Hola amigos! Last night was a very interesting night. A local Shaman came to the school to perform a Despatcho ceremony. We spent THREE hours in a classroom going through the Despatcho. We were given leaves, other grains and seeds to give as an acknowledgement of the Earth as our mother and for the betterment of the human race. He told each of us what he saw in our future and then we wrapped our despatcho up and set it on fire, while the Shaman blessed it. It was an extremely long ceremony, but it was very interesting. Our family stayed up waiting for us to get back for dinner after the ceremony. We stayed at the table talking for hours and then all of our family’s relatives came over to meet us. We spent our last night dancing and singing with our family, and then Zac, Zach, and Clay came over to help us pack. We woke up and had our last bread, butter, and jelly breakfast. Our father, Carlos, walked us to the school with all of our bags and told us goodbye. We then played with all of the children until they called us all around for a farewell ceremony. The kids had prepared songs and dances that they performed for us all. The kids were adorable and the traditional dances were fun to watch. The kids all dressed up in traditional dress and told us how much they appreciated us being there. After the ceremony, all of our families brought us lunch to the school and we ate our last meal with our families. Our three little sisters were very upset that we were going to have to leave, but we had to say our goodbyes and then we finally headed to Ollantaytambo. We are now all in our hostel and rested. We’re going to miss our homestay families a lot, but meals without potatoes and real showers are much appreciated.
Mary Morgan
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