Inca time...

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Hello all,

Today I start by telling you just how much it is raining; I am soaked through from the 2 minute walk from the orphanage, even through my raincoat. I guess it is to be expected in the rainy season and actually the rain is still lovely and warm so I am not complaining.

So what have I been up to? Quite a few things actually, but for the moment I shall concentrate on the Inca stuff. Over the weekend a couple of the volunteers and I visited Qorikancha, one of the most important temples of the Inca times. It was really interesting to see but is a shell of its former self as majority of its riches were taken when the Spanish arrived. You can still see some of the original walls which are so perfectly formed that you cannot even see the joins between each of the bricks. The Incas had a fondness of neat edges and tidy corners, of which I wholeheartedly approve!

We also visited the Pachakuteq monument which is a tower dedicated to the leader of the Incas during their period of expansion, for the people of Cusco he was extremely important. He gave the Incas one main rule that they must live by - Reciprocity. Yep for the BLP followers among us, Pachakuteq was one of us! He also ordered that his people develop 3 other gifts: Love, Work and Wisdom. In his eyes, this was the only way to make people happy.

After a long day of learning about the Inca culture, we spent the afternoon and evening with the girls. They love to dance and put on a show for two of the volunteers who were leaving the next day. They choreograph their own dances but also love to watch and do dance DVDs that volunteers have left for them or have sent over. They like most types of dance and put on a show that was energetic, exciting and ranged from hip hop to salsa, it was brilliant.

It was also really interesting to watch and to see that even thousands of miles away from home the same personalities were there in our group of girls as I find in any class that I teach. There is the person who organises everyone else and tells them off when not enough effort is put in or when something hasn't gone to plan (yes I did recognise myself!), there is the quiet person who shies away from tasks but comes into their own when enjoying the activity, you have the person who really doesn't want to do it and would much rather be somewhere else but is doing it for the team, you have the person who gives up in the middle and doesn't want to play anymore and you have the one who is a bit embarrassed as she can't remember it all but laughs through it all making the show even better than it would have been! Whatever their personalities, they pulled together and that is what this group of girls does more than any other that I have met.

I have more to write but will run out of space so will be back soon...

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Comments

[jennie]

hello
Not sure if u will get this so just a test message 4 now once u reply we send another message.

[TashaMK]

I did indeed get it, thank you! I am also able to get on my hotmail xx

[Judith and Ula]

Hello
Nice to see you're having a nice time in Peru. Ula is always on time now. Peru looks amazing, with all these wonderful sights. Hope you're having fun with people in the orphanage (unlike us LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Bye for now ULA AND JUDITH P.S= Say hi to the children in the orphanage.