Peru - Day 6

I have tried to start this blog 4 times but I'm SOOOO exhausted. Hopefully 5th time is a charm...

We ended up having 22 people today. We got quite a bit of work done although the stable didn't get finished. It was amazing to watch the work on it though. Many of our people carried down these enormous logs to make the posts for the stable. They dug the post holes with a cup...yea, a cup. It took forever. And then they just made mortar with mud and hay and whatever else was laying around. Just getting the logs down from the main square to the place where they were building the stable was SOOO hard and took forever. So we didn't even get the slats up on the top or anything. But the man who lived there came up to me afterward and thanked us for all the work we put in and said he could have never gotten those posts down there. He probably said Gracias about 50 times. We left the other supplies so he could finish it on his own. So that turned out pretty well.

Carrying one of many mama-huge logs down to the stable.

However, we did finish the greenhouse. Woo hoo! It took many ladder holders, me included (remember the crappy ladders?), and two very able men to pull it off but we finished it. It took most of the day but everyone was pleased with the results.

Woo hoo...the green house with a new roof!

The kids played a lot with all of us today too and we handed out so much stuff today...candy, cookies, more blankets, crayons, coloring books, sidewalk chalk (they have a cement courtyard in the school), toys, balloons, tons of stuff. I handed out about 12 of my crocheted flowers over the last couple of days and it was fun to see them wearing them again today!

Loved this girl in this pretty lace dress that was SO dirty and the bare feet.

Loved this little guy standing in line for the toys.

So that was our last day in the village. It was definitely the most tiring day for me. The stable project was at the very bottom of the village and the greenhouse at the top so I kept going back and forth to see how things were going everywhere and...well...12,500 feet is not my friend after today! I'm so exhausted but it was so much fun and as we were leaving today, I was kind of sad. I'm so glad I have tons of pictures to remember it by.

I snapped these next 2 on the bus ride down the mountain. Loved this lady sitting here taking in the scenery while her sheep grazed.

Pictures really don't do it justice. It was so beautiful and green.

Tonite, since the conference is over and humanitarian is over, we went to this really cool restaurant with 3 course meals and a dinner show. We were also celebrating 4 birthdays and Janine and Steve's engagement. It was really fun to just relax, eat good food, and enjoy some authentic entertainment.

I've also had a couple of fun things to eat in the last two days. People here raise guinea pigs and eat them. So last night, a guy in our group ordered Cuy (guinea pig) and of course I had to try it. It wasn't bad...kinda like chicken but a little more oily. Then tonite they were serving alpaca (like a llama) and I snuck a bite from someone. It was pretty good too. However, I really miss my thirstbuster!

Trying a little guinea pig.

So tomorrow we take a city tour of Cusco and then just take a daypack with a change of clothes and head to the sacred valley overnight. There are awesome ruins there which I'm excited to see. Needless to say, I'm not taking my laptop with me on my trek through the ruins. I'm leaving it here at the hotel so I'll have to catch up in a couple of days! Night night...