last days...

I´m still hanging out in Cusco, loving not moving all the time (though I´ve changed hostels 4 times). I have decided to come home, but for an undetermined period of time...
Cusco has been so lovely. Tomorrow I am taking an acrobatic/partner yoga workshop. I´ve been feasting on delicious vegetarian food. The other day I went to the Sacred Valley (hour or so by bus) and hiked around, but there´s plenty of good walking to be done within Cusco too, and plenty of ruins to discover....umm like the giant white as can be Jesus statue at the top of the city, which has lights beaming off of it at night. Also you can just walk around the city and see Incan stone work and Spanish churches built over old Incan temples.
Yesterday I helped garden at a shelter for girls who had been sexually abused by their family and as a result had a child, and were not only kicked out of their homes, but school too. Apparently sexually abusing a child was legal only 8 years ago here. So at this incredible shelter, about 10 girls live with their childen, and make handicrafts to sell in upscale hotels in the US. It sounds a little odd, but it´s a wonderful community and a really incredible opportunity for these girls who otherwise would have had no where else to turn. There are at least one million other cool organizations and projects going on in Cusco....oh how I´d love to stay and be a part of it... Another example is a museum I visited today which displayed art from kids from the Andes who have basically no contact with the outside world. They had never even seen ¨art¨ before. And this org came in to teach them about art and self expression. It was incredible the things they came up with, not having any sort of influence from other art forms or media.

SO...just 2 more days here, then I take a 23 hour bus ride to Lima (this time in style with ¨beds¨). Then just one day in Lima before I begin my 3 flight and several road trips journey back to my parents home in Des Moines...estimated EDA: October 27ish (after immediately going to visit my grandparents in Kansas City upon arrival)...dates for Chicago and Iowa City yet to be determined.

Love you all. Can´t wait to see your faces.
Rachel