Week 9 3/08/10-3/12/10 Cusco, Peru Geoffrey Strom

This week was exciting due to the arrival of friends from Salt Lake who were curious
about what ASCEND has been doing down south in Cusco. They had been traveling for three
weeks previous before arriving to Cusco. Although they arrived at the end of the week they
were able to see two very successful projects which ASCEND has been involved with. Our two
friends went with Tim and I to San Judas Chico to work with our students who are running the
greenhouse. Four out of the six immediately greeted us and our friends where surprised about
how friendly all of the girls in the orphanage where. We stepped into the comforting warmth of
the greenhouse to begin cleaning up the old lettuce plots. With four more hands the work went
quickly and fortunately our visitors did not encounter the man eating spiders that thrive in the
heat of the greenhouse. After watering and washing up the four of us ceded to the
supplications of the girls
and played the coveted
sport of volleyball. When
darkness began to fall on
the court, the day of dutiful
activities came to an end.
Since our friends were still
in town on Sunday it was
obligatory to eat and enjoy
the country air in Huasao.
When we arrived around
one o’clock we found the
ladies overburdened
requests from clients who
were surrounding our
former students. The
requests were for a cleaner
eating environment specifically that the pots of food were not on the ground. On Sunday not all
of the ladies of Huasao are out selling their plates only four or five every week. Certain
combinations of the women are better at attending to clients and using the minimal table space
which they have. These suggestions which some customers had supplied will be discussed with
the women when we began our health classes with them the following week. We will also
continue with follow ups from our business class, checking their registers to make sure they are
practicing their accounting.