taller de corte

For the past couple of weeks, my mornings have started off in the Taller de Corte. It´s been a good way to ease into the day. I arrive around 8:00am and stay in the workshop until around 11:00am. Mami Kati runs the workshop. She´s great. The girls are always asking her to tell us another story. Her stories are fun and definitely help me in learning Spanish. But she talks so fast! So I just pick up on the main points of the stories she tells. She usually ties it together in the end with a lesson that the girls can learn from. Right now we´re working on costumes for some festivities and dances that will be coming up. We each got a big piece of red felt that is going to go on the front of some dresses. We were told to find a design to put on the front, and then we were going to sew different color beads into the design. I was excited because I got one too. I found a pretty sweet picture of a peacock that I wanted to use as my design. So I gave my red felt piece and peacock design to Mami Kati so she could copy the picture onto the red felt. She said it would work. But when I got it back...it was something completely different! It didn´t even have a bird on it. She drew some flower and spiral swirlies. It was pretty...but I was confused. Next thing I knew they were handing me these bright silver sequins that they wanted me to sew onto it...and some even brigther gold beads to sew into the flowers. So I have spent the last week working on a really bright design...every now and then glancing over my shoulder to the other girls´ designs...trying not to be jealous haha. But it´s been fun. The taller de corte definitely has a good tranquilo vibe to it. The girls are usually singing along to the ritmo romantica radio station that is always on in the mornings. I find myself humming some of the songs throughout the day without even realizing it.

I am very glad that today is Friday! It has thus far been a good day...very laid back. I woke up feeling well enough to go in to work (I stayed in bed much of yesterday with my voice half gone and a bad cough). Mami Kati told us a very random story about a guy who tried to finish his chores too fast and fell and ended up in the hospital. My extravagent metal flower design on red felt is coming along. It was pretty quiet around the Hogar because most of the girls were gone at a big exposition of some sort...I´m not really sure. So Roxanna did my hair for me (she couldn´t believe I don´t own a brush or comb) and we just hung out in the sun until it was time for lunch. And here I am. I´m not sure what the weekend will contain. Some of the girls from the bakery invited Meghan and I to go see some of the ruins and cites outside of the city on Sunday...so I´m super excited for that! Other than that, I´m looking forward to being outside and enjoying some sun. The weather here has been all over the place. It makes it hard to plan ahead with what to wear. It is pretty cold in the morning, but then it can get pretty hot in the middle of the day. Meghan has a pretty bad sunburn from watching a volleyball game last weekend. And then there is also the occasional sprinkle or downpour of rain in the middle of the day...followed by more hot sun. So I´ll be outside ready to pounce on the glimpses of hot sun.

I hope you all had a wonderful week and enjoy a beautiful weekend! lots and lots of love sent your way from cusco!