This morning I had art class with grades 5 and 6. As it is festival month in Cusco, we did posters of all the different festivals happening this month. The kids seem to enjoy it.
June is Cusco´s month for festivals, including the favous Inti Raymi sun festival. There is a festival on every day and the plaza de ames in Cusco is always crowed.
In the afternoon I was on community work.
We took a bed (with mattress, sheets, pillow and blanket) to a family in need.
They live in the Pumamarca village. The house is a reasonable size compared to some, although it is made of mud brick and has dirt floors and no doors or windows.
The mother has a brain tumor, caused by eating tainted pork. She was operated on but she needs another operation and the village is trying to help raise money for the operation. She is the only Peruvian lady I have seen that does not have long black plaits (her hair was cut for the operation). The tumor is benign but it keeps growing and is affecting her short term memory. When we arrived Iris (the social worker) asked her where her husband was and his name and she couldn´t remember. It was very sad. Her husband works his own fields, which feeds his family, but he does not have another job where he can raise any money.
They have four children who go to the Pumamarca school. At the moment the four children (2 boys and 2 girl aged 10 to 2 years) sleep in the one single bed with a hard woven straw base. The bedroom is a small mudbrick room with a dirt floor, which also serves as a storage room for potatoes that are piled up in a corner on the dirt floor. The bed we brought to them was for the boys and they were so excited about it and thrilled with the colourful sheets we brought. We had to erect the bed and make it up for them and they kept getting in the way trying to help.
I know the children from school and it is always interesting to see where they live when they are not at school. At school they all seem like normal happy kids. You would never imagine their circumstances. I think the little 10 year old girl has already taken on a lot of responsibilities along with the older boy.
They remember me from school and their excitement about amiga Jenny coming to their house was very touching.
I always get very emotional when I go on these visits. I have been doing it twice a week during our stay and it is always tragic. You cannot imagine the plight of these people unless you see it for yourself. The past governments have a lot to answer for. Hopefully in time things will improve, although with the present government I do not hold out much hope.
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