The Indigenous Experience

This post is about Tuesday, March 15th.

We started the day by taking a one and a half hour bus trip to Saraguro. The bus ride was very peaceful, and it was filled with great views of the mountains, and valleys. When we arrived at Saraguro, we met the mayor who gave a very nice welcoming speech. We were able to understand the general idea of what he was saying; that he was very pleased to have us come to their town. We then went to the "hostel" which ended up being more of a nice lodge, and it had an incredible view of the valley. After settling into the hostel we headed to the school and heard a presentation from the director of the school about their philosophy and their culture in and out of school. A small group of students played a song for us, and then we gave our slide show about Pingry. After this we made a prayer circle and gave thanks for the gift of life. The school director explained to us how all different cultures and races are a part of one group. Then we went back to the hostel to have lunch. After our lunch, we went with the Saraguro community into the woods to plant trees. One group on Pingry and Liceo students planted about seventy-five trees in total while other Pingry and Liceo kids painted a mural on the wall of the Andean symbols. After this, w went to our hostel to change, wash up, and get ready for our dinner with the Saraguro people. Similar to almost every other meal, we had a soup to start off along with a delicious fruit drink. The main course was a fried chicken cutlet, with lettuce, potatoes, and tomatoes on the side. When we finished dinner, a group of Saraguran musicians played a traditional song that we danced to. We had a really fun but hard day, and we really enjoyed experiencing a new and very different culture.
Blogged by Matt and Jamie