Protests...no transport....no trabajar....

We woke up this morning to rain - a rare occurance this time of year in Cusco. We´ve officially decided we are going to have to invest in some warm, alpaca socks to keep our feet cozy for the rest of the trip. I mistakenly left the house this morning in sandals.....
Yesterday we visited our work site. We take a bus from Cusco to a village about 25 km (15 miles) outside of the city. It takes about 45 minutes to get there on a crowded bus that only slows down for passengers to get on and off. Once we arrive in the town, we have to walk for about 20 minutes down a dirt road to get to the orphanage. Yesterday was the first time we truly felt like we were in a developing country. There are currently 10 children between ages 5 and 18 that live there. They are all boys. They are all in school in the morning and get home by 1pm. It looks like they would rather have us work with los niños (kids) on their school work and spend time with them than do construction at the orphanage. They are currently creating an enclosed garden area that we may be able to help with as well. They get a lot of hail in this area, so they would like a covered garden so their crops will not be damaged.
We met the staff yesterday, but only one of the kids (we´re not sure why he wasn´t in school). They were all very kind and welcoming. None of the staff members speak any English, so communication was very difficult. The dialect is different than what we have been hearing in Cusco too, so I felt like I knew so much less than I originally thought I did. The orphanage only has 1 location of running water outside. There is electricity (which surprised us). The facilities are pretty poor - only open windows and doors and reeds make up the roofs. The bathroom (el baño) was recently built, and is most likely better than what they had before, but the floor is covered with at least an inch of water all the time. We felt more in the way than helpful yesterday, but think that will change when we go back there tomorrow and spend time with the kids. We think we will teach them how to play UNO (which we taught our host family the other night and had a great time playing with them).
We have our first Español class today. Todd is in ¨pre-intermediate´¨ and Correne is in ¨high-basic´´(I guess the test didn´t go as bad as I thought it did!) We are unable to go to work because the city is protesting ´¨cuesta de la vida¨ today (the cost of living and gas prices). public transportation is not running, therefore we cannot get to where we need to go. So, we will go to Spanish class and then head back to our home until everything reopens and we are able to continue exploring this beautiful city.
We have set up a trip to Machu Picchu for this weekend. We take a train that leaves Saturday morning and will return Sunday night. We´re very excited to experience what we´ve heard to be the most amazing site in all of Peru.
Until next time.....hasta luego!
-C & T