Everyone around the Fair Play table

One of the first things that Kenzo and I wanted to do when we moved here was find a family that we could live with.  El Policlinico de Belen has a great apartment that we’ve been staying in.  It is sufficient for any future volunteer who wants to be right here at the clinic.  Plus, it’s awesome because they provide you with lunch each day.  But, even before Kenzo and I came, we knew that we wanted the experience of living with a family: 1- to constantly be working on our Spanish and 2- to have that support and home-away-from-home kind of feeling.

Anyway, upon moving here, our plan was to visit various Spanish-teaching schools and ask if they have homestays that we might participate in, even though we wouldn’t be taking Spanish classes.  After walking around the city from school to school…we found two that were excellent matches for us – and this weekend we will actually be moving in with our familia!

The school I wanted to tell you about today is the one that we actually did not go with, mainly because the homestays would have been a 45 minute walk to and from the clinic for us.  But, they’re an awesome organization that I wanted to talk about.  Their name is Fair Play and they’re a non-profit that started by teaching single mothers how to teach Spanish to foreigners.  After they were trained, they began to give classes (many travelers come to Cusco to learn Spanish).  Then Fair Play decided to increase their income by allowing them to host students.  The students would pay a certain amount per week and this would include a room as well as three meals a day.

In addition to homestays and Spanish classes, Fair Play has added Salsa classes to its list of activities as well as a volunteer component (hint hint – those who come to visit us might have something to do if they want!).  In September they’ll be opening and after school program for kids, where volunteers will have the opportunity to work with kids, helping them on homework, cooking them a healthy well-balanced meal, or playing with them outside.  It’s a very exciting place to be right now.

Every Tuesday night, Fair Play offers a cooking class for 5 soles/person (a little less than $2).  Kenzo and I decided to participate this past Tuesday and we found ourselves around a table chopping peppers, peeling potatoes (by hand), and shredding chicken with travelers from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada and the US.  It was fun to hear what other people are doing here as well as have a delicious meal (for both of us with two beers it was under $8).

The delicious dish that we were making . . . it was one of the best meals we've had since we got here.

My job...cutting los pimientos

One of the other students mixing the sauce (made from my peppers) with the mashed potatoes.

Kenzo working on the chicken

Now we're garnishing. . .almost finished.

And the final product: delicious Causa Rellena.

If you are planning on traveling to Cusco, I highly recommend checking out Fair Play’s website to see if there is something that draws your attention.