Casa Cunca

Hola! You will have to forgive me not posting yesterday. I had, shall we say, some major intestional issues. Hope the problem is all cleared up now, but I am still not feeling quite right. Ugh. Hate being ill on trips. So I have a bit to fill you in on. Yesterday we went out to a little village called Casa Cunca, which means house with a neck. Wierd I know. We went there to help them paint their school as well help repair a green house. Apparently this little village grows over 200 types of potatoes. Yeah, I didn't know there were that many types of potatoes either. Their poor village is located at approximately 12,800 feet up, and with all the flooding that has been happening, their little mud houses are starting to be washed away. They told us that if they have one more flood their houses will wash right off the mountain.

This little truck is what got us up the last part of the hill.
Our bus was too big to go over a steep curve in the road,

and by luck this little truck pulled up right as we needed it to.
We all piled in the back and up we went.

The drive to the village was absolutely georgeous. I have never seen such beautiful scenery. Everything was so green. The road that we were driving on very rarely has cars on it, as the people of the village do not own any sort of transportation. They walk the 3ish hours to the nearest city if they need anything. In face, many of the children walk to school 2 hours in the morning, and then 3 hours to get home, every single day.
The kids were a little bit apprehensive of us when we first arrived. They didn't quite know what to do with a bunch of white people. I don't know if they have ever seen "our kind" before. We brought some toys with us, some balls, jumpropes, bubbles, and candy. They loved candy. After a bit they warmed up to us a little, but their little brows were always a little bit furrowed.

His beautiful little face just captivated me. Precious.

It was nice to be able to get out and work with the people. I was very grateful to be able to serve and play and love on the little ones. Towards the end of the day, when the older kids got out of school, we played a little game of soccer, which is always fun. Of course the kids are amazing, and could beat every single one of us. It was a lot of fun and over all a very nice day. It is always so humbling to see the circumstances that these people live in on a day to day basis. I am always amazed at the happiness and joy they can find in the simplicity, yet hardships of their lives. What an awesome thing to live in such a beautiful place, so untouched by the outside world.