6 Weeks Voluntary Work at Ollantaytambo

Well... Our 6 weeks voluntary work in Ollantaytambo have come to an end. We are back in Cusco and are preparing ourselves for Machu Picchu!

The 6 weeks have gone very quickly. It is amazing howe welcome and home I have felt during these weeks. Since we started working at the schools a lot of kids recognised us on the streets and in shops and I never thought it would be that rewarding. The first school I started at turned out to be a bit of hard to work at. There was no support of teachers at all. And with classes of 30 to 40 kids that makes it very hard to control them all... The teachers were supposed to help in class but all of them seemed more interested in their free time. So after 5 days of hard work I decided to stop at this scholl and make switch to a different one. The ´collegio´ needed a PE teacher very badly and the support from the head master and staff were very helpfull. So from 8.00 to 13.45 I have been teaching 12 classes per week with Tuesdays as a day off, so 3 grades per day. The ages varied from 10 to 17 years old with the remark that it is possible in Peru to be 15 years old and still be in 2nd grade. You fluke, you do it again! I have enjoyed working with youngsters. It reminded me of the time when I was a leader at Jong Nederland in the 90´s. Some of the kids can be a real pain in the ass but most of them were really cool. And since I was the only teacher they were aloud to call by the first name it created a more personal relationships with the students. Most teachers are called ´profe´ or ´professora´. I prefer the personal aproach, which led to a lot of chit chats with the students. And since I came to Ollantaytambo in the first place to teach some serious football I had a sort of Football Masterclass every Tuesday and Thursday in the stadium from 15.00 to 17.00. About 20 to 25 kids would turn up and I would show them some basics of the game like passing and kicking a ball to combinations and gameplay. The only problem was that Awamaki didn´t really have the materials to do a decent training. From week 4 onwards I was able to do a proper shoot out or gameplay. And the kids really loved it! Some of them I already knew from the ´collegio´ and some of them were new or were from a different area. I found out that some kids had to walk 1 to 2 hours to make it to the training! What a dedication... And that means that in the mornings they also had to walk the same distance to go to school. At Thursdays after school the teachers would play a match of football against the students which I found a bit strange to witness. It reminded me of that movie were the prisoners play a match of rugby against the guards of a prison. Whatever the kids did to try to score a goal they got overruled by the teachers. A bit unfair in my opinion... A funny fact to share is the next one: I have become the godfather of the local collegio´s team, also called The Estudiantes. The head master asked me if I could coach them in the competition. So at the first match I had to baptise the shirts with Inka Kola in good Inca tradition for good luck. And then he asked me if I would like to become the godfather of the team. Well, what an honour!

Ollantaytambo is a small village that mainly depends on the heavy stream of tourists every day going to Machu Picchu. Every morning lots of buses arrive in town for breakfast and in the late afternoon they come back to go to Cusco again. Ollantaytambo is the first town of the so called Sacred Valley. A bit further on the road is the wellknown 82km point from where the famous Inca Trail starts. The main roads ends and lots of tourists make their way on the 4 day hike to Machu Picchu. Ollantaytambo also has a train station but since the massive flooding early this year they closed the railway for repairs. And they don´t really know when it will open again. We also did some hiking in the area. There are lots of tracks from 1 day to 6 days tracks. We went to see Pumamarca, a 5 hours walk, and went to see the ancient Inca quarry Canteras. There are still big rocks that are ready to be moved to Ollantaytambo for construction but never made it there because the Spanish Conquistadores came and killed lots of people working at the quarry. Some skeletons are still visible in a cave at Canteras. But everywhere you go the views are so stunning. The Andes have such an impact on everything that happens at the Sacred Valley. Before I arrived in Peru I already had a great interest in the Inca culture but since I have seen what they manage to build and create my admiration for the Incas has only grown bigger. Go and see for yourselves!

Our host family has treated us wonderfully. We have become good friends with them and I think the match worked out very well. Miguel and Zeneyda have 2 restaurants in town and during the day they are either busy with their businesses or with Awamaki. Sometimes the mother of Miguel would make our lunch or dinner because they were off to Urubamba or being busy with other things. The meals varied from quick restaurant food to proper Peruvian dishes like Chicheron with a Chicha Morada (purple corn) drink which they prepared freshly. One week we had a massive 12 dishes meal. This was the Semana Santa and for every discipel of Christ they had a dish. In that week I went to see a procession at night to the top of the ruins. It was impressive to see the ruins at night and the view from the top was breathtaking. The nice thing about staying in a family is you get to know all their brothers and sisters too. One day the ´abuela´ (Miguels´ mother) had her birthday and we went to her B-Day party and met a lot of the rest of the family. And one of their nephews Gustavio was a student at the ´collegio´ so I saw him regurlarly. Zeneyda´s father also has a shop at the plaza, which Miguel actually would like to convert into another restaurant. In general he is a busy person with his activities at Awamaki, besides the two restaurants. And then again, he would like to open a hotel in town... He told us he has connections with National Geographic. Every year they have 2 groups of about 30 persons coming to Ollantaytambo for which he organises everything, from tours to stays and dinners. He is a very relaxed person. I never saw him angry or stressed out. The only time he was upset was when one of his dogs got poisened. Drago was the King of the Plaza. He ruled over all the other dogs. But funny enough he was a very kind dog. He reminded me of Jimmy, the dog in The Valley, New Zealand. He had the same attitude. Together with Fido, the other dog of Miguel, he would walk us to school and even when we would go out at night for a drink he would accompany us to the bar and wait for us at the door to join us when we would go back home. Incredible! I miss my dog!!!!

My time in Ollantaytambo has been a valuable experience. Since we left Holland and the UK last year I haven´t felt anything like this. It feels weird not to be there anymore, although we will go back for the Pentecoste festival. This will be in the end of May and means 4 days of drinking, eating and dancing... We will see!

For now I can only say: Machu Picchu here we come!

Adios amigos!

Ray