Day 3

Today in Piscacucho the Global Citizenship Team, along with members of the World Leadership School, worked on our project at the local school. When we first arrived at the school we had to wait for other members of our group so we formed a circle and did stretches to wake us up. When everyone finally arrived we walked into the school yard with Blair, the Project Coordinator, and he introduced us to the assignments we are supposed to accomplish in our time here. Then we were split into four separate teams to finish our project easier. Mr. Mercer divided the people to do assignments that he thought would best fit them. The four different things were a group of people applying gesso, a type of cement, to a wall. This wall is going to be painted by another group, and today this group planned out what they were going to paint on there. The next group dug into the group and established the foundation that is going to become the lunchroom. The last group put together boards to make tresses for the lunchroom. A fun fact for those at home is that the entire town of Piscacucho has 150 to 175 inhabitants, which is less than the amount of people in the Senior and Junior classes at St. George’s. Working with all the people has made bonding with the other classmates easy. Through the rest of the days I’m sure there will be more bonding between classmates and will bring us all closer together.

Thomas

Hola! Today has been the first official day working on our service project at the school. Thomas already talked about what we’re doing so I will talk about the school and the kids! The school has a gate with a courtyard in which we are working. Classrooms are right off the courtyard. Down the hill a little bit is a soccer field! Every single kid is so cute and so excited to see us. They talk so fast though! Our homestays have been pretty different and a little challenging. The hardest part for Mary Liz and I has been the food because the portions are HUGE! Another challenge has been the 20 to 30 plus loose Guinea pigs in the kitchen room. I have had one shower the entire trip which was at our hotel in Ollantaytambo and was the coldest shower of my life. Today we also got schooled in soccer after working another hour after lunch. Lunch was with our homestay families but ours was pretty quiet because our only child living at the house goes to school in Ollantaytambo, which is about 20 to 30 minutes away. After playing soccer we had a meeting with Jorge and Chris who are really cool by the way. The meeting was about the 4 stages of development, which are forming, storming, norming, and adjourning. Right now I am really looking forward to our overnight hike later this week! Oh yeah, and the chocolate here is awesome! Until next time…Adios from Piscacucho!

Taylor