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Location: MySmallHelp Peru, Ollantaytambo
Today, we went to Andres’s house up in the mountains. He is a very nice man that was unfortunately disabled at birth and our goal today was to help him build his dream adobe brick house. The roads up the mountain were very windy, and a few got carsick, but we were all happy once we reached our 4000-meter destination and were able to finally get out of the car. When we got there, we were split into three groups. One group was cutting hay, another group was removing soft dirt to make clay bricks, and the third group was stomping on the wet dirt with bare feet to mix up the water and clay. It felt a lot like mashing grapes to make wine, but it kinda hurt! We ended up making 43 adobe bricks for Andres’s house. It was awesome! Then, we had lunch, and it was so good. After that, everyone went outside, and we took a bunch of pictures around a pretty lake. We then went back to work, and I carried so many logs that I almost died. But I didn’t! We then started our 2-hour ride back home. This time we kept the windows open so we wouldn’t get carsick again. When we got back to our hotel, Meca, Mariana, and Evan were being super mysterious and aloof, and we had no idea what was going on. They went inside and grabbed a box which looked like it had to have had a cake in it (hm… I wonder who that might be for… *cough* Jada). We then walked to a pizza restaurant and picked up a ton of boxes of pizza for dinner. When we got to the MySmallHelp house, we thought we would be having a party there. No. Still, no one told us where we were going! We proceeded to walk into a public farm and were told this: “If you see red eyes, it’s just the reflection of our flashlights on the bull’s eyes, don’t worry, they are just part of the farm and won’t do anything because they are contained and tied up.” We started walking along a trail bordered by small streams. Evan gave Jada a piggyback ride the whole time since she dropped her shoes in a river (she made a birthday wish when she sent off her second one). Once we were away from the lights, we saw the most incredible stars ever. We kept walking but eventually decided to turn back to leave the bulls alone to eat and rest. What a day to remember! Happy Birthday, Jada 🙂