coming to terms with the celestine prophecy through A Mural in Cusco

So I admit it, i read the Celestine Prophecy and I was hoping that some of my trip to South America would entail that sort of adventure energy and Cusco seemed like a place I might find this connection with people. But My initial take on Cusco was not so glowing. It seemed to mainly be about getting tourist money through restaurants, clubs, massages, and trip packages. I was tired of walking down the street and saying no thank you to all the people who approached us in sale.

In fact We stayed in Cusco for a week mainly to make a mural.
Aldea Yanapay was a space we wrote to while we were still in the states. They wrote us back and said that we could come do a short project. A project conceived in a short period of time while traveling proved to be a difficult but rewarding endeavor.

Aldea Yanapay is many things: an after school program offering homework help and art classes for street kids and orphans, a restaurant with funds going to its programs, an international volunteer project, and soon to be a hostel. The teachers are all volunteers and they come for any time period, though longer than a week is preferred. They live in a house with the director Yuri. I think soon they will also have the option of staying at the hostel. We first learned about Yuri the charismatic director, through his mother, she invited us into her house, also a sort of meeting point for volunteers. After meeting many people, Yuri instructed us to return that afternoon. Cam and I helped students make pinatas in the art class. We stayed after the art class for the weekly Friday theater performance, which was a recap of lessons taught that week. After talking with Yuri we agreed to make a mural for the new school. We spent that night working on designs and also volunteered to help paint murals for a jail. ( a program they had teaching kids at the jail.)
On Sunday we went to meet to paint the murals, Cam and I showed up two hours early due to my misinterprating Pablos accent, he said dos y media instead of doce y media. At dos y media we met with other tutors. They were very tied to each other but included us in a dinner invitation. Before dinner we went to Pablo house and designed and painted murals in the the narrow courtyard of his apartment. It was hilarious because it began to rain and so we pushed our 4x8 ft masonite under as much of an awning as we could. One of Pablo{s roomates was an artist as well so he provided supplies, music, and conversation.
There were a lot of people working with this program so it took awhile for us to get on the same page as everyone for the mural. on monday we met with Yuri and he approved our ideas and showed us the space in his new school. Cam worked on a chalk drawing while I taught an art class on mask making. Everything seemed to finally be going smoothly, until that night when we got home and it turned out Cam had a 1oo degree temperature. (everyone at aldea yanapay was also passing along a sickeness)
The next morning I woke up and went to get the painting supplies without Cam. I began to paint and fill in the shapes and designs, improvising as I went. This mural wall was large and we wanted to finish it in a few days. Luckily two volunteers, Mas and Linda from Denmark, showed up to help me. They brought music, food, and a good spirit. By the time 3 rolled around we had blocked in most of the mural and the kids began to help by drawing flowers. I think it inspired Yuri because he then began to think of other areas where we could work on murals and help spruce up some older drawings he had on the wall.
That night Cam was still sick, I was tired, but then I became paranoid thinking Cam had thyphoid or malaria. I made him drink a bunch of ginger tea. his fever went from 100 to 94 to 100.
The next morning he was well enough and we went and finished the mural once again with the help of Linda and Mas. Two other volunteers Emily and Marcel pitched in to paint the murals. All the kids kept running in saying que lindo, que bonita. When we left Yuri seemed sad and he said perhaps we could come again and volunteer for a longer time. That night we had dinner with Linda, Mas, Emily, and Marcel, and the Aldea Yanapay restaurant. We talked about how we had come to be in Cusco what we had left behind (jobs, houses, dead ends). Earlier that week in Cusco I was a little disappointed with the sort of marketing of spirituality and experience I thought I saw happening in all the things for a tourist to buy., heck they liked to call cusco the father for world culture and the sprirutal navel. But that night all of us tired over our coffees soaking in the crazy kid space of the restaurant,I have to say that was the exact collaborative ennergy I was searching for and it was all free.

sarah