To Speak of a Town in Review

Hmm… this will be a strange update, and i am unsure of how to structure it.

i believe that i will endeavour first to recount the events of the past few days in the fashion of other updates, then to discuss what i anticipate over the next few weeks, and finally to take a retrospective approach towards what i have experienced and what has been impressed upon me during my three weeks in the area around Cusco.

First: Two short-term trips arrived in Cusco on Saturday. i am capable of translating to some extent, and translators are always in short supply… so my services as a translator have been made use of ever since.

On Sunday afternoon i played two hours of soccer with some of the local men and men from the church. i’m not good for too many consecutive sprints up and down the field at 11,000 feet… but having such a leveling experience with them was very refreshing and enjoyable. As i would make runs down the sideline, my name became samuel instead of gringo. It is nice to be seen as on the same level as everybody else rather than as distant or strange or foreign.

On Sunday night i translated for the short term teams at the church’s youth service. After having not translated anything since last July, it was a little bit of a shock to my system to dive back into the world of translating by translating a sermon… but i made it through the night alive, fear ye not.

Thanks to the pleasure of wonderful conversation, i got not so much sleep on Sunday night.

But Monday allowed me to take a laid back morning before resuming translating in the afternoon.

The two groups worked on two main projects today: a massive expansion project at the clinic that the missionaries run, and a Vacation Bible School for some of the nearby kids.

i spent most of my time trying to corral the children and trying to communicate to them what the short-term teams were saying. Included is a picture from some game time at the park across the street from the church.



As dusk approached we returned to the clinic, where the others were still hard at work. Here Keith makes sure that a section of the framework for the flooring is square.



i post this update on Tuesday morning. i will be translating more on Tuesday afternoon and for much of the day on Wednesday. On Thursday i pack up and leave Cusco… which brings me to a natural point in this update at which to speak of what i have experienced here… however, before i do that, i will address what the next several weeks will likely hold for me.

So second: As i just mentioned, i leave Cusco on Thursday night. i do not have a rigid itinerary, however my expectation is that i will be in the village of Choco by Monday or Tuesday, and probably by no later than Wednesday. i plan to spend about a week in Choco, during which time i will spend time with old friends, play soccer with the men of the town, take pictures of waterfalls for Lisa, and hopefully visit the mines on the Colca River.

After that week has passed, i will backpack farther up into the valley in which Choco is located, with the intention of reaching the town of Mina. i will spend one or two days in Mina, and then perhaps attempt to locate the town of Pullcho, which may or may not exist, and may or may not be located at over 16,000 feet above sea level if it does indeed exist.

i will probably not spend more than one night in Pullcho, though, if i even spend a night there. Within a day or two i will endeavour to backpack over Paso Cerani, from which i will be six thousand feet of descent away from the town of Andagua. From Andagua i will be able to catch a bus back to Arequipa, where i will hopefully arrive by July 6 or 7.

From June 22 until July 7 i do not expect to ever have access to the internet. As a result… i won’t update my blog. If i find a way to update my blog without accessing the internet, i’ll be sure to let you know. But perhaps news of my continued survival will make it to my blog once or twice while i’m out, and be sure to check back in a week or so into July, for i am sure that i will have something of some interest to say for the time that i was out and about.

Which brings me to my third point, a brief retrospective with regards to my time in Cusco.

This is a topic about which i have had many thoughts over the past several days… and none of these thoughts have been written down, and as a result, most of these thoughts for all intents and purposes no longer exist now.

i came to Cusco desiring to get my feet under me a little bit more firmly, to spend time with relatives, to try to connect a little bit more with the people, and to do a little bit of hiking. i feel that i largely succeeded in these intentions.

Further, i was able to see a great deal of pressure fall from my shoulders as i made an effort to enjoy photography more than i forced photography, and instead took time to try to read and to learn. Perhaps i have succeeded a little bit in this, and if so, that in itself has made my time here worthwhile.

i climbed 1700 feet higher than i have ever been before.

And so my time in Cusco has been profitable.

But i feel that it is indeed drawing near to time to move on. My aim in this trip was to spend much of my time in remote and extremely rural villages. i am currently in a village, yes, and most of the people in this village speak Quechua, yes… yet it is not what i had aimed to experience when i left for this trip. It is a few short miles away from an urban setting. Cars drive up and down the road all day. Where i aim to be a week from now is miles from the nearest road, and that nearest road sees little more than a car or two per day. i think that it will be stimulating for my photography and for my mind and for my soul.

So onward i go… i will update at least once more before i leave for Choco, but will have begun my travels by Thursday night.

And yay road trips! Do enjoy, spake he, Alabama and German companionship.