Today marks the end of day three of our toilet building extravaganza! On day one, our group of 15 was split into four groups. Each group was assigned to a household in Maska and we’ve been working with our assigned hosts to build their toilet on their property since day one. Originally, the plan was that after day 4 we would all switch households so that we would get a chance to work with different members of our U of O team as well as to work with different members of our host community. However, plans changed tonight when we all unanimously voted to stay with our original hosts through the duration of our projects. We like the idea of seeing our individual toilets to the finish and we are enjoying the bonds that we are creating and the cultural barriers that we are breaking with our host families.

Time seems to be flying by with only 4.5 days left at our project sites and with our visit to Macchu Picchu merely 4 days away. It’s a reminder to enjoy every moment of this trip, even the moments when carrying large buckets of mud and assorted animal feces up slippery hills. Something that I have noticed is how incredibly hardworking the people of this community are. We get to our site in the morning and our host, Romulo, is already mixing cement. We go to lunch, and when we return he’s already placed the next layer of adobe.  He works so quickly and so efficiently. Sometimes we find ourselves with little work to do because he can get a job done just as fast, if not faster, than the four of us could. Nonetheless, he gives us different tasks to do, and always giggles with us when we make mistakes and attempt to proclaim our frustration with our mistakes in Spanish. It’s been such a joy and such a learning experience thus far. Every group is having a very different experience and every night we get to exchange experiences over dinner. Dinner then leads to a walk into town where we hunt down new Peruvian treats to try…or maybe just some cheesecake…and tonight that lead to a very rambunctious game of cards in one of our hotel rooms. It’s been a fantastic trip so far and I know that we’re all looking forward to the days to come!

Tinkunanchiskama,

(Quechua for “farewell”)

Daryl