Mantay y La Virgen de la Natividad

On Saturday we went to our first work project at a place called Mantay. Mantay is a home for young, single mothers on the outskirts of Cusco (when we got there if you looked up all you could see were mountains). The mothers are ages 12-18 (some very young) and they come to Mantay because their families have cast them out and they have no other option. Many times they have been raped and/or sexually abused. Sometimes by members of their own families. A couple from Spain runs the builiding. Their names are Sergio and Raquel. Raquel gave us a tour of the building and explained the situations these mothers are in when they arrive. She gave us the history of Peruvian laws governing rape. Until recently, rape of women over 14 was only considered "seduction". It was also easy for men to get out of serving their jail time if they paid the fine or if they agreed to marry the girl. It seems like things have improved in writing, but in enforcement there are still a lot of problems with violence against women and how it is approached. If they could not come to Mantay, these mothers would likely abandon their children, so it is a good way for them to learn to take care of themselves and their children. The home offers schooling for many of them who have not had the opportunity to be educated. There is also a full time therapist that works with the mothers and sometimes the mothers along with their children. They have a rotation in which they take turns washing the children´s laundry, watching the children, and working in the workshop as well as performing other chores.

Our job as the ProPeru group was to work on finishing up a new workshop and digging a trench for an electric line that would go out to the new building. Previous ProPeru groups constructed the workshop itself, so our job was to finish up the painting and work on the trench. It was tough work, and at times it felt like we weren´t contributing much. But Mike, Adam, and Sandra had already spoken to us about our sweat equity. While generally one volunteer without training can do very little in terms of manpower and hard work, the idea is more that we want to help and that we participate in a community effort. Digging the trench with pic axes was pretty strenuous work, and I found myself drifting to the painting crew where I felt like I could contribute more.

Around lunch time, I made a little friend named Maria. She is two years old and she lives at the home. She was immediately holding my hand and wanting me to play with her and I really enjoyed her company! She was pretty funny, she even wanted to help paint. When I get the chance I will put up some pictures of her so you can see.

After working at Mantay we were all exhausted, but it was a Saturday night and we wanted to go out. My host brother Edson took me over to a friend´s house where another of the volunteers named Dane lives. There they served us a lot of tequila so I didn´t buy drinks while we were out. I had fun dancing at the discotecas, but I missed my friends at home. I missed knowing people on the dance floor and hearing all of my favorite songs mixed by Sameera. But I had fun anyway, even though I was the first to go home and tumble, exhausted, into my bed.

The next day I got up to meet my friend Denis from the airport at a bus stop we both know. She took me shopping for Steph´s birthday present and showed me some parts of the city I wouldn´t see as a tourist. At one point we came to a market full of women selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables in huge baskets. It was amazing. I have never seen so much fruit in one place. We also went to a festival for the Virgin of the Nativity. About 90 percent of the population here is Catholic, so there are these kind of festivals for various Virgins all the time. They have Peruvians dressed in sparkling outfits doing traditional dances of all kinds and from different parts of the country. One was from the jungle, many were from Puno which is near Lake Titicaca, and others were from the Cusco regions. Denis was partial to the ones from Cusco because she thinks the Puno bands play the music too loud to the point that it is unrecognizable!

It was really great to talk to Denis and to have a friend from Cusco! We can really relate to eachother since she was recently in my situation when she was in Orlando working at Disney World. She told me she doesn´t want to stay around in Peru after she graduates. She has dreams of getting a scholarship to study in Russia or in Spain in the future. Now that she has left Peru, she has some serious wanderlust!

We were talking about how there is less personal space here and you hug and kiss people when you greet them. She said that at first in Orlando she was afraid to hug and kiss her friends because she thought they would be offended and wouldn´t understand. But then she realized that they thought it was nice! I really enjoyed my time with her and hope I will continue to get to know her while I´m here.