Cusicancha

We be in the smallest village yet, Cusicancha (Ayacucho province). This place is really awesome, though. The people are generally very nice and welcoming. We got here on Tues night, and met the village team: Audra, Leslie, Joseph, and Josh. It was nice to see some other Gringos, ones that actually care that we've come to their village. This whole week, there's a big festival in Quisuarpampa, another small pueblo 5 kilometers away. EVERYONE was at the festival on Wed and most were yesterday, and Cusicancha has been a bit of a ghost town. We went on Wed morning, watched a few soccer games, saw a parade/marching of school kids, and wound up hiking up a nearby mountain peak. The festival was okay, but the hike was awesome. We walked back to Cusicancha (instead of riding back) and attended the church service at the town's "house of prayer". Only two folks showed because of the festival, and the preacher didn't even come. We sang all of our adult Spanish songs and did a small Bible study. Yesterday morning, we did puppets and kids' songs at a preschool. There were only 6 of the 16 kids there (festival), but we had a good time. The kids were all very young, but oh-so-cute. Yesterday afternoon, Joshua, Solomon, Brian, and I scaled a large mountain peak. We went down to the river from the village and up a pretty big montaña on the other side. The hiking conditions couldn't have been better. The mountain was solid, not crumbly like in Huarochiri, and the weather was perfect. Near the top, it turned into some sweet rock climbing. And if you know me, you know how much I enjoyed that. We chilled at the top for about an hour, then took a much less steep route down. The sun sets behind the mountains really early here, so we had to try and get back before it got cold. I bought a 1.5 liter Inca Kola when we got back. Life is good. Sweet hike... Inca Kola. The team here has been cooking us some fairly American food, and it's been a welcomed change. We've actually had eggs for breakfast, instead of just hard bread. I really really like this town. Today, we did puppets for some elementary school kids, and it was the best time we've had doing it so far. The kids were just perfect. A little later, we did all of our dramas and a few adult songs during the high school's Father's Day ceremony. It was a rediculous opportunity that just worked out perfectly. In an hour, we're playing soccer with some younger kids and at five we're playing with some older kids. Today has been awesome. As usual, I really don't want to leave so soon, but we're heading to our next site tomorrow. We go from here to Huaytara, to Ica, to Santiago de Chocorvos. We've had a good stay here. Y'all just just continue to pray for the teams at the sites we've been (Anibal and Blake in Huarochiri, the Christian fam in Huancapi, and all the people aforementioned here in Cusicancha), and for the people in Santiago de Chocorvos that we'll be ministering to next week. Gotta go. We're being kicked off. Chao.