Late Night Bonfire and an Early Wake-Up Call-- Off to Quisicancha!

Our bonding with the children continued into the evening. It was getting cold and we were tired, but we were enjoying the kids so much. Some of them were completely high on a sugar rush, as we had shared suckers and other sugary treats with them! They were buzzing with energy! Getting new shoes and hosting company was also surely exciting.

Mackenzie painting nails.

Tammy beading a bracelet.

Stickers and craft fun! & LBS(little big shoes, which is more likely why I took this picture.)

This is LBS's mom (in the peach sweater.) She pulled our translator aside and had him ask Abbi what she eats to get so tall. :)

We had a 6:30 a.m. call for breakfast in the village. On the bus by 7:30. Navidad always told us at night what to expect for the morning and when to be ready. He kept us on schedule, though it was no easy task. Some of the group needed a few more minutes of sleep and skipped breakfast. Some staggered in closer to departure time and grabbed a few bites. We were getting a bit weary. The night was so cold. It was also hard to sleep with everyone together in one room. Our bedtimes were pretty universal, with a few people going to bed early. I think our group was courteous. You might not know this, but flight attendants are used to bunking together! We sleep in crash pads before or after our trip to share the expense of our commute hotel. There was some pillow talk, but not much. We were all very tired and tried to go to sleep quickly.

The bus ride to Quisicancha was about 50 minutes long. We rolled up to a school and were immediately greeted by a group of children. They were literally attacking our vans. Climbing on the ladder on the back and hitting the windows. They ran along, coming way too close and making this mama nervous!

These kids were much more rambunctious than our Chacabamba friends.

I don't know how to begin, but I have to explain Quisicancha was a disappointing visit. We disembarked the van and there were no adults to greet us. We tried to interact with the kids while Kim and Navidad looked for someone in charge. They were having a local meeting in the upper corner of the playground. There were women were skinning potatoes and ..... preparing our guinea pigs..... We wandered around, engaging the children, waiting for instructions. The kids were not warm to us like the Chacabamba kids. In Q, the kids would almost taunt us and then would run away. Eventually, the kids would be the best part of this visit, but at first they were a bit off putting.

Since we didn't know what else to be doing, Kim and Lisa decided to show us the greenhouse that they built at this village last year. It took a minute to recognize it. It was empty. The roof was damaged and there was nothing but weeds growing in it. It was heartbreaking.

The greenhouse, with barren grounds and damaged roof.

Then we found the guinea pig barn. Kim & Navidad both understood that the structure would be in place, and we were to construct the inside. This was actually the biggest work planned for our mission. We spotted it near the greenhouse. It was seven bricks high (around 5 feet tall.) It was becoming obvious that they were even more unprepared for our visit than it first appeared.

After an hour or so, they were ready for the welcome ceremony. There were many songs, dances and dance-alongs with the kids in the village of Q. But, there weren't really any adults present. The locals didn't make a point to attend. It was just us, the kids with their teachers, and a fleeting group of men behind us in their work clothes. When it was time for Kim's speech, no one was there. None of the locals were listening. She did say that we are here to help but if you don't utilize and take care of what we do for you then we won't be coming back. I was proud of Kim for saying what needed to be said, even if only a few locals got the message. They later gave Kim the excuse that they didn't have seeds for planting in the greenhouse, but Kim is in touch with a liason that communicates the village requests. Seeds would've been an easy thing to pack. It's hard to know exactly where the misconnect is, but it seemed like a slap in the face to find last year's hard work being abandoned and neglected. And, this year's project obviously not ready for our part. It was not a surprise that we were coming, but it sure seemed like we caught them off-guard. While we were there, they climbed up and repaired the greenhouse roof. So material needs were not a problem. Wouldn't you at least rake up the weeds and fix the roof before we got there? 

One of the teachers approached Kim and asked her to not lose her heart for them. To keep growing love for them. She said she was a newer teacher in this village and they would do better. I felt sad for Kim's disappointment, the experience of seeing her hard work go without appreciation or utilization.

The chicken dance from Q kids. We all had a good laugh at this performance. It was cute. 

The welcome ceremony included a dance from each grade. While it was an honor that so many performances had been planned for our visit, it was a dramatic difference from Chacabamba, where the adults celebrated with us, as well.

Tomorrow you'll see how we dealt with Quisicancha being unprepared for our visit.