After working at the school on painting the new cucina we walked to a neighboring village called Quiahuata. It was the first time we had been to this village, but we knew many kids as they walk to Puma Marca for school. Quiahuata has only 400 residents but they have a new beautiful community center that they just finished building (it looks rather out of place in such a poor community). We were invited to the village to join in an Easter celebration (which meant no one knew what would happen).


Iris (pronounced Eris) is a social worker for Peru’s Challenge and she was there. She is not one to be messed with (she reminds me of Simon Says, only substitute Iris for Simon). One of the first stories we were told after arriving in Cusco was of a landside that blocked her cambi (small bus) while traveling on the road leading to Quihuata. Iris jumped out of the cambi and yelled
S. O. S. at the top of her lungs (which is extremely loud) and several kids immediately came running with shovels to aid her. She is a force in the community.



The women began arriving at the community center, each with a bag of vegetables wrapped in blankets that they carry on their backs. They sat in groups and chatted, and peeled their papas (potatoes), and chatted, and peeled their abas (beans), and chatted, and diced. The children were too idle so Iris sent them to gather eucalyptus leaves for the fire that would heat the enormous caldrons for soup.




The volunteers (consisting of me, the kids and Genny from Canada) were sent inside to eat some choclo (enormous kernels of corn on the cob). It was very satisfying because it was so cold outside and the choclo was fresh and warm. After eating, we were told (by Iris) that we were going to help wash the 12 children that Iris had chosen to play Jesus's disciples. We figured it would be the usual procedure- give the children a little squirt of soap in their palms, hold the towel for them to dry, give them some cream for chapped faces, and voila!, clean, happy children.

As we approached the little seated line-up of children with our wash basin it became clear this was something different. The first kid who was just a little boy of maybe 4 let his rainboots drop to the ground. It was going to be feet. He hid his head in the towel that was draped over his head (disciple style). Sinclaire and I who were the soap dispensers tried to encourage him to hold out his palm an get some soap to wash his feet. He sat there completely paralyzed as his feet barely touched the water. Sinclaire was so brave when she realized that it was up to her or nothing would happen. I elevated the bucket under his tiny, filthy feet and Sinclaire washed them.


I have never washed anyone’s feet before. Today I washed about 28 of the dirtiest feet I have ever seen in my life. Feet covered in ground-in dirt, callouses, warts and cracked skin.


The amazing thing that happened for me was seeing the fear and intimidation on the kids faces turn to pleasure and laughter as their feet were being touched, cleaned, massaged and even tickled. It was such a remarkable connection- I realized these kids have never been touched this way before and I got past my fear. I was really touching these kids, and I felt very humble before them. They have so little and today we gave them a little bit of dignity and pleasure. I looked in their eyes as I touched their feet and they looked back at me and smiled.