Marco's birthday and Chinchero

Another update!

Marco's birthday yesterday went really well. After school, Alex and I went to buy him a present - a schoolbag, a cap and a volleyball. And, because we thought he ought to have a piece of his favourite cake, one of those as well. Ended up giving about 80kr in total.
We went to dance with the kids because Marco wanted to listen to his favourite song "te amo", so we played "stopdans" a couple of times. Good fun!
When we finished playing, it was time for some cake - the substitute mother had made a massive cake for all of us. We had to give Marco his presents first, though. His face turned into one massive smile when he saw the piece of cake we'd brought him, and was about to get up and thank all of us, when we told him we had more. Seeing the bag, he was almost smiling to much to be able to say "gracias profes", and was about to get up again when we told him to open the bag and wee what was inside - the volleyball and the cap. He thanked us all like a million times and wore the cap and the bag immediately. It was amazing to see how happy a 15-year old boy can get when having a 80kr birthday present - at home, he probably would have been asking where in the bag his iPod was...

This morning I went to Chinchero with Becky and Mary. Got there at 9 and waited an hour and a half before any kids showed up - apparently the kids couldn't get to school because of the rain, imagine how that would be at home... :D
Becky and Mary helped out with class, and I went with Iris and Miguel to Proyecta de Vida. We went to visit some families whose kids were at school. In Chinchero, the outreach project is about teaching the parents how to improve their lives and the lives of their children. They've been going to the houses before and told the parents to make their houses better, and if they improved, the would get some food from Kiya Survivors. The first house we visited was the house of a boy called Carlos, who lives alone with his mother and grandmother because his dad left them. They have no toilet and share a tiny room with a stove and two beds. However, the mother had made a great effort to improve the house, so she got some pasta, breakfast and milk, and she was so happy.

Afterwards we went to the house of Alex and Martin, two little boys attending the school in Chinchero. They have two sisters attending a regular school, and they all sleep in the same bed with their mother. Imagine 5 people in a bed for 1! Their dad left them for another woman long time ago, and so Alex, about 7 I'd think, is the man of the house, in charge of everything with the house and the bit of farming they have.
However, the mother was not home, probably because she had heard the car coming and left because she didn't want to talk to Iris since the house looked the same as last time they were there.

We went back to Chinchero, dropped Iris off and then I went back to Urubamba with Miguel. It's a 40 minute drive from Chinchero to Urubamba, and I thought it was going to be boring sitting in the car with the driver and PE teacher of the school, but I actually managed to have a bit of a conversation with him in Spanish. AND! I got to drive the van!!!!!! I drove from about ten minutes outside Urubamba on the small mountain roads that leads to the town, in a van with breaks that do not work properly and where it is almost impossible to change gears. It was so funny though, and when we got into Urubamba, Miguel spotted the police and told me to stop, 'cause I didn't have my license with me. Good thing I just managed to pull over and switch places with Miguel, wouldn't have liked to be caught by peruvian police...

Tomorrow a new volunteer is arriving, and we'll be 5 in the house. It'll be great! Alex is missing some male company though, so he¡s looking forward to the arrival of CIS.