The First Ceremony in Cabanaconde

Before leaving the lookout at Cruz del Condor we ate avocado sandwiches in the triangular rolls typical of this part of Peru, and that was our last food for quite a while that day. We checked into our rather whimsical hotel, the Kunturwassi (which we later learned meant, "Home of the Condor"), without any baggage, at 12:30. We were due to meet the school principals in half an hour. There was no time to eat, so I rested.
At one o'clock we walked down the narrow street from out hotel to the main square of Cabanaconde, past a little house with a Jehova's Witnesses sign on it, and there Mario and Norma were waiting for us.
We were concerned. A ceremony was planned at the two schools, at which we'd display the gifts and distribute things to the children, but the truck was stranded. How could we hold the ceremony?
Just as we reached the square and greeted Mario and Norma, the truck rolled in. The situation was saved.
We followed the truck down a narrow, unpaved road and began to get an impression of Cabanaconde: a grid of narrow unpaved roads lined with adobe houses, mainly roofed with galvanized steel sheets. There were animals in almost all the courtyards. A few hundred yards down the street, the truck stopped in front of a low, white building, identified as "INSTITUCION EDUCATIONAL INICIAL CABANACONDE," and the mountain rescue men started unloading the truck.
Norma ushered us into her kindergarten. About forty little kids were sitting against the walls of the large courtyard, beneath a large brownish yellow mural, with Peace written on it in Hebrew, Spanish, and Arabic. An Israeli, who had signed his name as Lior, had preceded us in Cabanaconde!
While they were unpacking the things we had bought, I went over and sat with the children. Once had I taken a couple of pictures of them and showed them the pictures on the display of my digital camera, I was mobbed - what a pleasure!
Then the ceremony began. Cabezon, the driver, organized the pupils into lines, and they sang some songs for us. The teacher who led them in singing clearly enjoyed what she was doing. The children were all clean and well-behaved. They stood quietly in their lines while we gave each of them a notebook and a couple of pencils.
The mayor of the village and the governor of the district (a man appointed by the central government) were in attendance. In the end, as we were leaving, Norma draped necklaces of dried corncobs around our necks. Then we headed for the elementary school for a more elaborate ceremony.
At the kindergarten we also met Dante, a young man with a smooth, brown face who spoke pretty good English. In fact he told us that he taught it in an adult education program that he had set up. His son was one of the kids in the kindergarten, and he'd been invited to attend the ceremony.