth around it, kind of closing it in. In this case, the cloth is yellow- the cloth is the only thing separating you from the sun.

,

                                              A part of the playing ground at the bottom of the school.

More of the school. The wall at the very left side of the picture, wrapping this cement 'thing' that looks like a window- this is what Carol built. A wall of about 1m, making kind of like a box, filling it with earth and making it flat.

    
     The road going to Poques. Once when we were going up the mountain, just next to the school, the car had to stop due to eucalyptus tree being tossed onto the road. The driver BIPPED and BIPPED but more and more trees were falling down. Finally, after waiting and waiting, he decided to go and move the trees himself. The trees were blocking the whole path way, going from the mountain ( the earth to the left) all the way across to the other side of the road. The driver tried to pull the trees to the side, but they were so long, they kept on blocking the way. More and more fell. Donkeys were passing us. They could go through. We screamed- hello?!?!?! and this man and young boy came running down. They did not hear anything. They help the driver clear the road and of we went.

                                           The whiny road going up.

                       
          People live right next to their farm, regardless if there are people living close by or not.

When I decided to 'run away' , which was delayed at the end,  I decided to walk some of the way down to Lamay. By car going up and down it is half an hour. Walking, down is a lot faster but still take 1.5 hours, 2; depending on how fast you walk. I found these small path ways, and instead of going all around the mountain like the cars do, I cut through the whole valley. Poques is up up to the right. 

                Just  when that path ended, I got to the main road. So I walked on and on.

I walked about a third of the way, when a car came and I took it down. As now is the time to put the seeds in the ground- the farmers are using bulls to make pathways.

When I got to Urubamba, this man on this three-wheel bicycle was driving around screaming on his microphone sweet pears! fresh oranges! He drives on this road from town to town, selling his fruit.

the morning and saying good-bye

I have decided that that sleepover, from Thursday to Friday, will be the last time I will be going to the school. So Friday morning finally came, and I really did not know what do to. All the children went to their classrooms. I did not want to go back to the fourth-grade classroom, sit there all day, doing nothing. After everyone started their studying, I decided that I would take a few pictures around the school and run away :) :) .
As much as the teachers told me not to go away quietly, I realized, they knew that Friday would be my last day, they did absolutely nothing about it. I had brought the cake, which I decorated with Willka Tika flowers- the cake looked like one BIG flower...- and that was it. They did not bring, organize or say anything.
So I went all around the school, taking last pictures of the mountains, of Chumpi and Poques,

Yovanna's litte hut. She and Teo slept of the bed. 

Our shoes. Some of their's are not less torn than mine....

At Willy's house, eating breakfast. There really was nothing to eat except for mote which is cocked corn. The corn, because it has been drying for months, is very hard. They cook it for hours-three four at a time. But it is never enough- in my opinion. We drank barley tea which was absolutely delicious. BOILING though...

Willy's mom. I have no idea what her name is.
The ladies do everything with their hats. They keep them on both inside and outside.
When I first saw these ladies, the 'originals' walk around with no leggings or socks, I thought are they not FREEZING?!
But first of all, they are used to the cold.
Second, the day before, in 'my fourth-graders' we did some recycling plastic bottles making them into bags. All the girls knew how to knit amazingly, and very quickly too.

 Their teacher, Madalaine, said that the girls are taught to make their own clothes. Even though nowadays they mostly buy their jackets, every girl has another layer of skirt underneath her skirt, which she knits on her own. Here you can see the other layer- yellow. This helps them keep warm.

The school after Carol straightened it out. It still needs to be finished but when it will be, the students will have so much more space to play and be outside it is pretty amazing space-inconvenient they were before. It really does look good.   

Every Friday and Monday they have a gathering of all the students together. Here you see many first-graders wearing their new obligatory-
50162. Chumpi Poques hats. 

 I went behind the school and found this farm. You can see the school far away- the blue thing. Outside the school it is a different world.
Quiet- tranquilo as they say.

Chumpi over looked by the mountain. 

I walked a little further on ad to my surprise found this drop- the road. Everything is very steep- depending on each other to keep it straight.
More mountains.

                                         And walking down the road, hurrying, I saw this man.
The people up there do not use these Chinese-made half plastic bags which tare after one use. Their everyday bags are large pieces of cloth, about 1.5m on 1.5m.

They take the cloth, square, and put it on the floor. Fold two of the four opposite side on top of one-another. The two left ...

use as handles to put of the back and tie. 

                                          And continue walking....

The last thing I wanted to do before I 'escape' was take a class-picture with the fourth-graders.


That was a difficult tasks....
Took a lot longer than it should have

(Can you see their blue hats?)

When I said, let's do a class-photo, they were all like YEAHY! And I thought that it would take two minutes and that's it. But no. Half pf them, instead of coming up to the front just sat there.
Where was Madalaine you ask? She was starting getting ready, with some other teacher, the decoration of the party for Chumpi-Poques anniversary. They just spent the whole day doing that. Making decoration and marching- but that came later.

Here you see the boys going crazy. From left to right- ( I forgot his name....), ( I cannot recognize him), Andres, then going up, ( I do not know his name, he is very quiet), Wilfredo, Roger and Aparizio.

                                     It was kind of  real mess trying to bring them together.

They have both gathering of the school on Fridays, but also it is 'bring your traditional clothes day'. Here you see tiny Yudit wearing her traditional clothes. She was the girl I sat next to all these days. Next to her is Yoni, a girl and the other girl I cannot recognize...

           Finally this idea came up that to take a picture of only the girls, later the boys.

 That did not really work well either.....

Then the boys.

                              Us all together. I am next to Roger- with his plastic glasses.

                                              :) :) :) :) :) the girls are not less energetic

          

            Some, like these boys here, LOVE taking pictures. But some girls- are hiding at the back.

Remembering all the fun football games we had. Then they suddenly started waving their Peruvian flags like crazy...

I will miss them, playing football, talking. But I am happy that I left.

I did want to run away. But this picture taking took SOOO long- I went almost at the end of school.

so what happened to the cake?

The first one-
turned out like bread.

But it was actually pretty tasty. Just a sponge bread-cake. Antonia told me the recipe just off the top of her head, so I did what she told me to, but then just like that the oven turned off...
Luckily this is not one of those types of cake which take hours to make. 15 minutes. So three others and me made a new one. :)


Now the NIGHT time:

I brought marshmallows- to put over the fire.
The teacher of the third grade, Matilde, a girl from the 9th grade who I have been in contact with from the beginning Yovanna, and her best friend Teofilia- just Teo- were the only one in the school in the night time. Ho yes, there was this other teacher, her name is complicated I get it confused, Felicitad or something like that. Feliz in Spanish is happy, so her name is something happiness. But she was not very happy. She stayed in her room all the time and did not really come out until we called her again and again. So when I showed them how to do the marshmallows, they were so surprised. They said it is like honey- not really but what ever. Matilda was so surprised, laughed all the time when she put her marshmallow on fire. She ate only two or three in fire. The next morning, when she talked to the other teachers, she said that it gave her a headache. Why was she sooo excited about it that night I do not know.

The school at night time. 

Both Yovanna and Teo live on top of a mountain, a part of Poques, two hours away. Yovanna has a little house right next to the school. It is not really a house- it is basically a room. More like a storage room. She does not stay there very often- does not like it.  Both she and Teo go up the mountain everyday after school. There they have electricity, food.  The nigh when I stayed, it was only an exception because I was there, and the three of us would sleep together in that little hut. 

Right next to her house it Willy's house, a boy from the fourth grade. His family is like hers. She calls his parents uncle and aunt, and he is like her little brother. Surprisingly, she only has one older sister- usually they have five, six, seven siblings-  who has been traveling in Argentina and has just come back to Lima. Up there, some people do not even know what Cuzco is. All the white people they see, gringos, come from the United States- that is what they think. So for her sister to go out of Poques and to to other countries- is is rare. None of the Peruvian people I have met here have ever left Peru.

The girl in the orange is Teo, standing in Willy's kitchen. After we ate the marshmallows, we said good-night to the teachers, brought the mattress and blankets which Jessica has in the directory to Yovanna's house and went to Willy's for dinner.  

 Willy's parents own a shop. So that night, almost the end of the weeks, there were five or six men, celebrating the fact that they got a job by drinking chicha. They were all drunk. That was in the shop. Just around the corner is Willy's kitchen, where we went to make something to eat.
Their green kitchen.
 While we were eating leftovers, an elderly man came, drunk, and started talking to me. First in blurry Spanish but then in Quechua. All of a sudden he started crying and crying. What did I DO? Yovanna translated. He said that today he finally got a job, and decided to drink just a little bit, in honor of that fact. So my interpretation of him crying was that because he was drunk,  he thought I was some kind of priest or something, and was asking for my forgiveness.
Later on, Willy's mom threw him out. :)

 Guinea pigs. Cat. When I went to Willy's a while ago with Jessica and Liz there were chickens running all over. This this time there were no chickens. Just 'cuys' running all over, huddling in the corners, trying to get some shelter from the cold.

                 There were many cuys. In a cage, here you see them huddling together. 
 The next day I counted how many there were. There were more than 25 I am sure about that. They were just one ball it was hard to differentiate...

Dinner- we made runtus, eggs in Quechua. This white bubble on the right in the pan is the fried egg. They pure quite a lot of oil, so when the egg is pured in, it make loud noises and these huge bubbles. It was tasty. There was left over tallarin- spaghetti with this sauce. Talarin is usually made in an oven. They pure huge amounts of spaghetti with tomatoes sauce in a backing dish, over that they throw slices of egg and olives. Mix milk, water and lemon juice, pure that over, sprinkle with cheese and and cook until the cheese has melted. This massive pie-like dish comes out. It is tasty.
I do not know how they made the tallrin- they have no one. Probably just tossed everything in a pot. 

Willy and his friend were playing with these ceramic pigs and different animals. I took a picture.   Wily managed to escape. 

From left to right- Yovanna, Teo, Willy and his friend. They have no sink in the house. Just this water bottle filled with water. When we were there, it was almost empty. To clean the dishes they have this pail. Most of the dishes do not fit in there- you can see the pail by Yovanna's feet- see through plastic. They pure a little bit of water in there, and that's how they wash. They do have soap, luckily...

After we ate, we went back to Yovanna's house. I made my bed on the floor. Once the sun goes down, it is almost completely dark. When the moon is out, there is surprisingly a lot of light. But that night there was no moon. I gave Yovanna and Teo one of my three blankets. I slept in my clothes. It was pretty cold in the night...
I was happy when the morning came.
We woke up at 5:50.