Ancient Incan Ruins

A Peace Corps friend who lives in a mountain town close by recently came to Huallanca to visit me and we went to explore some ancient Incan ruins that are about an hour away from Huallanca. The ruins were in a stunning and peaceful valley surrounded my beautiful mountains and farm animals where an Incan man used to live who was there to protect the area from the invasion of the Spaniards. The ruins were fascinating and we loved picturing where and how the Incans lived so long ago. It also got us both very excited to see the famous ancient Incan ruins of Machu Piccu! Our families will both be visiting us in June and we will be going to Machu Piccu with them to see the beauty of the Incan ruins!

Here are some photos of the Incan ruins that are close to Huallanca:

Beautiful countryside

Leland and I! It was fun having another volunteer visit my area :) My first visitor!

The start of the Incan ruins

The inside of what use to be the home of an Incan. 

A doorway

Entrance to the home

The "bath house". 

There are always adorable children in Peru no matter where you go :)

Summer School (Vacaciones útiles)

It is summer here in Peru and I have been teaching summer school classes to a very cute but rowdy group of about 35 students ages 5-12. Here they called it “vacaciónes útiles” which literally means “useful vacations”. I teach two classes per day for an hour each, four days a week. My two classes are English and self-esteem. We also have a book club two days a week after class in the library of the municipality. The library has quite a few brand new children’s books that were recently donated by one of the local mining companies which is awesome because before that there wasn’t even a library in Huallanca. Even though the students are very unruly and class can get pretty crazy, I am really enjoying my adorable students and I am glad to provide something educational for them to do during the summer :) 

Playing games after class.

They are so precious :)

Book club :)

I just adore them!

Please note that yes, in Peru it's ok for dogs to hang out in the class room. 

We took a "nature walk" to the top of a small mountain. The kids really enjoyed it!

Pen Pals

The Peace Corps has a program called “World Wise Schools” in which Peace Corps Volunteers write monthly letters to classes in the US about the country where we live and what the culture is like here, what we do here, etc. I write monthly letters to several different classes in the US and back in September I had one of my classes write letters to a Spanish class that I correspond with in San Diego, California (my sister in law is the teacher!). The students in San Diego responded to the letters that my students wrote them and we received a packet of letters from them which was VERY exciting for my students because none of them have ever received a piece of mail in their lives. The closest place to receive mail is in Huaraz which is 4 hours away from Huallanca and you must pay to have a postbox, so obviously receiving mail is a luxury that most people in Peru don't have which is why this was so exciting for my students. They each had their own letter addressed to their name and they were SO excited to open their very own letter that came all the way from the US. Receiving not only a piece of mail but a special letter from a student their age in a foreign country was a very big deal to them. The mail system is very slow here, and it was a process of at least 2 months to send the letters and then receive their responses, but it was all worth the wait to see the look on my student’s faces when they received their letters :)

My students wanted me to take some photos of them to share with the students in San Diego :)

They also wanted me to share some photos with them of what Huallanca looks like :)

Our cute little Huallanca nestled in the mountains of Peru. 

Our high school.

Dog Bite

 The inevitable finally happened...I got bit by a dog while on a run yesterday morning. I was by myself in the middle of nowhere and it bled a lot and it was a very unpleasant experience which I never hope to repeat again. Thankfully I already had rabies shots so now I just need to get a few more boosters but I have been well taken care of my host family and friends and doctors here. It was inevitable because there are a ton of wild street dogs in Peru and I go running nearly every day and I was always kind of scared that getting bitten by a dog would eventually happen. I was planning to do a half marathon in May but now I am terrified to go running and get bitten by another dog...but I will figure something out because running has always been a big part of my life and I won't let it get taken from me.

There was lots of blood but the bite could have been a lot worse. 

It could have been worse! I was left with only two bite marks thankfully.

Thankfully I have these adorable cousins around to put a smile back on my face!! My family was really supportive and helpful. My host parents and siblings are gone in Lima but thankfully there are still a few cousins and aunts around to hang out with!

Making bread with my host aunts.