Our last day in Peru was spent with our good friends Yannina and Mario from Manos Amigas. We toured their new office, warehouse and hotel facility across the street from the current location. Completion of the construction and occupancy is on hold awaiting the necessary permits from the local municipality.
Tito Mandino an artisan from Huancayo joined us for the morning to demonstrate his gourd carving skills. Tito comes from many generations of gourd carvers. Using his own handmade tools he showed us three styles of carving. The first was an owl, where the design is burnt onto the gourd using heated wooden sticks creating the basic lines of pattern. The gourd is then carved to give definition to the design. Tito also demonstrated a more traditional carving done free hand and which would take up to two weeks to complete. The final design Tito showed us was again free hand and was of a Peruvian couple.
Yannina and Mario along with their daughter Dieuwerte, graciously hosted a lunch for us all in their beautiful home before we headed off to the airport once again this time destination Bogota Colombia.
Hi Kristen,
Your tour and the daily diaries are fascinating. The pictures are very memorable and bring meaning to the gifts you have in the stores. So many struggles to just carve a life. I will be visiting Ten Thousand Villages more often now. Have a great journey!
Love, Uncle Reinie, Lyn, John and Andrew
It is great to read about your travels and see glimpses of the people you are meeting. Thanks for sharing these wonderful images and stories.