May 24th, 2018 - Cayla Yannuzzi


When I woke up this morning, I wasn’t greeted by the usual honking of horns and sounds of cars on the busy street by my homestay. The streets were eerily empty. This was because of a transportation strike that occurred in Cusco today in protest of rising gasoline prices in the city.  The normally busy streets had not a single car and instead the streets were full of people walking, biking, and children playing.



These strikes caused us to not be able to do our service learning today but instead we got a completely free day. When explaining this to our homestay family over breakfast, with the help of google translate, the older son of the family invited us to play soccer with him and another little girl in the family. Tabitha and I quickly agreed, excited to engage with our family. Around 10 in the morning we walked the empty streets discussing our favorite sports and made it to the concrete soccer field not far from our home.



Our teams were divided up two vs two, Tabitha and I vs Rodolfo Jr. and Lovely. With the sun beating down the game began. At first, I thought we might have an advantage after scoring a goal within the first minute but quickly realized this was not the case at all. Within a matter of 5 minutes we were down one to three. The altitude made it much harder for Tabitha and I to breath and both Rodolfo and Lovely had some serious soccer skills. Tabitha would pass me the ball only for Lovely to steal it from between my legs. And anytime we got close to the goal Rodolfo would block us and use his fancy feet skills to keep the ball from us. However even though Tabitha and I weren’t that great we were having an absolute blast. All of us laughing and smiling as we ran after the ball.



After 25 minutes Tabitha and I were down one to eight, a huge gap! But finally, after being so close so many times Tabitha scored our second goal. Everyone, including our opposing team, shouted in happiness and high fived Tabitha. It was one of the best games of soccer I have ever played with everyone laughing and truly just having a great time. In these moments, even despite a language barrier, we were able to connect with our homestay family and appreciate each other for the individuals we are. Tabitha and I ended up losing eleven to five but were so glad to have had this experience.



On this trip we have done some pretty incredible things from hiking Machu Picchu to boating in Lake Titicaca. But for me my favorite experiences come from these smaller moments were I able to connect with people across cultures learning our similarities and differences and appreciating them in all their beauty. With only two more days left I hope to capture as many of these moments as possible.


The empty Avenue de Cultura during the transportation strike.
Lovely stealing the ball from Tabitha before scoring a goal.

Tabitha finally getting the ball on her way to score a goal.

Rodolfo, Lovely, Tabitha and Cayla after playing a fun game of soccer.


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