Rosaspampa and Soccer Balls!!!

First, a little bit of background info. Kids at the Crossroads works in a few different ways. The primary work, which is what we've been doing, is the school here in Ayacucho that offers support and supplementary education to at-risk kids here. Then, KATC also does some limited work out in the tiny villages in the mountains. Every Christmas, GeGe buys hundreds of Christmas toys and some special food treats and, with the teachers, takes them out past where all of the other organizations go. These villages are pretty isolated- running water is rare, electricity is newly installed in some places, and nothing grows up there, so they live almost entirely off of the alpaca that they raise. Here's a picture from the center square of the village we went to, Rosaspampa

Anyway, back to yesterday. So, we mobilized at about eight and drove down to the bakery to pick up some sweet bread that GeGe had ordered to take with us. And I learned that 400 pieces of bread is a lot of bread! Then, we got gas and started on our way. But! We had to stop at the big produce market too to get 400 oranges for the people in the village. And that's really a lot of oranges... Then, we were really on our way.

We climbed out of the valley that is Ayacucho, starting our assent from 10,000 ft to 14,000 ft (we had started back on altitude meds a few days before so that we wouldn't get sick, especially me since my lungs are all broken). It was so pretty to look down on Ayacucho and see the mirador and everything. As we kept driving, you could tell that we were getting away from the more populated areas. Just lots of mountains everywhere!

Then, we got stopped at a police checkpoint, which is pretty typical. The police are use to just receiving a bit of money and letting the person go on their way, but we weren't doing anything wrong, so we didn't want to pay! They were mad that the van we were in didn't say that it was  a tourist van because three gringas definitely equal tourists. But, Alejandro (the dad of the family we live with) convinced them that we weren't tourists by telling him all of our names. And on our way again!

Right after that, there was a bunch of barley stalks in the road. "Weird," thought me. But Alejandro explained that they don't have machines to thrash the grains, so if people live close to the highway, then they have the cars do the work for them! Smart.

As we got higher up, we started to see frozen water on the faces of rocks where there was shadow. If the sun hits anything, it stays pretty warm, but the places in shadow and everywhere at night gets really cold. Only a little bit of snow way up on the tops of these mountains, but I sure believe that it gets chilly! And! So high up, we start to see alpacas! Yay!!!! You can't go to Peru without seeing alpacas. Pictures to follow, don't worry.

After about an hour and a half of driving, we exit off of the highway onto a dirt road, and we soon see a whole herd of alpaca. We keep going to get closer, driving over a little river, and pulling off to the side of the road. As we approach, we meet five little kids who are taking care of the alpaca. Here they are (not very old to be tending alpaca out in the country all day, huh?)

And here they are with oranges and sweet bread!

They were basically the sweetest kids ever, and they were so thrilled with the food and attention! (it probably gets a little boring out there). And then! They let us go meet their alpacas! No llamas because llamas live higher up, but alpacas are cuter anyhow. I made special friends with this one

After hanging out with the alpacas a bit, here comes another little girl running along and herding the alpacas with her whistling skills! We tell her to come over, so she races back to where we all are. See her there running on the other side of the river?

This lovely little girl, Sayra, gets to us and accepts her fruit and bread. I found her maturity pretty striking.

Asking two of the girls what they carry around in their manta (the little packs they have on their back), we found a pretty incredible answer. Both Sayra and Maria Elena pull out their toy kitchen sets that Kids at the Crossroads had given them seven months ago. These little girls, out all day tending the alpacas, carry around only what is most prized and necessary. Out of all of the things they could carry, they choose their true treasures, and the KATC Christmas presents meant so much to to the girls that they still carry them around. One of the little boys talked about how he still played with the car he received every single day. Pretty incredible. If anyone ever doubted that KATC makes an impact with its Christmas program, there can certainly be no doubt now. Here's Sayra's kitchen set

After that, we said goodbye to the kids and headed back to the van to drive to the village. When we got there, almost everybody was still in church. The evangelical missionaries made it up there, so everyone is evangelical (and I think that evangelicals are generally scary as shit, real loud and stuff, ya know), but I don't really know much about how their practice works up there. Anyway, we hung out, waiting for awhile. Luckily, Alejandro, Hilda, and Aydee (a teacher from the school who went with us) all speak Quechua fluently. I've mentioned Quechua before, it's the native language spoken here, and all of the people way out in the mountains speak Quechua- learning Spanish in school. Most people in Ayacucho are of Quechua descent, so the majority of people here speak Quechua too, but they're bilingual with Spanish. So, our Quechua speakers were able to communicate exactly what we were there for and talk to the little kids who don't know any Spanish yet.

Here's a picture of a little sweetie we met there. You can see that her face is all dry and cracked. Alejandro asked her if it hurt, and she said yes. Poor thing.

Now, more background info. In the US, KATC has found a friend in the Timbers Army Northern Alliance- a fan group for the Portland Timbers soccer team. Troy Maxcy read an article in the Columbian about my mom's work to raise money at Orchard's Elementary School, where she teaches, and he has since coordinated with the Timbers Army to help raise money for KATC. They had this great night at Burgerville where Brent Richards (a player from Camas) came out and did autographs and pictures and stuff, and proceeds from the food went to KATC, and people gave change, AND a bunch of people gave money to buy soccer balls for the kids in Peru. All-in-all, 24 balls were donated (not all of which we brought because customs wouldn't have liked that). We thought about what it would be best to do with the balls, and we decided that the kids up in the villages needed them more than the kids at the school here. There are a variety of toys and activities here, but soccer is one of the primary activities for the kids up there. With the rough conditions they play in- lots of rocks and pokey things, their balls pop a lot. And you can't exactly buy a new soccer ball in Rosaspampa, so the nice thick balls that the Timber Army sent are perfect for these kids. So, our trip yesterday was primarily to donate balls. Here's a picture of some kids playing with their old soccer ball

And here's a picture of Yamile and Alejandro inflating the balls.

When church got out, we got the president of the town and explained to him what we wanted to do. Then, we mobilized everybody to receive their bread and oranges. Here's everybody all lined up, getting their treats

And the result was some really happy faces

 

Then! We got down to soccer business! First, mom presented the president of the village with a Timbers scarf.

Next, we started out the fun business of getting out soccer balls, and the kids all flocked over! Notice the Tursi Soccer Store bag, they donated 50% of the balls! Thanks to them! And it looks like we've got a Timbers fan in the village president, doesn't it?

Then, GeGe gave out some volleyballs and jump ropes for the girls because girls don't really play soccer there.

And then the kids got to playing!

It was pretty fun to watch! Such sweet kids, and they were really enjoying themselves. And, they're pretty darn good at soccer considering most of them are pretty young!

Then, it was time to leave, but there were a lot of Alpaca in the road as we tried to get out. Our little friends from earlier were herding them back into town.

We got buy, and stopped out in the pampa for a picnic (pampa means field in quechua, so one would think that rosaspampa would be like a flowery field, but maybe rosas means something else in quechua, because I certainly did see any flowers up in this mountain climate). Now, when I think of a picnic, I think of mostly cold stuff and junky food, but you know what Aydee brought?? Puca. My life is just awesome. So yummy! Here's Jasson and Alejandro at our picnic (obviously roughing it, huh?)

Then, we had some leftover sweet bread and oranges, so we went to another village where we do Christmas stuff and gave the food to them! They were pretty happy, and this was a weaving village, so they pulled out some beautiful alpaca hats for us to look at, and we obviously had to get a few. Here's a little sweetie on his mom's back while she gets her treats. 

After that, we headed back to Ayacucho! On the way, we got stopped by the police again- lame. And they questioned Jasson as to why he was eating a lollipop, which we had brought for a fun snack. Alejandro got out to go talk to them, and they were being a pain I guess, but it turned out that they just wanted some lollipops, and we had some left, so we gave them to the police officers and they let us go ahead. Only one more police stop on the way home, and they let us go real quick, and then we were back in Ayacucho. It left us pretty tired, but what a great day!