And the volunteering starts! (posted by Kie)

On Sunday night Lindsay and I met with all of the Mosqoy leaders at Casa Mosqoy where they and all of the students live. It was exciting to go there and finally meet all of the leaders (Ebhert, Elvira, Adrian and Rolando) together to kick-start the volunteer work that Lindsay and I will be doing in Cusco, Ollantaytambo and a few of the weaving communities.

For those who don’t know, the Mosqoy leaders are alumni who graduated from their post-secondary institutions last year and have been hand-picked to act as leaders of the students who are currently studying. Each leader has a main responsibility which is specific to him/herself although they often collaborate and assist one another. For example, Ebhert is the activities coordinator, Adrian is the house supervisor, Elvira is in charge of issues related to the student volunteer program and education, and Rolando works as a communications liaison between Peru and Canada.

At the house, we went over Lindsay’s and my itinerary, discussed when certain tasks should take place and worked on figuring out logistics. It was an important meeting where we got to organize and plan the next week. Through interacting with each of the leaders, I observed that each of them took their roles quite seriously and really tried to hammer out the details of the itinerary which was helpful.

In other news, yesterday morning Lindsay and I met with Bacelio (a member of a weaving community in the Sacred Valley called Q’enqo) to buy yarn at a local shop near San Pedro Market. Next week we will be going to Q’enqoand Amaruto purchase some textiles for Mosqoy’s partner organization, Q’ente, which focuses on revitalizing and supporting the weaving communities in the Sacred Valley region. I think that they will be very interesting cultural experiences so I am very much looking forward to visiting the communities.