Day 15: Final Day in Zurite!

Hello again! This is Aakarsh and William, writing from Zurite. Sadly, today was our last day in this beautiful town, but we are also looking forward to the last few days of our trip!

To commemorate our time in Zurite over the last few weeks, the local community held a Pachamanca celebration to send us off. While this ceremonial gathering took much of the day, the fruits of our labors were a myriad of delicious local foods. The process began with the construction of the oven. Our entire group gathered rocks to form into a dome, and the fire underneath turned these stones into an oven to cook the food in. Once the meat, potatoes, and hand made tamales were prepared, the food was layered between these hot stones and finally wrapped in grass and dirt to slowly cook and soak up the flavors of the earth. 




In the meantime, some students prepared fresh salsas to accompany the food. Together we minced onions, carrots, and peppers alongside members of our homestay families.  Other students husked and hand-milled corn for the tamales. After the food was completed, our hosts deconstructed the oven, removing all of the contents and plating it for everyone to enjoy. We formed a circle to eat as one big family, sharing the many life-long memories we have made over the last two weeks over pounds of beef, pork, chicken, and different vegetables. 





As the celebration came to a close, many different students and homestay parents began to give tributes to those who made this experience feel so special to them. The community members expressed their sincere gratitude for the meaningful work that we have done over the last two weeks, and the students thanked their parents for their love, consideration, and the culture they shared with us throughout our stay. Things got emotional and tears of joy were shared on both sides.




We concluded the day by spending some more quality time with our families, playing intense games of Kiwi, and eating our final dinner with them. Our stay in Zurite has been filled with love, appreciation, and a wonderful energy brought by the many members of the community. We are forever grateful for our time here and are super excited to share a piece of it with you all upon our return to the Bay Area. 



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