Hi Everyone!
I am so looking forward to the trip to Peru! I have spoken with Raul Chiappe, the Director of the Pukllasunchis School, several times this week, and they are also very enthusiastic about our arrival and the workshop process. They are new partners for us, as you may know, and while Bridges has worked in Peru for many years, Cusco will be new for us as well.
Last September, my husband Tony and I went on a reconnaissance trip to Peru to see how and where Bridges could grow. We were looking for a school environment that had similar ideals, and valued cross cultural learning. We also looked for infrastructure that Bridges could plug into and strengthen with our mission and resources. Pukllasunchis fills all of these hopes and more. I hope you will check out their website before we leave (www.pukllasunchis.org), and learn about all of the work that this amazing NGO is doing to support and preserve original Andean cultures as well as help the youth of this country fulfill their potentials and their dreams. I can honestly say that meeting these dedicated staff members and watching this school operate helped me see a future full of hope and fairness for our world. We will do our best to get close to that vision while we are there.
I will be working closely with our Crooked Trails staff member, Emily Affolter, in Cusco, as well as the administration of the school to be sure that the logistics as planned will actually be implemented. I speak Spanish quite well, although not perfectly. I will rely on each of you to let me know if you have communication needs that I am not responding to, ok? This is really important to me. And one more thing, I suppose it is advice: even if you don't speak Spanish there are lots of ways to communicate and the first weekend of the workshop will be an opportunity to let go of inhibitions and play whatever charades are necessary to make friends with the students and teachers of Pukllasunchis. They all speak some English, so between all of us, we can break down language barriers at the beginning of the trip if we try. From our experience in Guatemala, this is one way to maximize the rewards of this project. For those of you who do speak Spanish, we will be doing some optional sessions for learning Spanish and it would be great to have you attend as well, sharing tips for remembering phrases, those funny associations and experiences always help the process along.
Everyone reports that Cusco is colder than usual this year, so bring snuggly clothes for night time, and layers for the days. Dress can be pretty casual at the school and around town in Cusco. We will go to a weaving village on the fist Sunday of the trip, and that could be a great place to buy a warm sweater or shawl directly from an artisan.
Countdown! See you in Cusco!
Un saludo, Jennifer Geist
