Life in Peru

Me llamo Tomas. Gracias por leer el blog.

July 4th. I guess in America right now I would be preparing for a July 4th celebration but instead im preparing for what Jason calls "the best meal you'll ever eat." Anyway, Peru has been great. It is a totally different style of life. I cannot put it in words and for that reasons we have pictures(see below). My homestay family is great. Mitchell and I have started to teach them english and it is always entertaining. The food is great, however I do not know if I will be able to look at rice and potatoes the same when I get home. Its hard to write about everything because so much has been going on. Yesterday we spent 9 hours hiking 15 miles through the Andes. Im pretty sure that is more than anyone has ever hiked before. Climbing Mount Everest would have been an easy thing compared to this hike. However, it was a lot of fun. Sorry Ms. Barbakow, I am all over the place, no order to this blog, there is just to much to say. The people in Peru are very nice and some are amazed by Americans or as they call them "Greengos." The project on the school is going great. We had an unexpected start as when we opened the door we found 200 sacks of beans, each weighing between 200 and 300 pounds. That was hard working hauling those sacks out. Since then, we have made great progress. We cleaned the entire room and started our murals and painting. Funny thing, as we were hauling sacks Jason, our trip leader, looked at me and said, "at least you dont have to haul adobes, its the worst thing you will ever do." The next day the principal of the school asked us to move leftover adobe to the school from the train site. That was a whole lot of fun. Football workouts will be nothing after work in Peru. Dont get me wrong though, it is all so much fun. We have two great trip leaders, Jason and Adela. Jason is a 40 year old teacher from South Bend. He is a great guy. He has the knowledge and experience of a professional but the maturity of a teenagers. All the guys love Jason. He makes the trip fun. Adela is from Peru and currently lives in Ollantaytambo where we currently are. She is like a mother to all of us. She cares so much for us. Not only does she have a great heart, she knows all the ins and outs of Peru and knows how to get things done. I would take her as my mother. The two make a great team.

For a quick summary of the trip, we spent the first two days traveling due to many delays. We then spent three nights in homestays before heading out on the hike across all of the South America(just a joke). WE arrived at the hot springs and camped out. We woke up and left and headed to Ollantay. We will spend the night in the hotel/hostel here before heading back tomorrow for three more nights with our families. We then will come back to Ollantay for one night and then spend the night in Cusco one night before starting our trek back to Nashville. Life here is very different. It is simple. It is hard to explain. Peru is beautiful. The mountains are incredible. I dont think I have been surrounded my such much beauty before in my life. It is relaxing.

Well this have been quite a long blog. I got to go and head out to this incredible dinner. Peru is a different experience. I look foward to getting back to Nashville but I am enjoying my time here.

PS-I forget some stuff. So there are no toilets in our homestays so when nature calls we use holes.

PS 2- WE all got to take our first showers today and they felt great.

Well Mom and DAd, I love you and hope you guys enjoyed Turks and Caicos. Enjoy your last week without me.

Thanks for reading the blog, I hoped you enjoyed Caroline, Kate, and I's blogs. Enjoy the pictures.

TD for 3