Great Song

Tara shared this song with us during her most recent prayer. I have been enjoying it ever since! Hope you do too :)

My AV Blog Post

Once throughout the year we are each asked to write a themed blog post for the AV website. Here is my post about my community:

“We are married, and divorce is not an option.”

That is what my community member, Caitlin, said at the beginning of our year, and while it is funny and silly, it is also kind of true. Living in community is completely different from any other living arrangement I have encountered; like a combination of everything almost.

It is like living with a roommate in that you have obligations to one another to keep the house clean, establish rules about visitors, and other courtesies of the like. It is like living with friends in that you depend on each other for emotional support, you make plans together, and generally look out for each other. It is like living with your family in that you tell each other where you are going and when you expect to back, you share meals together, and (eventually) when you get mad at each other, you can fight like nobody’s business knowing at the end of the day everything will be okay again.  

Living in a community is like all of those things with a pinch more responsibility, courtesy, compassion, understanding, and patience. Those can be hard feelings to muster up at times, especially since many of us (or I, at least) have just exited the most selfish time of our lives: the college years. College is all about you. All about where you want to go and when you want to go there. Of course your friends or your significant other play a role in your decisions, but you are living for you, essentially. I learned quickly that in a committed community, you are very much living for every other person in your community as well as yourself. And in a lot of ways, you have to live more for them than for yourself at times. As we learned in orientation, it is very much a transition from a “me” mentality to a “we” mentality.

And oh boy is it hard sometimes. But also so completely worth it.

When my community and I committed ourselves to each other we opened a door from which flowed an unending stream of trust, strength, and wisdom. When you know the person sitting across from you truly has your best interests at heart, you are free to be you and to share yourself in a way that at least I had never experienced before. I have felt so free to share my every doubt, about myself, my abilities, my faith life, and my experience here and from that I have experienced tremendous growth.

There are the small things, like remembering to pick up peanuts for Antonette, broccoli for Tara, and yogurt for Caitlin even when they don’t ask me to when I am going to the market. Then there are the bigger things, like when I wanted my mom and my boyfriend to come visit. Although they didn’t come right out and say it, I know they both weren’t sure how feasible coming to Peru would be. I talked with my community and God a lot, and what I realized what that I was asking a lot; too much. Coming to Peru is a whole day of traveling with layovers and everything, its expensive, and they have other things going on in their lives that I couldn’t ask them to drop on a dime. Instead of thinking about my wants, I focused instead on what they needed. Through the example of my community I was able to see that when it comes to the people you love, you sometimes have to do what is in their best interest, not yours. I know a year ago I never would have had that realization.

I have learned so much about myself this year both through structured and casual conversations with my community members. They have completely opened my eyes by giving me new ways to look at the world, its problems and my place amidst all of it. They share in my joy and in my sadness; they pick me up when I fall down; they sooth me when I am angry; they whisper words of encouragement when I feel hopeless; they show me how rewarding living for someone else in addition to myself can be and for that I am so incredibly grateful.

Pacaipampa

Last weekend me and the girls went up to Pacaipampa to visit the Sisters of Mercy stationed there and to celebrate the assumption of the Virgin (or something like that). We work with the Sisters of Mercy at the Ceo Betania, the women's center where I teach yoga. It's a 5 hour car ride over some pretty treacherous terrain. The first hour is highway and the next 4 are more or less off-roading:

I actually got really sick on the way up. We took a private car that belongs to the Sisters instead of the bus and I was riding in the back. Apparently, the bumps are way worse in the back, which I didn't learn until I sat in the front on the way home and was a-okay.

Anyway, we got there and had an AHmazing lunch with, wait for it...PUMPKIN PIE! One of the Sisters, Mary Alaina is American and made two huge pies for dessert. We ate one of them and the other was for people to snack on over the next few days...except that at the end of the weekend we counted and I definitely ate at least 3/4 of that pie by myself. And it was TOTALLY worth it.

After a great lunch we got a tour of the town from Mary Alaina:

Some burros chillin in the street.

A cool wall that holds up the houses on top of the hill.

Sister Mary Alaina explaining the origins of one of the smaller plazas.

Really pretty garden where the Priests live.

Flower from the garden.

Most adorable puppy ever.

From the balcony of the priests house looking out at the church.

Moseying down the road.

This water comes from underground and is pure enough to drink - it has been tested by the health post.

Hiked up to the cemetery - they put the cemetery on the highest hill so the dead are closer to heaven.

Drying corn on the street.

More corn.

After our walk about town we came back, had a great dinner and played charades with the sisters which was pretty hilarious. My days are getting all mixed up but on Saturday or Sunday we went hiking. We walked up to a school on top of one of the smaller hills to get a view of the city from above. And for the record, kids climb up and down the hill everyday and we were all suckin wind and taking breaks the entire time. How's that for devotion to learning!

Tara and Hermana Janet (who is HILARIOUS).

Our guides up the mountain - friends of the Sisters.

We did it!

Next came the celebration on Sunday. Mass, which we got suckered into being the choir for, and a lot of fireworks.

Anto with our friend Tito (left) and Father Tito (right).

Couldnt resist sneaking a picture from the alter.

The lighting of candles for loved ones is big at religious festivals here.

Yes, what you see is a big tower that will shortly be lit on fire with people standing all around and about 2 ft away from it.

Watching from above.

Our really good friend Alejandro (Deacon) who was recently moved from Chulu to Paciaipampa.

Our priest friends (from left): Pd. Tito. Robert (American), Alejandro

Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Dani

The Picchu!

 

Caitlin and I just got back from a week long vacation to Cusco, Peru to see the world renowned Machu Picchu! We stayed a night in Cusco after a day of traveling; since there are no direct flights from Piura to Cusco you have to change in Lima which is a frustrating process since you have to go from arrivals to check-in then get your boarding pass and go through security all over again. But it all worked out! Well, kind of. Our hostel ended up being in San Blas, which is waaaay up on the hill (Cusco is already at 11,200 ft so really everywhere is cold) and therefore REALLY cold at night. Our hostel also didnt have heat, so at night we wore everything we brought:

So after our chilly night in Cusco, we woke up at 4:30am to catch our train to Aguas Calientes, which is the jumping off point for Machu Picchu.

Checked into our hotel and went shopping at the HUGE souvenir market down the street from us and explored the town.

Woke up the next morning at 4:00am (waking up early was a big theme of our trip) to hike from Aguas Calientes (6,693 ft.) to Machu Picchu (7,970 ft) to see the sunrise over the mountains. It was a very hard, very long journey, but TOTALLY worth it! We got there before most of the guards so we were able to frolic around with the llamas and just generally explore areas we were not supposed to.

We had gone to Aguas Calientes in the midst of a ticket shortage, apparently. When we got there they sold us tickets for July 31st instead of the day we needed which was the 30th, but assured us they would permit us to enter. The real catch was they they "HAD to" sell us a ticket for Machu Picchu AND Intipunku (8,924 ft.) for a little extra money since the real Machu Picchu tickets were sold out. It was a bit of a bother at first, but turned out to be a great little side hike after we were done exploring the main grounds of Machu Picchu.

My fingers are more or less where Aguas Calientes is.

Look how far we climbed!

After a very exhausting but very rewarding 8 hours of frolicking around Machu Picchu and its surrounding mountains/ruins, we returned to Aguas Calientes (by bus this time, too hard on the knees to go down). We spent the remainer of the day walking around, shopping some more, and eating sweets to compensate for all those calories burned ;)

Then up at 400am again to catch our train to Ollantantambo (called Ollanta by the locals). Ollanta is about a 1 1/2  hour colectivo (small bus) ride from Cusco, so instead of having another long travel day we decided to stay in Urumbamba (the neighboring town that serves as a transportation hub for the region) and see the sights of the Sacred Valley. We found our hostel, "Los Perales" in my Lonley Planet and true to form, it did not disappoint.

Right when you walk in the door.

Bleeding hearts?

Looking out into the "back yard" of our hostel.

Around the corner on the way to our room.

Fresh fruit on all the tables.

Looking out at the seating area  from the back yard.

Delicious breakfast of fresh juice, fresh jam from the garden, fresh bread, and a banana pancake!

 After enjoying our breakfast we headed out to Moray, more Incan ruins, Salinas, salt flats, and Ollanta.

The ruins at Moray, a very gorgeous hour long ride from Ollanta.

A woman harvesting from one of Salinas' salt flats.

We hiked across the flats then down to the highway. Beautiful!

On our hike down.

We pasear-ed through Ollanta and happened upon a really neat handmade fabric store/NGO called Awamaki:

We spent the night in Urumbamba and got up the next day to go to Cusco. We spent that afternoon and the next day exploring!

Plaza de Armas

Then we stumbled upon the BEST part of Cusco...a chocolate making class!!!

All the different ingredients used in their chocolates.

Ours didn't quite look like this...

Stirring the cacao beans so the shell gets soft so you can peel it off, revealing just the "nib".

Sampling cocao tea, made from the shells we just peels off.

Stirring up the paste you make by grinding the nibs with steamed milk for some hot coco!

Our group filling in our chocolate molds with various ingredients.

Los chefs and our guide Estela.

Finish products :)

Phew, long post. Congrats if you made it all the way here! It was a really great trip. It was also really nice to get out of Chulu for a bit, although I did definitely miss it here (mostly the heat since I was so cold the whole time). Hope you enjoyed getting to see a few glimpses :)

Paz,
Dani