Day 6- Service Project at Albergue in Cusco

We left the Sacred Valley this morning for our final two days of service projects in Cusco. We arrived at the Albergue, a home for 22 children between the ages of 10-18. Most of them have parents who live on farms and in villages that don’t have access to schools, nor can they afford them, so they apply for their children to live at the Albergue and hope to get lucky. Most of the children have been sponsored to live here and go to school for at least 5 years. Some are fortunate enough to be educated for up to 7 years. When they leave the Albergue, they have a basic education and they have acquired some skills in carpentry, sewing, metalwork, cooking, and some basic life skills. Some of them will go on to become educators in their villages so that they can help their own communities.

Upon arrival at the Albergue, our teams were pumped and ready to work. We split into two teams. One group started building the Adobe brick walls of a future classroom and the other group started sanding pre-cut logs for a fence. It was a hot day, so we had to take several water and Gatorade breaks. They also prepared a tasty vegetarian lunch for us. It was a lot of heavy lifting, muddy, dusty and tiring work, but very gratifying when we were done for the day. We could see progress and were ready to continue working the next day.

But before we left the Albergue for the day, the kids treated us to a surprise talent show showcasing their traditional song and dance. They even managed to get some of us to get up and participate with them. After the performance they all came around and gave us hugs and thanked us for our time and effort with beautiful cards. Seeing their beautiful smiles made the day’s hard work all worthwhile.

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