Day 4 – On the fourth day of the trip we headed along the twisty roads to the Sacred Valley of Peru with our amazing driver, Gustavo! We went to the Lamay Nutrition for Change program for lunch to help distribute food to the kids from the local school. This program is designed to provide the children from Lamay village and the surrounding hills with a daily breakfast and lunch, as well as a multi-vitamin. The children who participate in the program often walk for 2 hours or more, to and from school each day. The program has improved the children’s health, school attendance and is also helping them to focus and work hard in their classes. Through funds raised from Eat So They Can 2010, we were able to grant $2,500 towards this program. In the afternoon, we visited a girls orphanage and had heaps of fun playing volleyball, soccer, and a Peruvian version of duck, duck, goose - guinea pig, guinea pig, llama!
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| Girls enjoying their lunch at the Lamay Nutrition for Change Program |
Day 5 – We decided to include one day of tourism during the distribution trip for two reasons. First, I wanted our team to be able to see some of the incredible sights in the Sacred Valley, and second, because Geovanna from the orphanage we support had recently graduated as a tour guide! Geovanna grew up at the orphanage where we launched the Peruvian Promise Program and is the first of the girls to leave the orphanage and graduate as a professional! We are so proud of her!
Geovanna came to our hotel in the morning and took us to Pisac, a small town in the Sacred Valley. On the way she told us her story of how she had ended up in the orphanage and shared her hopes for the other girls there. We visited the local market and then Geovanna took us on a tour of the Pisac ruins. We were all so impressed with how professional, confident and knowledgeable she was!
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| Geovanna, our Tour Guide |
Day 6 – We had a VERY early start on Friday as they are doing work on the road to the community of Pampallacta where we were headed and we had to get there before the road closed at 6am! The road to Pampallacta is full of hairpin bends and big drop offs, and I have to admit that I had a few doubts along the way as to whether this was such a good idea! It was therefore a big relief when we got to the top of the mountain – until we saw that a big trench had been dug in the road and there was no way across. We started trying to fill the ditch with dirt and then someone from the community lent us some planks of wood, and after lots of pointing, shouting, and manoeuvring, we managed to get our van over the ditch!
As soon as we arrived at Pampallacta we all knew it was worth it! Watching the children running down the mountains to come and see us, and seeing their smiles when they saw the balloons and hot chocolate, was such a great feeling! Peruvian Hearts also run their Nutrition for Change program at Pampallacta school, and we hope to be able to support them with funds raised from future ESTC events.
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| Pampallacta Party! |
Day 7 – On our last day we returned to Cusco for a cooking workshop! By this point, all our team were starting to think about their ESTC 2011 events so this was a great way for us to get some recipes and ideas! We cooked nachos and guacamole for starters, and ají de gallina for the main course. We’ll be uploading our ají de gallina recipe onto our recipe guide soon so keep an eye out for it – and don’t forget to send us your recipes too! http://www.eatsotheycan.org/resources/recipes
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| Gigi in the Kitchen! |
A huge thank you to our distribution team for being such a fun, compassionate and hard-working group! And of course a special thank you to all our hosts for making our work possible. I’ve returned from this trip with even more motivation and energy for ESTC this year!
Together we are changing lives – one meal at a time!
- Eliza
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