THE COMPUTER ROOM

When my dad suggested, and I agreed, that I will help with the computers, I had absolutely no idea that it would turn out the way it did. One might think that working with the younger ones, first and second graders will be easier- doing easy things. And anyway, why do first and second graders start dealing with computers? The whole thing is their size. They have to stretch their necks and still are barely able to see anything...

The 1st graders. Don't they look peaceful? Especially the girls? With their colourful ponchos, hats and skirts...




In real life, they are the most work.
They are just vicious.
The boys are a picnic compared to them. 

Everybody together. There are more computers on the left side of the room. 


The beginning of the lesson;
about 50 pairs of legs run at full speed into the room, crashing into ... everything.
They sit themselves in pair or triplets around one computer, their feet dangling while they stretch their heads to get a better look t the black screen.
As I switch the computers on, they make a loud BIP sound. Because there are many all in a row there are about 10 or 15 BIPS right after each other. Very often there are more, because the children like to press on that button with their knees again and again.
What the teachers of both the 1st and the 2nd graders always do with their students in the computer lesson is the program PAINT. Always the same. Draw a wasi- house. A maki- hand.
These children barely understand any Spanish so the whole lesson is in Quechua, which sounds like Japanese mixed with Arabic.

 So let me explain what the boys do;
The boys both speak and understand more Spanish than the girls, making them talk to me more. While I am still turning on the computers, one or two boys come up to me, their computer has already been put on, and say over and over again- Ayuda me! Ayuda me! - help me! help me!
I say, one moment, let me just put o the computer and then I will come.
I turn around to switch on the computer- five little voices scream Ayuda me! AYUDA me!
These boys are so small, when I try to move them aside I have to be careful not to step on them.

 The computers have all been put on, and now I have to go and open the PAINT program in all of them. I have no idea where the teacher went to ...
Both the computers and the program are on and working and I go and see if anyone needs help. The second the boys see me looking around the class, about one from each computer gets up, marches in my direction ayuda me! ayuda me!! One of them starts pulling my pants in the direction of his computer- they all start pulling some part of my clothes. Ayuda me! Necesito ayuda! Patting on my back. Ven Aka! - come here.
I go to one of them. What is the problem?
I don't know how to erase. 
But I have showed you last lesson.
I don't know how to move the mouse.
Cannot he next to you help you?       The one next to him looks blindly at me, not even listening to what I am saying.
When I try to show him he takes the mouse away, him hands are filled with mud and unwashed food-rests.
I go to the next computer. What is the problem?
Borrador- eraser.
Here look. Take the mouse up here...         The one from the computer I just helped starts pulling my clothes. Borrador! Borrador!

I wonder HOW these kids ever learn something. But to tell you the truth, SOME of them, can actually DRAW something. I don't know what difference they have in their brains, but there is at least one boy in each class who sits the WHOLE lesson on his chair and manages to draw a duck.

Now the girls...
Every time I come to help a computer where girls sit, I know that I will have to change something on that computer.
Let me give you an example.
Two girls are sitting in front of this computer. Both the computer and the program are on, working well. The girls just sit there. Don't take the mouse, or the keyboard. Just sit and stare at the whitens of the screen.
I ask them- do you not want to draw?
They look at me and start laughing their heads off, covering their faces with their skirts.
Do you not want to draw?
They laugh even louder.
I go to the next computer.

One girl is taking control of the moue, the other stares at her friend on the other side of the room.
The girl taking control of the mouse is holding it upside-down, not understanding why she cannot draw. I show her and ask her neighbor why she does not participate in drawing. The girl just looks at me. I ask again, do you not want to draw?
She just stares. I give her the mouse, she does not take it. I start drawing a house, she just looks at the screen. Just watching. Her friend has had enough, take the mouse and holds it upside-down again.
Not the next table.
These two girls, almost climbing on the table the computer is on, one is tapping like crazy on the keyboard while the other one is 'taking care' of the mouse. I look at the screen. Something is wrong.
Both of these girls have managed to close the pain program, open every OTHER program on the computer, including those ' an error has occurred' AND manged to switch the preference of the screen from being vertical to horizontal.
I have no idea how to do that...
I just look away, go to another computer and let the teacher deal with it- who has come back from the dead :) .

Sometimes girls get their own computer. But they do not USE this chance of being alone and work more. They work less. Does not matter what I say, I really do not think they understand, they blank blick. I go the teacher and ask her if she could maybe to this girl in Quechua, explain to her.
The teacher says, ho THAT girl. Yeah, she is a lost cause. She goes to her, says something in Quecha and smacks her butt. The girl just sits there.
A lost cause.

 

On Thurdsay, most of the children wore their traditional clothes and not their normal gray uniform because a large group of about 30 Dutch students has come to visit. The whole day the whole school got ready. Classes were stopped after less than one hour, and no one really knew when these 'gringos' will be coming. They picked flowers, put out chairs

 and even organized  play. 


Here you can see them, in front of the classrooms of the 5th and 6th graders.
Some children wear their traditional clothes on a regular bases, but that is only the minority.

                                                         The actors.

 And the play started...
I asked the teachers if they knew how old these students are, if they speak Spanish. They just said yes yes. But of course, it was a no no. They had no idea how old or how many they were. None of them spoke Spanish. Any of them barely spoke English.
This massive group of white white very tall young students, between the ages of 16 and 20 came up through the entrance-door of the school, more than an hour after the classes were finished. All the younger students from Chumpi Poques ran to them, with flowers in their hands. These Dutch students, mostly girls, looked very pale, cold and out of breath. Their hands were full of huge backpacks, and they did not look very happy, I can tell you that. The sun was shining and it was pretty warm, but they huddled together on the chairs put out to them, not really talking. Jessica welcomed them all in Spanish, only to realize that they understood absolutely NOTHING. They had about 2 or 3 Dutch guides with them, who also did not speak Spanish, 2 Peruvian guides and a huge staff, of about 7 people making their food. They were planning on spending two nights- what they brought with them, the local people could not even dream of having in the homes; gas stoves, pasta, jam, bread, potatoes, apples, things to make pancake and hot chocolate.
When Jessica realized they did not understand anything, she asked me to come and translate. When I did so, their puzzled face-expression did not change. Only when one of their guides translated into Dutch did they smile- but just a bit. 
The whole school was gather around these 'gringos', leaving a large space for the 'show'.

One of the girls looking out of the circle. In the middle of the show, the Dutch people decided to show us something and they did  little dance. They ALL had EXACTLY the same pants on- with variation of colour, gray, black, brown and green. 

Two first graders watching the show.

Their sandals. That is how they walk around, in rain, mud and sunshine.

One day about a month and a half ago, it was a very cold and wet week. The clouds were all down, covering the mountains almost totally. The farmers had a rough time because at that time they left their corn to fry so that it could be planted in this time. But with constant rain for a week, most of it got bad. Down in the valley it was warmer than up there. One day, it started raining harder than usual. It then turned to hail and then to snow. It has not snowed in Chumpi Poques in a period of more than 10 years. The students came to school in their regular clothes. Ooooo, that day, it was really very cold. I do not want to think how these children suffered- their feet frozen. Luckily the snow only stayed on during the morning, and later melted away.

On good sunny days, the children run up the small hill to the kitchen, with their red bowls, to get lunch. They sit and eat outside. Lunch is actually really tasty- rice with lentils and potatoes, sometimes soup  with potatoes, rice and a taste of fish. When it is raining and the weather is bad, they all huddle under the roofs or stay in the classrooms.
There is just one problem with lunch. The moms of the community have to come and cook for the whole school. One or two make these huge pots. However, what happened this week was that no mom wanted to come and cook, so the children did not get anything to eat all day. Some of them have to walk up to two hours to get to the school, and only get dinner late, when their parents come back with the sheep and llamas.
Somehow they survive. They have- and they will.

It's actually CHUMPI not CHUMPE

Everyone who has ever given me information about Chumpi Poques has always said Chumpe, Chumpe. It was only yesterday, or the day before that, that I was looking at pictures of different schools with Empe, schools the Willka Tika Foundation has helped, did she make me realize there has been a mistake. Not a big one, but still, I was telling everyone about the community Chumpe Poques. Chumpe does not exist. Maybe there is a community, on different mountain, region of Peru.
Anyway, my point IS:
Please fix in your memory and change the "e" at the end of the first word to an "i". Maybe this will help...
In Peru, Hadar Zaslansky has helped in a community, in the middle of nowhere in the Anden mountains, called CHUMPI Poques.
I think Chumpi sounds a lot more Anden-like, Quechuan, than CHUMPE.

No??

I went into the dirección- Leherezimmer and found this- the "6" from the name of the school 50162 has fallen down- I would say it's very Peruvian to leave the things that fall down but I guess other countries would do the same...

 LAMAY- this is where we stand and wait for the car taking us up to Chumpi Poques. School just started again  this week after a two-and-a-half-week holiday, marking the middle of the year. They only have that one holiday during the school year; their summer holidays is 2-3 months.
So after we came back from the holiday, the time of the school moved up 15 minutes- from 8 in the morning until one in the afternoon. Good thing for us, we only have t wait until 7:15 to take the car up, not all the way until 7:30.
On the first day back at school, I asked Liz,
why have the times changed?      
A WEIRD reason- the cold.

The sun and does go up more and warms up more in 15 minutes, but not THAT much...
They have their reasons...

These are the kind of cars we go up and down in. They look really small here for some reason...

I have a record of how many grownups we were once in there- guess.

13

It was very uncomfortable- I can tell you that at least... 

How did 13 grownups fit in there you ask?

5 in the very back, 4 sitting comfortably on the three-er place, me kvetching between their legs and the 2 seats in the front, two in the front and the driver.

BUT that is my record with only grownups. When I went with Antonia's family to the

¡jungle! Quillabamba :D Mandor- Pockomocko really...

(I made it :D :)!! The really very amazing- but that's a different story for a different time)

So there once we were

16 - SIXTEEN people. 10 grownups- including me- and 6 children.

For reason there I was really very comfortable- I sat in the very very back, on a sack of... potatoes? or bananas? something.

 Back to Poques- I have been getting on best with the 4th graders. They have welcomed me and I play with a group of 5 or 6 boys football all the time. the girls are too scared...
I bought this pair of earrings, a man and a woman, made out of glue and thread. Whenever I wear them, everyone, grownups included, say
how cute!
 But the children, go CRAZY. They start laughing loud, pointing, touching. They can't stop starring at them. The fourth-graders joke it's my parents. They say- your parents are hungry!
I have the same kind of people but on a pin on my jacket. They found it today. They head of the man fell with his green hat. They said- your father is headless!
Here you see one of the boys- Willy holding "my parents" up. He may be the smartest one in the class.

Poques- Chumpi does not have a sign because it is so small... 

The school. The primary- 1st- in blue building to the left on the left. 2nd, next to the 1st. 3rd- the big blue building, bottom floor to the left. 4th grade next to that. 5th and 6th are both in the building here kind of hidden away- to the right of the picture, on the platform. The secondary 7th, 8th and 9th are on the second and third floor. The computer room is on the third floor to the right.

The yellow building  is the toilet. STINKY.

The library is to the very very back. They complain how the do not have enough books, but the books they have in the library are never used. 

..........??

Starting again- but this time, hopefully succeeding...

I have been very bad with writing this blog... BUT its not entirely my fault. Things are just starting to fall apart here. My computer with ALL my photos has decided to put himself on a very long time-out.
I was writing this entry, very long, with pictures, descriptions, took me almost 2 hours, then BAM. The whole thing just shut down, and I was unable to put it on again.
So here I am trying to start again- sadly without the pictures...

So... Chumpe Poques.
The computer room.

I go to the school three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to help the primary with their computer work. It's supposed to be help for the teachers, but it doesn't turn out that way...

So going back back to my very first day going to the school- two weeks after I got to Willka Tika.
I woke up in the middle of the night, 12:30, but was unable to fall asleep again. 1:30, 2 in the morning. 3 more hours until I have to wake up, and start getting ready for school.
4:45 - I decided to get up and start getting ready. I went to the school a few days before that. Everyone warned me of how called it was going to be. We got there, we were so much closer to the sun it was a lot warmer. It was extremely warm. So me, not really thinking, thought that the temperature early in the morning will be the same as in the middle of the day. Did not put many layers on, and ... my flip flops.
I had to meet Jessica at 6 at the bus station in Urubamba, 2km away from Willka Tika, and to get there I either have to walk half an hour or take a "tuktuk" or a public car taking passengers all around the Sacred Valley. In the day time there is surprisingly a lot of traffic, but at 6 in the morning, very little. So I decided to leave at 5:30, giving me enough time to catch come kind of transportation. It was very dark, the sun did not come out yet, the air was very fresh, everything quiet, still sleeping.

The sky at 5:40, everything beneath- darkness. Every single moment later, a little lighter. And at 6, completely day time.








So I go out, go to the road, waited two minutes and a car came- what luck.
As I was new I knew how much the trip was, but I asked anyway. The driver said three soles- it is actually one. But I didn't argue.
I got to Urubamba in 10 minutes, and had to wait 20. It was very beautiful seeing the mountains light up, especially Chicon, a mountain right behind Urubamba, the tallest one of all, filled with snow.

In the day time: up above the Sacred Valley, Urubamba is right in the gap between the road and Chicon, down at the bottom. Willka Tika is to the left. Chicon is a name given to both the big green mountain and the white one behind it.

So Chicon was lighting up, and I started feeling my feet get colder and colder. 6 finally arrived and Jessica and her younger sister Lis came, both teaching at the school. 

I found out the bus leave sat 6:10, 10 more minutes to wait. We got on the bus and started driving in the direction of Lamay. If the bus drives quickly, it's 50 minutes, if not, it's longer. We got to Lamay. Got off the bus and just stood n the middle of the road going into Lamay. I asked, why aren't we go up?

We have to wait here half an hour, for all the other teachers to come. WHAT? I was.... a bit shocked. Half an hour? They just don't explain anything, and laugh at me when I ask. 

So we waited. And waited. The teachers came, three of them, each one of them looking at my feet, smiling and asking are you ... not COLD?

We got into a car, supposed to take us up. Four of us squished in the three seat in the back, and two in the front seat, and driver. A bumpy ride. On whiny dirt roads. 

We got the school, two teachers stay in the school, their houses are too far away, and the other three sometimes squish with us or get up with motorbikes.

The sun decided to hide behind the clouds that day, and the teachers were taking out their jackets and blankets which they keep for cold day. They took me to the directory took these tiny shoes out, to see if they fit. No. My feet were never that cold before. I could not feel them anymore. It was really very cold. They gave me these two tiny baby socks, and I was surprised how much they helped. Then later a jacket. I was very great full. I have no idea how the children go to school all year round in sandals and thin Chinese clothes.  Somehow they manage.

School started at 8:15. It was 8:30. The kids were in the classes, the teachers doing their thing. 

So I asked Jessica, she was really the only knew, what can I do? She said, the fourth graders, and gave me the key to the computer room. I opened it, put the computers on and the children slowly started getting in. UUU they STANK- like mud, chickens, guinea pigs, unwashed hands and of have never-taken-a-shower. Their teacher came in. And just stood there. I asked here, emmm what are they supposed to do?? She said, ho. I don't know. I was, a surprised. OK. What lesson do they have now? Math, she said. I asked, why don't they do something in Math then. What is there? she asked. 

A bit later we opened on each computer the calculator and did multiplication problems. It was quite funny how into the whole thing they were. 

I asked when the break was- at 10:15 until 10:45 she said. 10:15 came and they all ran out. I had to put everything back in place....... 

Breakfast was served. A white-yellowish hot drink and a bread in a plastic bag- with GOVERNMENT PROJECT FOR ALL PERU written on it. 

The drink was warm and sweet but not too incredibly tasty. The bread was ... bread. Now I understood why EACH child has at least 2 black, rotten teeth- the sugar in the drink.

It was 11- still outside playing happily. 

Next lesson. The 5th graders. I went to their classroom, thinking that I finally started understanding how the school works. 

The teacher said, children follow... What's your name? 

Hadar.

Ho. OK. Follow her then.

We went up, I opened the door, they sat down. Teacher? 

I asked one of the students, where is the teacher?

Ho SHE. She is not here today.

What? She was just there!

No no. She is not here today.

............................................

What are you supposed to do? What lesson do you have now?

Communication

What's that?

They weren't very helpful. So I decided, if the thing with the calculators worked well with the fourth graders, we will do the same thing but with bigger number. That was the worse idea. Each one of them wanted to know if the answer to the task I wrote on the board was right. How was I supposed to know what 4568x789 is? I had no computer. No paper. I went outside to see where their WEIRD teacher left to... Two students from the class were outside, playing football. Hello?? Come back. 

They did.

From then on, a group of about 7 boys decided to "have some fun". Each one of them, in his turn, sometimes two or three, started sneaking outside, with a HUGE smile on their face. It was not enough me telling them come back. I had to drag them in. 

My Spanish was really not that good then.... so I started cursing them in Hebrew. 

On the way back down in the car I asked, where was their teacher?

The teachers said, she went to Cuzco. Her dad died, she had to go get flowers.

We got down and Lis and I went to wait for the bus. Jessica had to go to a town called Calca, for some meeting. We waited. Waited. Waited. 1 hour.

Nothing.

Lis said, that's weird. Why is there no bus? I have a meeting in Urubamba at 3 o'clock. It Almost 2:30. 10 minutes later a bus came. STUFFED. There was realy no place. The door literally did not close. 

I told Lis, I'll wait for the next bus. You go.

So she did.

I waited half an hour more and a bus came. I got to Urubamba at 4, and met one of Willka Tika's staff, Arturo. He was looking for me.

We go to Willka Tika. Carol was angry with me. 

Why did you come so late? You were supposed to be here by 3!

Then she started explaining...:

Lis got on the bus, and called her sister,  telling her that I did not want to enter the bus and that I was still in Lamay. Jessica called her husband, telling him to go to the bus station in Urubamba to look for me. He waited a long time, saying that many buses arrived, but that I was on none of them. He some how got the information that I got into a white car in Lamay and called Carol, telling her that I was lost. Carol sent Arturo to look for me in Urubamba, saying that she wouldn't start worrying until he came back without me. 

And he found me.

I explained what REALLY happened and it was all forgotten, as if nothing had happened.

Nothing HAD happened.

I.E. 50161 Huama

I have not written for a very long time. Now I have a lot of information to share.
A LOT. Here we go...

I didn't quiet understand why I went to the community of Huama on Wednesday the 13.7.2011. No one bothered to explain me. Only at the end did I understand what the fuss and organization was about. The official 50th anniversary. The whole morning was put into planning the event, where most of the residents of Huama, a few hundreds, were supposed to attend. The space where the celebration took place was the main square; a large open space outside, surrounded by houses and a few shops. As I went with Richard, the principle of the school, I saw the celebration from their point of view. A free day from school. All the children wore their best school-uniforms, cleaned and tidied themselves. The community of Huama is a lot more organized than Chumpe Poques, with the help of a church, built right next to the school. Most of the grown-ups speak both Quechua and Spanish, all the children have school-uniforms and are a lot cleaner. The community has microphones, loud-speakers, street-lights, musical instruments, chairs and many other things.

Huamian school children slowly gathering to to go together to the celebration.

A secondary class-room

A picture of some of the houses. The school is just behind and the celebration just up the road.
  Colorful flags decorating the streets.

 The main square. You can see Richard on the left, with his back to us. The house in the background, with all the chairs, is the center of the celebration.

                                     School girls enjoying their freedom.

    


Getting ready......

                             Some birds are resting, getting ready to party...

                                          Marking marching lines

                                            Going back to the school:
                      more and more students are gathering, getting ready to go.

                                                Happy day of Huama

I don't think I have ever seen so many  Monopolies. Richard said the children never play; 1. The game lasts for days on end. 2. The streets are American, the money, dollars. They don't feel as if this is their game.

 Carol also helps this school when there are money problems- computer room.

This little house is the kitchen. One of the secondary teachers is helping her students with their hair.

                                        The band is getting ready to play

 The whole school lining up, getting ready to go. The band is at the very front,  wearing white t-shirts.

                                The students marching on the white lines.

             Even though all of Huama was supposed to attend, less than half did...

There is a clear difference between the weaving in Huama and the weaving in Chumpe Poques. In Huama they can allow themselves to buy factory-made wool, with artificial colours- brighter. In Chumpe Poques they have red, blue, green, but not as bright as this...

 Students watching the celebration from above.

For me, this was the best part of the celebration.
It was a very religious one. The priest from Lamay came and preached for hours. Everyone had to stand, the lucky ones sat, in the boiling sun. The priest preached in Spanish and from time to time switched to Quechua. His Quechua was terrible. Even I can say that. He read everything out of a book and when he and his Huamain helper sang in Quechua, each one trying to sing louder than the other on the microphone. The priest sometimes got stuck on the words, they are VERY long, so everyone, the music and helper,  had to stop, wait for him to say the word and continue.
So when they FINALLY finished, this group of six men, dressed in traditional Huamian clothes did a little dace. The person in the dress- is a man. He was hilarious. He did silly dancing which was perfect for this very heavy, boring ceremony. He and the other man above him, with the gray jacket, did a little show together, the man-dressed-as-a-lady dominating it. At the end, the man in the dress picked up 'her husband' and walked out of the center.

 Standing in the boiling sun, the band played surprisingly little, and any kind of organization in Huama did a proud 'victory lap', marching very seriously.


Richard said that not many people attended because the community is split into two. The other part of the community, the one without the church, celebrates their own anniversary in September.

On the road, the turning point between Poques and Huama- on opposite         mountains.

               Poques to the right, Huama to the left and Lamay straight down.

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.