Emails from Peru

From Hannah's 1st email:

I have been blessed beyond measure with my host family. I can honestly say that never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be in a situation in which I would feel like a part of someone else's family...and this is only after a week and a half. They have welcomed me with arms wide open and are extremely patient, friendly, inviting, and helpful to me! Last weekend all of the boys in the family (and there's a lot of boys) decided to gang up on me in a massive water fight. I was extremely drenched, but it's one of my favorite memories so far.

Cusco is one of the most incredible places I have ever been to at night. Cusco is surrounded by hills, and during the nights, the hills are covered in lights from houses, and the cathedrals are all lit in the plazas, and you feel like you are in a big bowl of light...it is absolutely stunning!

From Hannah's 2nd email:

Lago Titicaca truly is incredible. First of all, it is HUGE! Secondly, it is over 12,000 feet in altitude! Crazy! Third, it is split 60/40 with 60% of the Lake in Peru and 40% of the Lake in Bolivia. Lastly, it has quite a few natural islands which are gorgeous but even more spectacular is the fact that it has a TON of man-made floating islands. Each island is seriously about a 1/4 of a soccer field in length and and 1/8 in width...they are TINY. There are usually 4 or 5 families living on each island, and the only way to get to the next island is with a boat. There are naturally found reeds in Lake Titicaca that float on top of the water, and when you pile about 6 feet of reeds on top of each other and anchor them together, you can create an island. The last step is that they have to anchor these islands to the bottom of the Lake somehow so that they don't float away!

My job is amazing...I feel completely at home there now, and I have been able to make connections with a good majority of the boys (there are 50 of them in total). They are definitely boys and can sometimes be incredibly hard to work with or talk with or control, but they are my boys, and I love them. They have had such hard lives at such young ages, but their smiles and laughs are present all day long and when an occasional tear is shed, hugs and apologies quickly follow (usually!).

From Hannah's 5th email:

This week was Semana Santa (the week ending on Easter day). It was pretty cool because the procession passed right in front of us. I went to the orphanage in the morning on Thursday because the boys were putting on a reenactment of the Passion of Jesus and the stages of the cross. On Friday, the celebration continues with a procession going from one of the churches up to a large set of ruins called Sacsayhuaman. It was pretty cool to be there because the other volunteer and I were the ONLY tourists there. It was neat to see something that most people don't see. On Friday, I went with one of my host brothers and a LOT of his friends (there were about 17 of us!) to the country to play soccer and volleyball. This is exactly the kind of thing i love....being with native people out of the city and playing sports. On Wednesday, I went to one of the biggest soccer games that has ever been played here because it was against a team from Argentina called Boca Union who is apparently one of the best teams in the entire world. So, it was really cool that I got to go. The team from Cusco ended up winning 3-0! SWEET!

From Hannah's final email:

Peru was incredible, and I am so thankful that I had this opportunity to travel and learn about and from another culture in this extremely diverse world. The people I have met, the experiences I have had, and the passion I felt will forever stay etched in my mind and my heart. My host mom told me at the airport that I little piece of her heart was going home with me to a country that she had never visited and to a family that she had never met....but that's the incredible part about traveling....we build bridges between two cultures that might never have been made otherwise. And, just as part of her heart comes home with me, part of my heart has remained there and will remain there forever.