When I left you I had told you all about the Halloween party we had planned for the younger kids. That seems like such a long time ago now and so much has changed since then.
I´ve written little headings that I think sum up what I´m talking about in that bit. Enjoy.
Ah, there's poo on my hand!!
We've had new children come in to the aldea the first being little baby Milagros who was 5 days old when she came in and she was so tiny. No one knows who her parents are and apparently she was found left on a bus. Another baby called Jesús came in a few days later and was 10 days old and they say he was found in a bin. It's stories like those that I can't understand because I don't know how anyone could just leave their baby like that. It's so sad but at least they are safe here. They are now just over 3 months old and they're gorgeous. They call Jesús 'el gordito' (the little fatty) because he's put on so much weight and has himself an impressive double chin.
Jesus Manuel being adorable and squiggly...
Baby Milagros (Milagros means ´miracle´in Spanish) also being adorable and smiley...
We also had an older baby called Lenin (Lenny) come to the aldea. He is 3 years old now and his story was especially sad as he had been neglected and beaten so badly that he hasn't learnt to speak or walk. When he arrived he was terrified and confused and took a while to come out of his shell but now he's doing so amazingly well!
He's learning to walk and can walk quite a few steps on his own before he falls down in a fit of laughter. He's still not able to talk but I think he's trying as he makes more noise than the rest of the baby house put together! He's such a cheeky little boy and I love him to bits.
Lenny...
Oh my god, there's going to be no one left.
We have also had people leaving the aldea which was sad as we have really got to know the kids here. The first to leave was Andrea who lived in the baby house where we spend the majority of our time. She has gone for 3 months on holiday with her parents and although we know she is coming back we still miss her and it's weird not having her around. As it happens we aren't the only ones to miss her as she has left behind her boyfriend, Alfredo, and a group of other boys who by her own admission are all 'en enamorado' (in love) with her. We had a conversation with her in which we asked her if Eduardo fancied her as well as Alfredo to which she said 'oh everyone in Casa 3 does'. We then had a fun time naming everyone and seeing her reaction. She mainly seemed as though it was a chore being so desirable. We suspect there may have been a small amount of exaggeration on her part.
Andrea with her now broken hearted boyfriend Alfredo...
Andrea with Tia Paquita...
Some of the older kids have left as they have turned 18 to go to work and live with their families. First was Sheyla who went to live with her father.
Graciela also left when she turned 18 in January. This was very sad as she lived in the baby house and spent a lot of time with her so we miss her very much.
Me with Graciela on Christmas day...
One of the saddest was when Devyis left as he had been finishing school and was already 18 so when he left it came as a complete surprise to us and we didn't even get to say goodbye. It's horrible to think that we will probably never see those kids again but hopefully they are happier with their families.
Carlos Emilio, please don't hold David's head down whilst he is bobbing for apples.
Anyway back to Halloween. Cassie and I were ready and excited to make our cakes and brownies for the kids party so we went to our friend Lia's house and she helped us to make 60 brownies, 2 massive cakes, 60 chocolate truffles and 60 of these biscuits called alfajores that are filled with caramel. Needless to say it took AGES! And of course we had to sample our work so shortly after 1 in the morning on the day of our party we came home carrying all this stuff and feeling slighty sick from all the 'sampling'.
We were met with disaster. If you remember I mentioned that our house has a little ant problem. Well the ants had managed to get into the packets of sweets we were going to use as prizes at the party. And by got into them I mean each individual sweet... We didn't even know that was possible, it's like they were intent on ruining us. So we had to by emergency back up sweets. Nightmare.
Our Halloween food...
Apart from that though the party was really good. We had decorations that we had made featuring expert paper mashé work from Cass and I which created the severed head of Frankenstein and Count Dracula. Nothing was quite as scary as we had imagined because we were outside in the bliding sunshine which isn't scary at all but that couldn't be helped. I think it looked pretty good though.
Joel and Alvaro ´helping´to set up...
We even had the security guards involved and helping...
Just look at the amazing artistic skills we possess...
I think the kids particularly enjoyed the bobbing for apples until it turned a game of 'throw whatever you find lying on the floor into the bowl' and then 'throw apples at each other'. Initially none of the kids were quite reluctant to put their faces in the water so I had to show them which of course they found hilarious when I bobbed back up soaking wet with an apple in my mouth! Eventually everyone had a go though - all except David who didn't want to get his costume wet. Bless him. The face painting went down well although that didn't mix well with the apple bobbing but it had looked really good beforehand.
Joel bobbing for apples. He liked it so much that I think he got all the apples by the end of the party...
Carlos Emilio being transformed...
Transformation complete. Isn´t that the cheekiest face you have ever seen?
Josue with Spiderman themed face paint...
Here are some pictures of the crepe paper costumes we made for Angie and Leylie. Both were ripped almost instantly and Leylie's was used later on the wipe up the jelly that Carlos Emilio had thrown at me.
Angie as a Princess. She´s so cute...
There was some confusion about how to deal with a piñata and the kids seemed to think it needed to cut open rather than hit repeatedly so ran off for scissors. Ah well, they still enjoyed the sweets inside.
Heyner playing ´pin the spider on the web´...
Carlito as Spiderman...
The staff also put on a disco for the older kids that night where they re-used our decorations which led to Carlos dancing around holding the severed head of Count Dracula as though it were his partner. They all seemed to enjoy that and once again Cassie and I were given an opportunity to embarrass ourselves with our attempt at dancing. Always fun. It seems to me that in South America there is a secret rhythm involved in the dance that us westerners just do not naturally understand. Whilst they can dance about and talk and laugh all at the same time Cass and I are left staring intently at our feet wondering why we can't move like that. We try but unfortunately we aren't in on the secret rhythm and I feel that we can't be blamed for that.
On the day of Halloween there was a ceremony type thing in the aldea where people came in from outside and there was singing and prayers to a saint. I didn't fully understand it but then at the end we got to run along and pop all the balloons which was unexpected but is apparently a tradition so that was fun. There was also an evening of traditional Marinera dancing and singing. We did´t know the words but it was interesting to see the differences between Halloween here and at home.
Julio and Kasandra dancing Marinera...
Sheyla and Andrea dancing...
Tania singing a traditional Peruvian song...
All the kids who sang and danced...
Tia, do you ever sleep??
We've actually been a lot more busy than we were when I last posted.
I don't think I was aware how much work babies are. I had no clue that they actually needed to be fed every hour and I have literally no idea how Tia Paquita managed to care for two new born babies, look after 3 young boys, cook and clean for the casa and still have a smile on her face. Actually, I don't know how she didn't just collapse.
She seems to be the world's best multi tasker. She is able to feed one baby, burp another, tell Carlos Emilio off and have a conversation all at the same time. Unfortunately she has been moved to a different casa to work with one of the boys there so we don't see her as much and she has been taken away from her babies. We miss her a lot but we go and see her a lot in the evenings. It's funny though, within 3 days of being in her new house she had convinced all the girls in there (Marjorie, Margot and Maria) to have their hair cut exactly like her. She says they all had nits which is why they had it cut but I think she's trying to start a band. All the kids call them 'Las Paquitas' (The Paquitas) and Tia seems very pleased with herself.
I will try to get a picture of them. It really is brilliant.
Ok, put the paint down!!
We have also been busy with our own classes. We started off with English lessons for he older girls. It was very intimidating and we were very nervous. As with any classroom there were some kids who caused us some trouble and didn't really want to be there but we tried to include them anyway. Towards Christmas we got them singing English Christmas songs which some of them really loved so we had Andrea humming All I Want For Christmas Is You whilst she cleaned the kitchen in the evenings which was nice.
We have also had art classes with some of the younger boys which turned out to be really successful. In Peru there seems to be this idea that everything has to be perfect and when the little kids are asked to do their homework or do some colouring the Tias show them exactly what to do, where to colour and what with. I can see the merit behind this as the kids learn to always do things correctly but at the same time it leaves no room for imagination. So in our art classes we give them a little project (it was mainly Christmas decorations) and let them do it how they wanted and they really seemed to enjoy it.
Again we had a few trouble causers in the classes as the older boys Alvaro and Eduardo would turn up and insist on making our lessons into a paint fight. It was all fun though until the Tia caught them and gave them a pretty good telling off.
I will get some pictures up of this soon but the computer isn't working properly today...
You want me to wear that Tia?
The Tias themselves have some pretty impressive imagination when it comes to making costumes. The boys in the baby house go to 'colegio' (school) during the day in the aldea and other kids from outside the aldea come in to go to colegio aswell. One day there was a costume competition at the school and Tia Rosita enlisted us to help her make costumes. We made everything out of what appeared to be rubbish such as left over Huggies wrappers. We made a clown outfit for Carlito, a pirate for Carlos Emilio and something completely random fro David. She said was Zorro but it definitely wasn't.
David (see? Not Zorro!), Carlito and Carlos Emilio. Carlos Emilio didn´t like his eye patch...
Carlito as a clown. He didn´t want to wear it at first because it was made from nappy wrappers...
The other kids in the school had some amazing costumes that their parents had made. Turns out was to be made out of old rubbish, empty packets etc. We were asked to help judge the competition and it was difficult not to be biased towards our own kids and our creations. Well there was that and the fact that we didn't understand the criteria we were judging with so we have pretty much everyone full marks. Oops.
This costume was amazing! He´s Rambo! The bullets are made from crayons!
I think I just love this guy´s hair cut!
David strutting on the catwalk...
Cass and I judging with Tania, Julio and Gloria. As you can tell we are taking it very seriously...
Some other costumes...
Tia, why is this man pouring water on my head?
We had also been invited to the Christening of all the kids in the baby house and two older kids Alvaro and Alondra. It was really nice to see and they were all dressed up so nicely. When the priest spoke though he talked about the importance of the role of the parents and it was sad because our kids didn't have that so I felt aad for a bit. But then I thought that they do have our little aldea family who were with them at the Christening so it was nice really.
We also came back to free cake and pasties which is always a bonus!
The boys all dressed up for the occasion...
Carlos Emilio being cheeky as per usual...
Angie having her hair done. She didn´t enjoy that...
Tia Angelica and Gloria...
Lovely Aldea picture...
Everyone from Casa 5...
Me and Alvaro...
Free food!!
Cass the only word I understand is Jesús. And I can't sing hymns.
Speaking of religious stuff we have now seen the Oratorio or 'Jesus room' in which all the Casas take it in turns to go and pray in the evenings. We didn't even know it existed or what Oratorio meant so when we were asked to go with them we had no idea what to expect. What we walked in to was a small room with about 20 pictures of Jesus on the wall. We didn't know any of the prayers in English never mind in Spanish. So we sort of just stood at the back of the room, but still it was an experience I have never had before so it was interesting.
Oh god, I just went too early. Well, that's embarrasing.
One thing was had been asked to participate in was a traditional dance that would be performed at an event in the aldea in December. We found it quite difficult at first because we couldn't get the hang of the hip wiggle that was involved. It got easier when I had to be a boy when there wasn't enough as they had a simpler dance step in one part. It was really fun though and eventually we got a bit better and knew the dance. The final date arrived and there was a presentation of all the things the kids do in the aldea such as acting, dancing, singing and cosmetics. It was really good and all the kids are super talented. Our dance was the final act and we managed to get all the way through to the last bit before I messed it all up. I was at the front of a line and had to lead it forward and of course like an idiot and went too early. I think it was ok though, I managed to clap it off and Cassie said it wasn't completely embarrassing. Not sure I believe that though. The kids laughed at me loads which was funny. I still think the funniest thing was Cassie in the outfit she had to wear that made her look like a yellow nun. I was dressed as a lad and didn't look too awful. It was a fun night despite my embarrassment.
I would also like to say that I suffered for that dance. Look at the blisters I had!!
Yeah, look at that blister!! Agony!
Eduardo singing. I´m pretty sure he is good at everything. He´s good at singing, dancing and sporty stuff too...
The dance. Look at those beautiful outfits!
I think this is the exact moment that I messed up. Can you see me panicking?
Us looking very sweaty after the dance...
A chocolatada, thats got to be something to do with chocolate right? Oh no wait, it's just Paneton.
Our build up to Christmas was particularly hectic as there seemed to be a million things going on in the aldea.
For a while there was talk of something called a 'chocolatada' coming to the aldea which everyone was very excited for. Cass and I heard the word chocolatada and for some reason translated that into chocolatier. So in our heads we had this image of a master chocolatier coming in amd making cool stuff out of chocolate. Unsurprisingly we had misunderstood and it wasn't like that at all. It was different groups of people coming into the aldea and giving presents to all the kids and giving out food and stuff. This happened everyday for about two weeks and sometimes there was 3 a day of these 'chocolatiers'. It was so nice that so many people wanted to give stuff to the kids.
My over riding memory of this time is Paneton. Every single group brought Paneton. Paneton, paneton and more paneton. Death by paneton. Paneton. Think I've said the word Paneton too many times? You have no idea! That's what our diet consisted of during Christmas time. I don't think I ever want to see it again. It got to the point when the people would come in and say 'Who wants Paneton?!' then they'd pass it all out and everyone would desperately try to palm theirs off on someone else. Max always ate mine. Apart from the paneton over load they were really fun. Loads of them did little performances for the kids and they all had individual presents for the kids. Many of them came in with Papa Noel (Father Christmas) outfits which absolutely terrified Lenny and he cried his little eyes out bless him.
We had met some people in the university in Piura and they asked us to be part of their charity group and were looking for somewhere to take their donations. They agreed to come to the aldea so they held a chocolatada and gave the kids loads of stuff. That was a really fun and we were happy that we had been able to be involved with that one.
Our ´chocolatier´...
Carlos Emilio up getting his present...
Some of the women from the other chocolatiers up dancing...
Conga line. Enough said...
How many have we got left? About 40. Excellent.
We had also taken it upon ourselves to make little stockings for every single kid in the aldea. We went to the market and bought some Christmassy material and set to work making 54 stockings. By hand. Be impressed. It was tough work. It took ages to mark them all out onto the material never mind sew them all. So several days, lots of needle stab wounds, several fits of anger and frustration and a stream of cursewords later we had our 54 stockings ready to be stuffed with market pressies and sweeties.
Looking back we gave ourselves quite a job because we split everyone into groups and bought stuff for each group. This led to complete confusion as we kept losing track and so the Saturday before Christmas Day we were frantically looking for stuff to fill the stockings with. I'm pretty sure we nearly exploded we were so worried we wouldn't get everything in time or we had forgotten someone or we didn't have enough for everyone.
We also had ANOTHER disaster with the sweets. A few days before Christmas we stuffed the stockings with all the sweeties and presents so we were prepared to give them out. Can you guess what happened to the sweets?? Ants. Everything was covered in them and they were in all the stockings. I swear these ants are doing this on purpose. It was actually disgusting. We were so upset and had to go and get more/
It was worth it in the end though because we got to go round the casas and give the kids their stockings. It was really nice to be able to do something like that for them.
Me drawing out the stockings...
It looked like a daunting task before we started...
One of our completed stockings...
All of our 54 completed stockings...
I think I had gone crazy by this point...
Wait a minute, that's spaghetti...
Being in the aldea for Christmas was good. It's so different from home because they celebrate it on the evening of the 24th rather than on the 25th. It was quite bizarre really. When it came to the 24th it seemed as if nothing was going on and that none of the kids were even bothered that it was Christmas but then in the evening everyone dressed up and the Tias all made a special Christmas dinner for the people in their Casa and everyone ate together in the auditorium. Granted it wasn't quite the Christmas roast we are used to but it was still really good food. We had 'tallarines con pavo' (spaghetti and turkey) with.. guess what, MORE PANETON! I'm surprised the kids could eat it to be honest considering they had already eaten their weight in paneton in the previous weeks. It was really nice though and the director gave a speech telling them they have a big family here at the aldea. Then we all went outside for a 'disco'. Cass and I were once again really naff at dancing. That seems to be one thing that we just can't seem to get better at. (I blame you Mum. You and your terrible rhythm). When it turned midnight everyone wished each other a Feliz Navidad (Merry Christmas) and we all went to bed shortly afterwards. It was a very different evening to the one you all will have had at home but I enjoyed it so much.
Here are some pictures of our Christmas Eve celebration. The majority have been taken by Alvaro who nicked Cassie's camera.
Cass, are you still awake? Yeah. Sweaty? Of course.
So yeah we were really busy for Christmas but during this time we also became full time Tias for 3 weeks. There was an outbreak of 'varicela' (chickenpox). Cass and I were safe as we have already had it but the babies in Casa 5 had to leave to try to escape. So Tia Paquita took Jesús Manuel and Milagros to Casa 4 and of course she went with them.
It was really sad as we knew we weren't allowed to go and see them for risk of making them sick and we missed the babies and Tia Paquita loads whilst they were gone. Casa 5 did seem slightly more chilled and less hectic withouth her as she was always running around doing something. Anyway, this meant that Tia Angelica was left alone in Casa 5 with four little boys and a ten month old baby to look after. So she asked us to move in for a while.
This meant that we were literally working 24/7 for a few weeks. We slept in Casa 5 and got up at stupid o clock in the morning to help with the cleaning. I didn't mind doing this though. It was actually quite nice to be part of the house and to see what went on when we weren't there. The only problem was that in Casa 5 there appears to be one room that collects all the heat and that was the room we were sleeping in. I'm not joking it was like being lay in a sauna. You couldn't lie in a way where you were touching any other part of your body because it would just make you sweat way too much. I think I got used to it in the end but we were pretty tired for those few weeks. It was a relief to get back to out house where the rooms are slightly cooler.
I've just swept that bit!!!
One of the cleaning things we had to do was to sweep the outside of the house. And when I say outside I mean we actually had to sweep the ground outside. I don't think you can possibly comprehend until you try it just how annoying it is to sweep the outside. It's the outside. It's constantly dirty. You'd literally sweep one patch of floor and then turn around and would be covered in leaves and general ground stuff again. I think Cass and I had taken it a bit too seriously and were trying to make it spotless because after about 40 minutes of continuous outside sweeping we could hear the kids laughing at us because we were taking so long. It was possibly the most futile thing I have ever done and the heat at the time along with the ridiculousnes of the task sent us into fits of delirious laughter whilst we were doing it. I think it should be taken on as an Olympic endurance sport - it made me sweat more than I ever had before.
Have we booked anywhere for here? Nope. Hmm, well let's hope there's room somewhere.
In other news Cass and I have been on our first big excursion!! We went on our first visa run over New Year to Ecuador. First we stopped in Mancora which is like the popular beach party town in Peru. We stayed there for New Year and met up with the other Peru volunteers. It was really interesting to find out what they have been up to and how their projects are. Sadly two of the girls weren't there because they had decided to go home as they felt their project wasn't working out.
Pics
We had an amazing time in Mancora and it was so nice to speak to other people who understand the ups and downs of being here. We then went on to travel to Guayaquil in Ecuador. We were travelling with the two girls who are volunteers in Trujillo, Amy and Heather. None of us really wanted to leave Mancora because we were having such a good time that Amy and I started to call Guayaquil 'Buzzkill' which of course we found hilarious. We had made the leap from Guayaquil to 'Die-a-kill' but then just went straight for Buzzkill. Witty eh? Not really but it summed up our feelings for the place. When we got there after a 9 hour journey it lived up to our expectations and really was a total buzzkill. It was just a massive city with nothing really to do. Unless you count Subway as something to do which I'm thinking you don't. So we didn't linger very long and left the same day we arrived on a bus to Montañita.
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Where are you from? Argentina. Ahhh, amarijo.
Montañita was another beach town but this time in Ecuador. I loved Montañita. It was so relaxed and the people there were really nice and helpful. The majority of people there were from Argentina for some reason and they say some stuff differently to Peruvians in Spanish. For example they pronounce 'y' as a 'j'. So when they say 'Yo' (me/I) they pronounce it like 'Jo'. This was so confusing for us the first time we heard it because we just haven't learnt it that way and didn't have a clue what they were saying sometimes. We found out that they do not like to be mocked about this though when Amy kept saying 'amarijo' to two Argentinian blokes. The word is actually 'amarillo' with the double L pronounced like a 'y'. They got quite irritated and stormed off. They also use different endings for verbs that Peruvians don't use so there was a lot of guess work involved if we were talking to an Argentinian.
That is nothing compared to Chilean Spanish. I'm pretty sure Chileans arent actually speaking Spanish. I'm convinced it's this completely different language because I can't understand anything a Chilean says. Even Peruvians say that they can't understand Chilean Spanish so Cass and I didn't ever stand a chance.
We stayed in this really cool hostel called Iguanas that had actually iguanas just knocking about outside. It was a really nice place and the dorm room we were in was like an open terrace with a load of beds in it all fitted with mosquito nets. I really liked it there. Although the stairs up to our 'room' were so steep and made of wood that every time I went down that them I had this fear that I would fall to my death. I never did though you will be glad to know.
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I didn't pack anything warm!!
We went from Montañita to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Apparently none of us had thouht that it might be cold there and so we arrived at 3 in the morning all in shorts and vest tops. I suppose it should have occurred to us to wear warm clothing as we were in the hills but apparently not.
I thimk we were all in a bad mood and half expected Quito to end up being another Buzzkill. However in the morning we woke up and went up to the top terrace we were met with the most amazing view.
Pictures.
That's what I saw whilst eating my breakfast. Amazing. That day Cass, Amy and Heather went to see the ecuator line. Unfortunately I was ill that day and had to stay in the hostel for fear of throwing up. It was a bit annoying but I caught up on some sleep that I had lost on the long bus journeys. 10 hour over night bus journeys are not my favourite thing.
The next day we went to a place just outside of Quito called Mindo. Whilst we were there Cass, Amy and Heather went zip lining. I chose not to do it as I didn't want to hurt my back because I had surgery on it last year. I got to see the others do it and an amazing view of the river so it was pretty good.
When we were back in Quito we found a pub quiz in an Irish bar called Finn Mcools. We had a good night that night. The bar reminded me a bit of pubs at home.
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Well don't we look attractive in these shower caps...
From Quito we went to Baños (which actually means bathrooms which is odd). Baños is the sort of outdoorsy/sporty bit of Ecuador. Again I couldn't really do anything because I didn't want to hurt my back but Cass, Amy and Heather went canyoning which was like abseiling down waterfalls which they really enjoyed.
One thing I could do was to go in the natural hot baths. This was a weird experience because I had pictured this spring bubbling up from the ground and in my head I was the only person in there. In reality it was much different in that it was natural hot water pumped into a swimming pool and every bloke and his dog was in there. We also had to wear shower caps so everyone looked a little ridiculous.
Apparently, there was 3 different levels in the baths, ie. Cold, medium, hot. The first one we tried happened to be the medium which was really nice and relaxing. We then risked the cold shower and went downstairs to what we thought was just another pool like the one upstairs. Turns out it was the hot one. When I first got in I thought it just felt hotter because I had a cold shower. When I started to lose feeling in my hands and feet
I realised I wasn't going to get used to it and that I should get out before I actually started to cook. So we went back to the medium and there we stayed slowly getting more wrinkly until my fingers felt like prunes.
Ok, there's no rooms anywhere... oops
We had a bit of a nightmare on our way back from Baños and ended up doing a 22 hour journey. Yes 22 hours. That's ages. We had to travel from Baños to Rio Bamba then to Quenca then to Guayaquil then to Huayaquillas then to Mancora. Horrible. Good job we hadn't attempted that on the Sunday because we never would have made it home in time.
We had one last night in Mancora before heading home the next
day. For ages we couldn't find anywhere to stay because we had figured it would be less busy that New Year was but there was no rooms anywhere. Eventually we found somewhere but it was miles out of the way. That's what we get for not booking in advance.
We had such a good time and it was weird to think of going back to the aldea but at the same time I had really missed the kids so it was nice to see them.
That being said by the time we got home on the Sunday we were both so sweaty and grimy that we just wanted a shower, not a hug from the kids. It was nice to be greeted with such enthusiasm though.
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Please just be careful with the fire..
Just something quick to mention. Before we left we gave out house keys to the security so we wouldn't lose them. We thought it seemed like a sensible idea but we hadn't considered that maybe they would lose our keys for us.
So when we first got back we had no way of getting into our house and never mind our bedrooms.
Eventually the director turned up with about a billion keys from which we finally found the front door key. He also had the spare key for Cassie's room but had no look finding the spare for my room. Two of the kids solved this problem by using a lighter to burn the padlock and then smash it to bits with a hammer. I'm not going to lie to you, there was a moment when I thought they were going to set fire to my room. It was a pretty tense moment.
Cassie stop pushing me in!
When we got back we were pretty much immediately imvited to go to the beah again. This time we were invited by Dr Franco. He is the doctor that all the kids go to and who the Tias take Cass and I to when we are ill. It's quite embarrassing really because since he's a paediatrician his office is catered for kids. So when I turned up in the first couple of weeks complaining of a bad stomach I had to lie on this tiny little bed whilst he examined me. I'm sure I looked ridiculous. He's a really nice man though and he invited us to the Colan with his daughter, Carolina, and her friends. I was worried Colan would be rubbish because it was deserted the last time we went but it turns out when it's summer that everyone goes there.
We stayed in Carolina's house but her boyfriend's family have this amazing beach house there so we spent a lot of time there. I had the most fun going kayaking on the sea. I've only ever done it on rivers before and it's way more fun on the sea because you can ride in on the waves.
There was a period of time that I couldn't get back in my kayak because Cass thought it would be funny to repeatedly push me in. She was right actually, it was funny. For ages I kept climbing back up the wrong way and falling back in when I tried to turn around. Eventually I got back in and tried to get revenge and push Cass in but of course I just rocked my kayak and just fell in again. I enjoyed it though, it was fun.
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Food poisoning and sun stroke... fun times
Our next big event was a beach trip with the aldea. We went to a small beach called Yacila with pretty much the whole aldea, including the office staff, the security guards and the driver. I didn't realise just how much planning and stuff it took to go on this trip but you think about it we had to take enough food to feed 40 people for 3 days and all the luggage. Taking the food was a bit weird as they packed the fish in just a plastic box. A plastic box that will leak stinky fish gut water all over Cassie when you go over a bump in the road. We were sat in the back of the combi with the fish box so this happened a lot.
We had a really nice time on the first day. I helped some of the lads with their swimming because they said they couldn't swim in the sea. Then in then evening we went for a walk with all the kids along the beach and we sat and talked to Tia Paquita for ages. We've missed her now she has been moved to another house.
Then the next day Cass was really ill with food poisoning and so were some of the kids so she had to stay in bed all day. I felt sorry for her because we had both been looking forward to the trip. I stayed on the beach that day. Went in the sea for a bit then burried Edgar in the sand. Then I sat in the shade with my book for a while. Somehow though I managed to get sunstroke whilst sat in the shade with factor 50 suncream. I didn't even think that was possible. That night the kids all came to watch a film in the house and I had 6 layers on and I was still sat with my teeth chattering. One of the kids told me my skin felt really warm but I just felt so cold. I think I was prettu ill. The next day Cass felt a bit better but I had what I thought was really bad sun burn on one leg and really bad sunstroke so I ended up in bed for 2 days. Not quite the trip I had imagined but it was good at the beginning. I ended up having to go see a dermatologist who told me I have an infection in my leg and put me on a course of antibiotics and bed rest which is what I am doing now as I write this.
Here's some pictures of the beach before we got ill.
Pics
How can it possibly get any hotter!?
It may intinterest you to know that I am the sweatiest I have ever been in my life. The temperature has been over 35 degrees celcius and we have been promised that it will be even higher this month. Apparently it can get to 45 in February. I can't even imagine anything being that hot and I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with that. If I don't come home it's because I actually sweat to death.
I can tell you that I'm now grateful for a cold shower. I've been having 3 a day some days to avoid smelling like an armpit.
I never knew I could shout that loud!
I've started my karate lessons. It's the most scary and challenging thing I have ever done in my life! Dealing with kids is hard enough as it is but when they are kids from troubled backgrounds AND you can't properly speak their language.. it's just a nightmare. But we did it.
First I had the older kids who were quite difficult as they just wanted to do their own thing and each person wanted me to focus my attention entirely on them. I think they enjoyed it though because it's something so different everything else they are doing. I think I will just have to be more strict and make sure they listen to me.
Our other group was the younger kids. It was significantly bigger and of course little kids often don't pay attention for long. I also didn't have Cass with me this time because she had to go to the doctor with one of the babies so I was going solo. I think they enjoyed it because they were all laughing and seemed to have fun. However, had an even harder rime keeping them in line though and at one point I had to yell so loud to get their attention that I surprised myself. It seemed like I was continuously yelling '¡Niños, en las lineas por favor!' (Kids, into your lines please!). Hopefully that will get better with time though and we will get more confident.
I will try and get some pictures. You know some cool karate action shots.
I think that's everything
I think I'm done now. Just got to tell you what we have planned. Next week we have organised a Scottish Celidh evening. I'm aware we aren't Scottish but we enjoy it so much whenever we do it at Project Trust that we thought the kids might find it fun.
We have also planned this big sports day thing. In Peru there's this TV programme called 'Combate' where there's scantily clad women and muscly men in either the red team or the green team and they compete against each other doing different physical challenges. It gets a bit repetitive and it's ridiculously dramatic but the kids love and it and always ask whether we support the red or green team (the answer is red if you're interested). So we have decided to make it like a Combate day with separate teams and red and green face paint and different games and races and stuff. Hopefully it will be really fun. I think they'll like it because they get pretty competitive.
We have also got a trip to Cajamarca planned with Carolina (Dr Franco's daughter). It's like this big 9 day festival where there's dancing and street water fights and it looks like so much fun! We are only going for 4 days but we can't wait!!
So, I think that's everything.
Thank you again to everyone who helped me to get here.
I'm having an amazing time here and it makes me feel sad to think about leaving and it seems like I have barely any time left!
Ok, so I´m having a nightmare with the blog situation in which it take up to 2 hours to upload 4 photos. So I have put a few on but you might have to wait until I get home and I can use western internet to see the pictures. I´ve written where I wanted to put pictures so until I can get them up you will have to use your imagination. Sorry!
