Our first school visit in the Sacred Valley.

Our first stop today was going to a small school in a small town called Orca. The school consisted of one classroom, one teacher, and students from grades 1-4. They speak a local language and are learning Spanish. All of the teachers on the trip donated supplies for the school. We also have more supplies for two other schools that we will be visiting later this week. This teacher was amazing. When we gave the students gifts, they were so excited. They were screaming with excitement when they received stickers.

 

If you look at the picture, you can see that the classroom is pretty empty. The teacher is standing in the back corner.

The students never used to come to school, but people from an organization came to the town and went from house to house to explain how important education is. One boy named Ramon didn't start school until this year. He is 9 years old and is in the first grade. His house was too far from the school, so another family 'adopted' him, so he lives with them and has a chance to get an education.

I'm waiting for more pictures to download, so now I will answer your questions.

1. Spider, I can't bring guinea pig back because the custom officials would be very angry.

2. Felix, I haven't seen much ketchup here.

3. The smell of the market was beyond intense. One teacher said that her nose was exhausted at the end of the day. All of the smells blended together, slit was kind of strange.

4. The Incas started building Machu Picchu in around1400. The Incas built Machu Picchu until the Spanish arrived in the early partof the 1500s. Then the Incan empire was wiped out. I've seen some of the ruins and it is amazing how all of the stones fit together beautifully. They used no mortar to keep the stones together. They also had no use the wheel. Amazing.

 

Yay, the picture downloaded. Here the kids are really enjoying their new supplies. We also brought them some games, so as you can see, they were having an awesome day. I had such joy seeing the smiles on their faces.

It was surprising to see such happy kids when they have very little. One of the teachers who went with us did a fundraiser at her school and collected $300 for this school. The teacher was thrilled since he gets very little money from the government. Maybe we could think of a way to raise funds for the school. Any ideas?

Well, I guess that's it for now.

Happy Tuesday. It's a short day for all of you.