Curahuasi is about a 90-minute drive from Cusco. It’s most famous claim to fame is as the home of the Sayhuite Rock, a large piece of granite carved by the Incas with more than 200 figures. Curahuasi is also the service home of Erin and Nathan. While part of the service assignments for both students is working on their families’ respective farming plots, they both also work at the town’s health post. Erin, a biochemistry major, works in the laboratory, analyzing blood, urine and feces samples. Nathan, an accounting major, works in the center’s health insurance department.
[Some pictures contributed by Isaiah Friesen.]
The town of Curahuasi, the service location of Erin and Nathan.Both students work in the blue building, the health center.Erin works in the laboratory.One of her jobs is to check stool samples for parasites.Erin with her supervisor, Glicina.Nathan with his co-workers in the health center’s accounting department.At Erin’s home with her host mother, Avelina.Clockwise from the youngest in the front: Aisel, Erwin, Elizabeth, Avelina, Augustin, and Estefany.The Saywhite rock near Curahuasi.The mysterious rock surface is covered with channels for water, stairs, and animal shapes.Erin’s family came along on the trip.Erin with host sister Elizabeth and niece Aisel.The princess Aisel on her Incan throne.Erin’s host dad with his granddaughter.Nearby are some other oddly-carved rocks left by the Incas.Nathan lives at home with host brother Fernando and mother Laura.Maria took the students to lunch at a restaurant in Curahuasi with Nathan’s brother.At a joint family good-bye event later in the week Nathan watches chicha morada being made.Erin learned how to make picarones, a Peruvian donut-type treat, from her host mom.Nathan approves the authenticity of Erin’s picarones.Nathan testing his reflexes with Erin’s niece.Time to say good-bye and depart for Cusco.Nathan needs to explain how in Cusco he got free birthday ice cream ….. when his birthday was in April.
