This post features student writing.

Hello! It’s Tess and Katie. We are currently sitting in a cute little cafe in Otavalo awaiting the delicious chocolate cherry cake.

We spent the past two mornings working in the village on projects such as painting, working in the cheese factory, and helping the local women prepare our meals. In the cheese factory, after putting on white jackets, boots, hair nets, and face masks, we began scrubbing the cheese molds. As we waited for the cheese to heat up and cook we emptied the pot of cheese juice into big heavy buckets. Although we only had to carry these buckets a few feet, the workers laughed as we struggled to pick them up. After that, we spread all the cheese into molds and wrapped them.

While some people were in the cheese factory, others were busy painting the walls by the school. They painted for many hours, coming back to the house covered head to toe in blue paint. Meanwhile, the girls in the kitchen spent their mornings making pineapple juice, cutting up vegetables, and stirring rice and beans. Others went to town to help with grocery shopping and check out the market to buy alpaca sweaters in preparation for our Cotopaxi adventure. Tomorrow we head off to Cotopaxi to hike and ride horses.

— Tess & Katie