Chinchero and whatevers up.

The guitar was a small traditional peruvian guitar, how could I not? Sounds like a banjo. Ragnar, back me up.


Almost now an integrated part of the rainbow center, and will definetly never get used to being called "Proffe Alex" (professor alex) by the kids. Just doesnt seem right. Been shadowing some classes and have definetly opted towards working more with the creative and sportive side of things. Worked one on one yesterday with a student called Sharon with music therapy which basically consisted of teaching her the names of the instruments and when she was allowed to play it and when she was not, a concept she seems quite challenging to grasp.

Went to the rainbow house the other day as well, was amazing to see how they live now, having their backgrounds in mind. Their excitement when you walk through the door and how badly they want to show you their room really does make you feel good about yourself. Planning on going back on saturday with danish pancakes and water balloons. Turns out february is a month of madness down here. Kids throw water at any foreigners, no mercy. Today we were chased by 10 boys with buckets of water shouting "GRINGOOOOOOS". Unfortunately for AC, I am faster meaning she got drenched and i escaped >:D

Spent today in a Kiya outreach project in a town between Urubamba and Cusco called Chinchero. We went around to families with special needs children and essentially just tried to convince them to send their kids to our school. We ran into an incident with a severely autistic boy who was just put into a small "cage" no bigger than 1 by 2 meters outside because they didnt know what else to do with him. The sister, in 4th grade, had just had her first child. The parents were more willing to send their oldest son to university in Cusco than to help their son with autism in any way possible. The boy couldnt communicate and in frustration had bite marks from biting himself. He needs physiotherapy which we can provide for free, but the parents are too suspicious of what we do. Every single house we went to had pigs, goats, cows and chickens (one with shoes! Ragnar will once again appreciate!). Not exactly the most hygienic living conditions, and it was definetly an eye opener to see how bad poverty can actually be down here.

On a totally different note, we are becoming extremely cheap. When we first got here, 6 soles (12 kroner) seemed amazingly cheap for an hour of taxi, but now we seem to hesitate at paying 1 sol for a bottle of water for example. Parents, this is your time to be proud.

Finally, we are just getting used to the height. In Chinchero today, at 4000 meters, a 10 meter walk uphill caused your heart to beat and break a sweat. It feels like your heart is swollen and is really quite unpleasant. Here in Urubamba, lower down, it is really not that bad anymore and we can barely even feel it.

Thats all for now, thanks for the comments :-)

Alex