New Weekly Reports from Cusco

Intern Geoffrey here, I have been writing weekly reports for ASCEND HQ and the Hinckley Institute for internal reporting. They are written for a general audience so I will share them with you here.

Week 7 2/22/10-2/26/10 Cusco, Peru Geoffrey Strom

We began our journey by loading up the truck with crutches, a wheelchair, and two shovels. The crutches and wheelchair were for a young man in the small mountain town of Patabamba. The two shovels were for digging the wheels out of the mud which is common on the high Andean dirt road toward Quenko. On the highway outside of Cusco we passed the prominent roadside Incan ruins of Saqsawaman and Puca Pucara. After getting of the highway a few towns into the Inca's Sacred Valley, the hard pack single track road began. Up and up we went, the valley slowly opened like a mouth as the towns below became smaller and smaller. Traversing various valleys we came upon expansive fields of flowers, steep mountainside cultivations, herders and their sheep and a few kids who needed a lift back to their house further down the road. They had woken up at five, before the sun, to walk to their family's fields to tend them and harvest grass to feed their cuyes. After dropping them off in their community we climbed so more before dropping into a valley with a tremendous view of the Vilcanota River and city of Coya below.

The river was of muddy contrast to the bright summer greens of the skirts of the mountains which encompassed it. Evidence of the previous month's flooding along the river could be seen as brown stains in otherwise green and healthy fields. All of these communities had been affected by the torrential rain either directed through crop damage or due to the drop in tourism and coincidently sales of their textiles. We eventually made it to Patabamba, situated on an angular plateau straddled by two forested ravines. Only having passed a few of the reddish brown adobe houses of the community did Tim spot the intended recipient of the mobility enhancing devices. Lidio was sitting on a cinderblock in a muddy area between houses as we approached him. He explained to us that his mother was at a weekly community meeting and his father was working. He remembered the ASCEND expedition that came through a year before and we wheeled his gift towards him. He propped himself up on two cane-like sticks to softly land in his new wheelchair donated by ASCEND. Tim and I pushed him up to the street so he could enjoy his new freedom. His smile was big when we arrived but grew brighter and whiter as his wheels hit the dirt road. We walked with him toward the meetinghouse as we needed to talk to his mother. She pardoned herself from the meeting and became as jovial as her son upon seeing him waiting for her outside.

We went back to their house and chatted as Tim went off to buy Lidio a notebook for the upcoming school year. We departed with their gratitude in our hearts and drove another ten minutes to the community of Quenko where ASCEND has been constructing a school for this mountainous community. We arrived and talked to the construction workers about what worked was left to be completed. The finishing touches are all that remain and the schoolroom with be another notch in the ASCEND's belt. A notch to be proud of due to the precious aesthetic of the white walls, red clay tilted roof and the exposed wooden eucalyptus beams inside the classroom. The community has been put forth an immense effort in the construction and the students in Quenko will soon have a new educational environment.