I May be a Professional Dancer...

Hi.
I´m living in the Andes.
How cool is that?!
So we arrived in Cusco on Saturday, at around 12 noon... we didn´t get to sit together on the plane, but it was fine because I ended up beside these people from Transilvania (they know Dracula) who are living in New York, and were very nice. The flight was short, but beautiful, because we were flying over snow capped mountains. When we got to Cusco, our host parents met us and drove us to their beautiful house. They run kind of a hostal from their home, so we are staying in rooms similar to those at Belcourt, and the four of us (Kelsey, Celine, Jess and I are all with the same host family) share a bathroom with two showers.
The family is unreal, and super close. Our parents are Angel and Marita, and they have three kids... Angela and Marcela are both married and live out of the house, but visit everyday and usually eat with us (Marcela has a little son named Marcelo, he´s less than two are soooooooooo cute and well behaved. He´s hilarious!) Juan Carlos is 24 and still lives at home, but is out a lot. They are all super nice though... Marcela actually has a dance group that I believe she does choreography for, and they were in a parade yesterday... and so were we! They invited us to dance with then in the parade! haha it must have looked so funny, they were all in full costume and we were four white girls in street clothes doing our best to hop along. It was pretty cute haha. But we felt pretty cool, because after we were invited to their celebrations (besically a dance party with the marching band playing!) and once again we were the only white people. Also, Kels and I went to a tiny little church yesterday morning, but it was really nice because they had no choir, but everyone in the congragation sang at the top of their lungs! And it was so full that there weren´t enough seats for everyone, even though it was 7:30 in the morning, and who likes getting up at 7:30? haha.
Today we started our volunteer placements... or at least orientation. We´re working with a group called Hampy, which is Keschwan (native Peruvian language) for ´help´. Originally, we planned on doing a medical placement in a hospital, but the more we learned about Hampy the more we wanted to work with them. It´s a tiny tiny organization run by a man named Jorge, who is perhaps the nicest most organized person on the planet. We met with him yesterday, and today we met at his office (we´re all doing Hampy, and maybe a small clinic in Cusco if we have spare time) and we evaluated our Spanish (we are high intermediate! alright!) and then talked to us a lot about the area where they work. It´s in a small village called Choco, and is in extreme poverty. We drove out at around 11, and were shocked. It´s only 10 minutes outside of the centre of cusco, but might as well be on the other side of the world. There´s so much poverty... there are women everywhere wearing an almost uniform, that consists of a rimmed hat, a knee length skirt, a sweater, thick white tights, and a colourful wrap on their backs that they use to carry anything... sometimes bamboo, sometimes their babies. There are wild farm animals everywhere... sheep, cows, bulls, roosters, pigs. the houses are very simple, with no hygeinical services (no toilets or running water)... all built out of wood or stone. There is only one school, with two classrooms... one for kids aged 6-8, and one for 9-11... after 11, the kids either work or continue with school, but mostly work because the only school is in Cusco and they either have to walk (which would take about 45 minutes) or get a cab, as public transport doesn´t come out to Choco, and as you can imagine not many of them can aford a cab, if any. So after 11 years old, school is a luxury most of them can´t afford. The kids however, we adorable, and so excited to see us! They sang for us and kissed us on the cheek (that´s how everyone greets you here... a hug and a kiss on the cheek), and were amazing.
Another interesting thing about Choco, and it´s sister town (that is pretty much the exact same) Kuchuya, is that volunteers come in all the time but don´t really know what they´re doing... that´s what´s so good about Hampy, we get to know the people, and them work with them, not for them. Jess describes it as á hand up, not a hand out´. Jorge showed us show of the stuff that other volunteer groups made, without really knowing the people... such as a medical centre that is brand new, but doesn´t get used because it was built without any knowledge of the people´s needs, and therefore is just a big empty building. There´s also a brand new bridge that sits there so no reason, because only one person in the whole village has a car. don´t get me wrong, the people who donated those things had the best of intentions and the best of hearts I am sure, but just not a sufficient knowledge of the community and their needs... for example, the kindergarten has no electricity, and fixing that problem would be much more helpful than building a bridge. That´s what I like about Hampy... Jorge really knows the people, and is going to make sure that what we do will really help them in the long run. As for what we will be doing, we have a week of orientation and comunity visits to decide, but I´m really looking forward to it.

the weather here is insane... up until about 10 am it´s cold... from 10 to 4 it is desert hot, and then cools down and by 8 you need a jacket and mitts. Basically the sun provides a lot of heat, but when the sun sleeps it gets coooold! But it´s really beautiful, the sky is so blue and everywhere you look there are mountains, most of them have little houses built all the way up! It´s so nice, not like anywhere I´ve ever been. But the altitude had taken it´s toll on us! Taking stairs too fast leaves us short of breath... we feel like the most out of shape people on the planet! Today we climbed about 20 stairs in Choco and we all gasping for breath at the top! So we´re definately pacing ourselves. Anyways, I better go because I´m at an internet cafe and don´t want to pay a lot haha!
ciao!