A few more pictures!

Before setting off to the airport:

In the airport:

:

Heading home!

Hello family and friends of Gilman School and Roland Park Country School. The students are heading to Lima and then will continue onto the United States. Thank you for your support and trust! Erin Hawk Director of Operations Monday 20 July 2015 LAN Airlines - Flight LA 2042 Depart: Cuzco, PE 4:15 PM Arrive:Lima Airport 5:45 PM Jul 20, 2015 AMERICAN AIRLINES 918 Lima 09:30 PM Jul 21, 2015 AA763 MIA Miami 04:29 AM AA1480 MIA Miami 07:05 AM BWI Baltimore 09:40 AM

Day 13!

Today we had another pleasantly late wake-up at 8am.  After a quick breakfast and group wide cell phone confiscation, we made our way across town to the ruins at Ollantaytambo. There, we saw more Ancient Incan Architecture and learned about the legends of the foundation and history of the Incan empire, thanks to our knowledgeable tour guide, Adolpho. After this, we went back to our hotel and boarded a bus for Cusco. On the way, we stopped at a Peruvian buffet. Another pit-stop included an Incan textile shop. They showed us the process of using sheep and Alpaca wool to make garments. They started with the bunch of wool and hand separated, dyed, and strung it. After being given the opportunity to shop at this place, we were on the road again. We arrived at the hotel in Cusco and went out for a brick-oven pizza dinner. We then walked around the historical district, seeing old cathedrals and still-standing Incan walls. Finally we capped off the evening with a farewell ceremony with all of the group in which we shared what we would take home from this trip.

More pictures from Infierno!

Days 10 & 12 ;)

Infierno Primary School Assembly with Roland Park and Gilman Students.

Curtains installed by the WLS team to help the students during heavy sunlight hours.

Day 10

Today was a voyage to another lodge. The Tres Chimbadas Lodge, which is located deeper in the Amazon, is a lake front lodge. The lake used to be a part of the Amazon River, but with the growth and change of the forest, became a lake instead. The girls’ rooms are open, facing the water. Johan planned a day of adventures, including a morning hike through the jungle with a tour guide from the lodge, piranha fishing, and caiman sighting. The girls and Matt all caught piranhas and we later had them at dinner. Everyone else had little luck snagging any fish. 

After the afternoon of piranha fishing, we came back for a dinner cooked in a traditional way. The dinner, a mixture of vegetables and beef, is cooked in a bamboo tube against an open fire. The flavors all mix together, and, together with white rice and the piranha we caught, was our dinner. It was a really delicious dish and a few of us took a part of a piranha’s jaw as a souvenir from the dinner. Once it got dark outside, we went out on the boat to look for caimans. We saw the eyes reflected in the water of one of them, and caught a baby one that we were able to take pictures of. It was an awesome end to our time in the Peruvian Amazon. Next we are off to an ancient Incan village in the Sacred Valley in the Peruvian Andes.

Day 12

It is the second to last day here in Peru.  Today, the group started the day with a 4:45am wake up to have breakfast and start our day off to  After the 2 hour train ride and 30 minute bus ride, we finally arrived at the front entrance of Machu Picchu.  Our tour guide, Joel, was enthusiastic about Incan history, while at the same time making the tour entertaining and lively.  The view was breathtaking.  The whole group was astounded by the fact that the city still stands today even though it was built 600 years ago with none of the advanced technology and tools that we have today.  

Machu Picchu.

After the tour, Justin, Mac, Ricky, and Jack went back to one of the terraces and chilled with the llamas.  They relaxed on the terrace, enjoying the views.  When we were done with our trip to Machu Picchu, the group was allowed to split up and go shopping or eat at the restaurants. After a satisfying day in the city, we came back to Ollantaytambo to enjoy a nice dinner, which included a main dish of Alpaca steaks. After dinner, the tired group returned to the lodge to relax for the rest of the night.

Davis and Matt rallied after having a one day stomach flu to see Machu Picchu

The group has arrived safely in Cusco and is en route to Ollantaytambo!

The group has boarded their flight to Cusco! 

Here are a few pictures from their latest adventures:

The boat ride to Tres Chimbadas

Marisa with a piraña

Infierno village play time

Bird watching

Piraña

Day 9

We woke up at 6 AM once again in the SAONA lodge having eggs and Peruvian style yucca fries to start our day. We hiked the becomingly familiar path to the school where we were greeted by the kids and teachers for the final time. Then we helped with the finishing touches on our projects. Everyone helped put the signs out and watered the plants in the garden with assistance from the Peruvian students. After that we helped put up curtains in each of the classrooms. Next, we gathered in their cafeteria for a birthday and goodbye celebration. We had a variety of Peruvian foods to celebrate including a Peruvian birthday song with cake to celebrate their teacher's birthday. The celebration was interrupted by a water balloon fight started by Ms. Butler. Everyone participated in the water balloon fight, leaving those involved soaked with water. Then the faculty challenged us to a soccer game where everyone also left soaked, but with sweat rather than water. After goodbyes with some of the kids in the school, we preceded to go to our host families for out last meals there. After dinner we exchanged gifts with the families and said out final goodbyes and thank yous for sharing their lives with us. Then finally, off to bed for our last night in the Infierno community. 

Day 8

It was a normal morning today in Infierno. We woke up at 6 AM once again and had Peruvian style pancakes. Around 7 AM, we left the shelter to begin our day's work. After our lovely 2 mile hike to the school, we started work in the garden (Ben, James, Mac, Andi, Alexi, and Ricky) right away along with painting signs (Matt, Davis, Marisa, Autumn, and Makayla) and installing curtain rods (Justin, Sydney, and Jack) in all of the classrooms. We continued to pair up with students at the school to plant the last of the garden. It's a great experience for both the students of Infierno and ourselves to pair up and work together to continue to build bonds and friendships. After finishing the garden work, a group of four (Ricky, Sydney, Andi, and James) went to the 5th grade of the secondary school to teach English to the students. We each worked one on one to correct their homework from the day before. The four students are learning comparative adjectives and we had the pleasure of tutoring them.
After the English class, Davis and James played chess against a student name Jose. Jose travels to Puerto Maldonado to compete in chess tournaments. We then went to lunch at our homestay houses and enjoyed a great meal with our families. After lunch, we went to the Handicraft Center to learn from three of the local basket weavers how to weave fans and baskets who follow the traditional weaving ways using Tamishi, a style of making with natural dyes from fruits and tree bark. We went to our homestays again for dinner and played with the kids before hiking back to Saona. When we got back, we were treated to a traditional dance called Tree Native by three local students from the local school who are part of some of our homestay families. They got us all dancing which was really fun. Now off to bed before our last day in Infierno. 

Hello friends and family of the Gilman/Roland Park Peru program!

We just heard from our country coordinator in Peru that the group is doing well and has arrived at the Tres Chimbadas Lodge! Tomorrow they will transfer to Ollantaytambo and update the blog again. Please feel free to call our office with any questions or concerns (303) 679-3412.
Thank you for your support and trust in this program!

All the best,
Maria Selde
Program Coordinator

Days 6 & 7 :

DAY 6

                  Bleep. Bleep. Bleep. This was the ring of our alarms sounding this morning at a pleasantly late 7:30 compared to our usual 5am or 6am wake-up.  After sleeping-in, we made our way to the breakfast table where we enjoyed cereal which was either consumed dry or with what is best described as a Peruvian strawberry-banana yogurt smoothie.  Our leaders of the day, Autumn and Matt, distributed snacks for the day to the group, and we were soon on our way into town.  Today was an irregular day, hence the late morning.  Today, the students spent the entirety of the day with their host families rather than just enjoying 45 minute lunch and dinner periods with them.  This experience was part of WLS’s Walking Together initiative, an attempt to forge a deeper bond between the students and locals as well as to have the students walk in the shoes of the Peruvian people and experience the issues they face on a day-to-day basis.  We made our normal trek into the village from our more remote shelter and quickly split up to go to our host families.  Upon arrival, we were already drenched in sweat due to the immense morning heat, something we have not yet experienced in full force thanks to some timely rain showers and cooler cloud covers. 

                  We, Alexi and Matt share the same host family along with Justin and Autumn.  In our home, we began the morning hand washing our laundry in desperate need of a deSTANKification. After that pressing issue was resolved, Bilmer, the 12 year-old boy who lives in our home and avid ping-pong player (he plays in tournaments in the city), wanted to play.  We began with outdoor ping-pong, otherwise known as ‘tenis de mesa’, and then we moved to introduce him to America’s pride and joy- football.  He was a natural, learning to throw a tight spiral within minutes thanks to Justin’s excellent coaching.  Soon after, he decided he wanted to put up goalposts for field goals in the yard.  He quickly found wood, and with the help of his father, the goal posts were up within five minutes.  Our play was interrupted by the rain which drenched our village for ten minutes, forcing us to rush and save our clothing from the downpour. This happened several times until we took a break to eat lunch, consisting of rice and eggs in a mystery sauce, which was quite good. Then, we went right back to soccer and football. Later, the neighbors brought over their baby monkey. As Matt was holding it in his arms waiting for a picture, the little guy decided to empty his bladder all over Matt’s arm. However, in fear, Matt quickly chucked the poor creature safely out of range, saving his clothing from the golden arcs. Soon after, the families and students convened at the community fields for a game of soccer, which was soon dominated by a man much older than us who attempted to bet on the game. It is important to note that this game was a game between our students and their 6 to 12 year old host children.  Considering this, we politely refused his tempting offer.  Afterward, we returned to our host families for dinner where we were served rice and beef. We preceded to ask them questions that were given to us as a part of the Walking Together project. We, along with the others, learned that Taedo Majaha is the oldest man in the village. We learned the origin of the word Infierno and Soana, the names of the community and shelter respectively.  To cap the day, Justin told Bilmer that he could keep the football he brought to play with and the smile on his face afterward was absolutely priceless, something that could alone make our entire trip worthwhile.  With that, we hiked through the mud back to the shelter to sleep well, awaiting another day of work manana.

Day 7

Today we, James and Andi, along with everyone else woke up at 6 AM to a breakfast of eggs, yucca fries, avocados, apples, and grapes. We then slipped into our rain boots and prepped our day packs for our daily two mile hike to Infierno. Once we arrived in Infierno, Chris divided us up into three groups: one to put up curtains, one to paint signs for the garden, and one to help the school children plant ornamental flowers in the garden. In the curtain group, James, spent the morning measuring and sawing the metal poles that will hold the curtains. Andi and the rest of the planters helped the locals dig a grid system of holes. A lot of space was left between each plant to allow people to walk and enjoy each plant when it is finally done. The American and Peruvian kids paired up to fill the holes with fertilizer, soil, and eventually the plants. The painting group put a base coat of paint on to the signs. The small signs were red and blue while the largest signs were given a yellow coat. We then adjourned for lunch at our respective homestays.

At our homestay (we are in the same home along with Jack and Marisa), we ate arroz con pollo and passion fruit juice. The neighboring homestay with Mac, Ben, and Sydney came over to play UNO with us. We had a full game with the seven of us and the three kids from our families. The game was fun even though Jack and Victor kept cheating. One of our families has a pet monkey and in the middle of our game it peed on Sydney. Our game ended without a winner because we had to rendezvous back at the school for work.

In the afternoon, we broke back up into three new groups. This time the groups had to bolt the curtain rods to the windows, paint the names of the plants (in both Spanish and Ese’Eja, the local tribal language), and clean up a dusty room filled with books. Both of us worked with Mac, Sydney, and Ricky to transform the dirty room into a library. With Sydney’s help we organized the books into different categories. The room now looks a lot cleaner with a lot more books on the shelves. We finally met back at our homestays to eat dinner. Our dinner was a very, very thin steak with mashed plantains. We hiked back home in the dark underneath the gorgeously laminated stars and sky.

Back at the lodge, we took showers, had tea and hot chocolate and each of us talked about our days within the group. Chris led a talk on the Millenium Development Goals where we each picked 3 that meant something to us and shared out why. We then held our ANCHOR closing activity, had an hour free for UNO, reading and hanging out, then bed.

DAY 5

This morning we woke up at 5 AM in order to make our journey to the Amazon Animal Shelter. We had an unusually early breakfast, consisting of pancakes with sweetened condensed milk and a hot milky soup. After quite a filling breakfast, we made our usual 15 minute walk to the city of Infierno, where we all crammed into a bus for a two hour ride, arriving at 8 AM. When we arrived at the shelter, the owner showed us around, introducing us to all of the animals in the shelter. Then, we split up into four groups of three to four in order to complete various tasks. The first group: Jack, Justin, and Marisa gathered special leaves to feed the monkeys, one of which pooped on Marisa’s shoulder. Meanwhile, the second group: Davis, Autumn, and Makayla were busy trying to fell a tree with a machete to put in one of the monkey’s cages. The third group, comprised of James, Alexi, Matt, and Ben, completed a much lengthier task of making a fence for the youngest peccary (wild boar), who has been known to escape from his pen quite often.  Mac, Ricky, Sydney, and Andy helped build an extra door outside of one of the Howler monkeys” cages, preventing their escape. Upon completing these tasks, the entire group sat down for a delicious lunch, including beans, rice, lettuce, and tomatoes.

After lunch, things started to lighten up, as there were fewer tasks to complete. The group mainly worked on completing another fence and feeding various animals. However, these tasks were completed rather quickly, allowing for some casual time with a few of the animals, including Rodrigo, a domesticated monkey who is very friendly. After another 30 minutes of casual time with Rodrigo, the group got everything together and walked to the bus for another bus ride back to Infierno. Once there, we had dinner with our families and then took the hike back to our lodge. At the lodge, we did come very interesting exercises with Johan exploring the type of leader we might be and then talked as a group about tomorrow (Sunday) when we would be spending the entire day with our host families. Lastly we had down time for showers, talking and UNO.