Alexa - Tuesday

Today we began our work on the greenhouses first thing in the morning and worked straight through until lunch. We were working on the greenhouse for a man in the village who is unable to work, making this project especially important. It was difficult work because we had to make barro and then use it to make the walls of the greenhouse out of adobe bricks. Last night, we had decided to try working as one big team instead of splitting up into groups of two or three. After some time, we discovered that this was a better plan, because we managed to get more work done in a shorter amount of time. Also, this allowed us all to learn the importance of teamwork. Each person had their own job, enabling everyone to participate in the project and feel as though they were helping. Using this system, we managed to complete a good part of the walls of the greenhouse by lunchtime. This was only about four hours, making it a successful day.
After lunch, we were scheduled to have Quechua classes in the school, but some of the group misheard the meeting time, and so were late. The boys thought we were supposed to meet at two in the school, when it was really half an hour earlier. When Lucy, Sachi, and I showed up at the school and the boys weren’t there, we decided to go up and get them. While we were gone, the director of the school, who was going to teach us for the day, came and said he could not wait for all of us to show up since it was already past the scheduled time. This was an important lesson for all of us about the importance of communication. This simple error in communication ruined one of our activities. As the boss of the day, I learned that I need to make sure that everyone has the correct information and that I should double check that the entire group is ready before heading to the activity.
After this confusion, we went to the house of Mama Adela and Visser to learn how to tejer. This is the weaving that the women of the Awamaki create. Several of the women came and helped us all make our own creations, including bracelets and belts. At first, it was difficult to do, but after some practice it became easier. I made a belt that, with the help of one of the women, has my name on it. It looks really cool and I’m glad I had the chance to learn how to tejer. The entire time, multiple people came in and out of the house to chat with the family and us. It was then that I was able to see how close-knit and caring the community of Patacancha really is.