Last weekend in Cusco *tear*

So this is officially my last few days in Cusco, and as predicted, I´m getting pretty sad to leave. I´ve met a lot of really fun people here, travellers and locals, and there´s something really relaxed and chill about being here, but there´s always something to do if you want to.

For example, this past week has been crazy. I´ve been doing my spanish classes in the mornings, and while it´s only been 2 weeks of part time lessons, I really think that it has helped a lot. I mean, at the very least I have learned how to conjugate all regular and mostly all irregular verbs in the present, 3 different types of the futuro proximo, as well as the present progressive, pasado perfecto, pasado imperfecto and pasado indefinido. Which probably means nothing to most of you, but i feel like that´s quite the accomplishment for a gringo girl in 2 weeks of lessons, hahaha.

And then in the afternoons, starting sometimes right after my class, I´ve been helping some guys also from the Amauta Spanish School with their volunteering placement, which is an after school program for street kids or kids in a really poor neighbourhood. Like most of them, even if they have a house, don´t have running water or indoor plumbing or enough food to eat. They´re so cute though, and so much fun to hang out with. The project Colibri is a 2 room building, again with no running water, which makes snacktime and any sort of cleanup REALLY interesting, let me tell you. But the whole place is pretty sparse and depressing, so the guys (Steve is from Ireland and Neils is from Holland) had the idea of painting some murals and cartoon characters and stuff on the walls to brighten up the place. Which I know is an unlikely situation for my skills to come in handy, but I´ll have all of you know that my artistic skills have apparently been lying latent, waiting for just such a situation. Apparently I´m really good at drawing disney characters on walls, copying the design off of dvd covers. I was pretty nervous about it, but apparently this has been my calling all along. I´ll try and take some pictures on Monday as proof, cause i know most of you are shaking your heads in disbelief right now but it´s true.

So anyway, Tuesday it took us most of the early afternoon before most of the kids came just to clean the wall, which was filthy, and again it´s hard to facilitate cleanup without running water of any kind. And then the kids arrive around 4 and then we basically play with them, take them to the park, help with homework, get them a snack and then the centre closes around 8. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we´ve been drawing the pictures on the walls, outlining them in black markers and putting paint by number numbers on so that next week sometime I think the guys have got it set up with plastic ponchos and stuff so that the kids can all help fill in the mural with colour. I´m sad that I can´t stay longer to work there more, and see the place all finished, but the guys have promised to email me some pictures.

But a little bit about the kids: one of my favourites (yes i know you´re not supposed to have them, but whatever)is a little boy about 5 years old named Jose who always comes running up to me yelling "amiga!!" and asked me on friday if i´d be his girlfriend. To try to persuademe he built me a lego house which he then filled with 16 lego dogs. I was a little swayed, i have to say. hahhaha. And then there is Margota, who loves to braid my hair, and by braid of course I mean tie in irremovable knots. Roberto Carlos (great name eh?) is 4 and so cute, and probably my largest fan of my artwork, as he stands behind me when I´m drawing something with these huge eyes and gets so excited when he recognizes the dog from the lady and the tramp, or the squirrel from ice age etc., and starts jumping up and down. soooo cute. and also encouraging, as the mere fact that i can draw anything recognizable makes me practically want to scream and jump up and down, it´s that exciting. He has a brother named Franco who looks younger but is actually 5 and I think he has some sort of disabilities, or else is just a really slow talker,because he´s tiny and pretty much the only thing he can say that is recognizable is "besame", so he goes around to all the little girls asking them for kisses. And he´s so charming he pretty much always gets them, hahaha. But in total there are usually around 30 kids or more who show up, and they´re all so adorable, and really appreciative of you spending time with them.

Otherwise, I´ve been doing a lot of dancing, going out with friends from the school, and from here, and basically been having a great time. My plane ticket to quito is for this coming tuesday morning, ánd then I am meeting with Ricardo, my Compassion sponsor kid all day Wednesday, which I am also superpumped about. So I´ll be sure to let you know how the flight and the visit was soon!!

Xo,
Sarah