I realise I´ve been utterly rubbish at keeping this frequently updated, but we don´t always have internet access and even when we do its insanely slow. So anyway, the weekend following on from my last post turned out to be the best and worst weekend.
We all went through to Lima as a group to go to another museum which was really moving and captivating. We were being shown round a photo gallery about the history of terrorism in Peru. It was especially hard-hitting as our tour guide talked with so much passion and sorrow as she lost family to acts of terrorism, and Misael (our supervisor) was even getting teary eyed which was really shocking to see as up til then we´ve always seen him as this rough, macho, ex-prison convict with a tough history - and to see him so emotional was really moving as well as difficult for us to see someone we´ve grown so close to so upset.
The gallery hosted beautiful photography which delivered so much emotion, strong messages, and revolutionary history. It was the best museum tour I´ve ever experienced.
A lot of us decided to stay in Lima that night and we checked ourselves into a hostel called The Flying Dog which is specifically for travellers - Peruvians aren´t permitted to stay and if they do they have to pay extra. Sounds a bit discriminative but it was good in the way that we got to meet lots of different people from many different places. We fast became acquainted with the man who makes the Flying Dog such a wonderful experience, the legend that is Harry. He´s such a queen, funny, and makes a good strong cocktail! I do love Pachacutec and really enjoy the work that we do however I do also love our weekends away when we can all wind down and not have to worry about representing Platform2; we can be silly and carefree and not have to worry. After many cocktails curtesy of Harry, me and Millie were enjoying dancing along the bar and meeting more random people from around the world. Cocktail led to cocktail and eventually led to a gay club. I don´t think the majority of the group caught on to where we were til perhaps half an hour being there. We continued our crazy dancing swinging around poles and on hanging ledges which we soon got chucked off of as apparently someone had recently fallen off it and died...whoops. Gotta love the lack of health and safety in Peru.
Walking back to the hostel from the club we stopped by Metro to get some munchies. Metro is like the equivalent of Tesco; as we´ve all become accustomed to haggling in markets and getting things for a tupence, it always feels like we´re being utterly ripped off whenever we shop in Metro. Me and Millie quickly made our way to the deli counter and requested to have a taster of just about every filling possible, and then filled a stack of plastic tubs with lots of different food. Walking down the aisle on the way to the tills, whilst balancing our stacks of tubs, we decided that Metro couldn´t get away with ripping us off this time and that we were too cunning so we decided to stuff our faces with a potato mix that filled one of the tubs, before we reached the tills. We obviously underestimated just how much was in there. We were stuffing our faces so quickly the mix was practically going up our noses - attractive indeed - but nontheless the mix was gone by the time we´d reached the till.....granted half of it we dropped and shovelled underneath the shelves. We felt so proud when we didn´t have to pay for that extra box which probably only cost about and pound twenty - this was probably thankfully due to the fact that no-one spoke English....I say thankfully as I´m sure we were plotting this very loudly and its a good job they couldn´t understand us.
We finally made it back to the flying dog where we continued our banter with the random travellers, with Ironman in Spanish in the background. I finally crashed out about 6am however hardcore Millie stayed up all night and almost all morning, finally giving in at 9.30am....however she only caught an hour and a half hours sleep. I woke up to the most adorable cat licking my face and nuzzling into me, and Lauren the destined spinster instantly fell in love with this little kitty. We couldn´t enjoy that much of a long lie in the morning as some of the group had to get back for the baptism of the presidents daughter. Whilst leaving the hostel and saying bye to everyone including the cat, Lauren asked in a joking way if she could keep the cat, to which Harry got overly exicted and practically begged her to take her, who was called Ginger. So then Lauren got overly excited and being all syked up in the moment took the cat. From Lima its roughly a 2 hour journey back home, so Lauren emptied out her large shoulder bag and filled it with tissues so create and quick-shift pouch for Ginger to sit in while we travelled home - and she put all her belongings in Millies bag.
On the bus on the way back me and Lauren managed to get 2 seats together and Millie sat on a seat on the otherside of the aisle from us. Was bliss managing to get a seat as its rather rare with the buses constantly being crammed with people. Two stops after we got on, the dodgiest looking guy got on and sat next to Millie. He looked really shifty and kept looking at our bags. Millie, only having had not even 2 hours sleep, could barely stay awake and kept falling asleep on him, so we kept waking her up and telling her to be wary of him. He then kept trying to make conversation with us, but was kind of overly friendly and just came across as really weird and edgy. Even when me and Lauren were chatting away and laughing he kept laughing whenever we were laughing even though he clearly couldn´t understand a word we were saying. I was hugging on to my bag for dear life and me and Lauren were prepared for him to try and cause some kind of distraction to try and mug us or something. Sounds like utter paranoia, but our project manager is constantly telling us stories about how sly thieves are and how they are characters you´d least suspect most of the time. So for the most part of that 2hour journey, we were really tense, alert, and we kept waking Millie and making sure she had her bags etc. Two stops before we were due to get off, the weird guy got off the bus to our great relief, and we were totally laughing about the fact that he was probably a decent guy but he scared the crap out of us.
Two stops later we were getting off the bus in Ventanilla and just as the bus drove away, Millie went "Fuck...I left my bag on the bus"....after all that paranoia about some shifty looking character, we just left the most valuable bag on that bus to be picked up by anyone. Unfortunately for Lauren and Millie, that bag contained two digital cameras (one an SLR), their passports and immigration forms, and purses. Lauren just broke down on the pavement, and me and Millie stood their completely helpless. I took out my phone to ring Misael but my battery had died, and Lauren and Millie´s phones were in that bag. We then noticed a police car sat outside the Metro so we legged it over and tried to explain what the fook just happened through our very crude spanish, the police officer grasped what had happened so we jumped into the back of the car but he explained we couldn´t go anywhere til his partner returned and he was in the supermarket so he was ringing him off his mobile! Then a few minutes later - which felt like an eternity - we seen him slowly dondering along stuffing his face with munchies and he clearly wasn´t running so I just opened the door and yelled at him to hurry the fook up, to which he actually dropped his bag of crisps and started to run! He got in the car and before he´d even shut his door we were yelling DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!!! we didn´t even know where we wanted them to go! was soo much fun; they put the sirens on and we were speeding through red lights and had some very close calls with other vehicles on the road! They didn´t have a clue what we were saying, we didn´t really have a clue what they were saying, we were just manically driving like crazy speeding after some bus that quite frankly we couldn´t even really remember what it looked like!
Then a bus just drove by in the opposite direction and in a moment of desperation we thought ´of course that MUST have been the must we were on´ so we started screaming at the police officers in an awful attempt at Spanish (i swear we must sound as coherent as borat out here) and we made them do a U-turn and then it just got to the stage that we realised this was just ridiculous and they started to realise that we didn´t have a clue and the car just got slower and slower.....and slower until we must have been going about 20mph and we were all sitting there in silence - a complete contrast to the beginning of our little joyride. Then they just asked us if we wanted dropped off at the taxi or bus station.
Anyway, after a few other stupid attempts at trying to track down the bag - in short it was an epic fail all round - we went the the presidents house (it sounds important but considering he doesn´t even get paid for being the president of the community and he lives in a cardboard box you´ll understand that its a mere title) and interupted his daughters baptism where half the community were celebrating so anyway....everybody was interegating us about what had happened, asking us for every tiny detail which was really hard as everything had happened so fast and was difficult, but anyway when they were asking us about the people sitting near us on the bus we were describing that guy that Millie was sitting next to and then suddenly it clicked that he could have possibly taken it as Millie said that she sat the bag right beside her feet along with another bag and that when she went to get off the bus there was only the one bag at her feet but she didn´t click at the time as she was in such a rush to get off and was still half asleep. And then me and Lauren remembered that he got off at a really weird stop, like in the middle of nowhere and we remembered commenting on what a funny place it was to get off and that he did seem in a bit of a rush like he was late for something.
skipping lots of unecessary bumph we basically had to go back into Lima the next day to go to the British Embassy and the police station (one that was specifically for tourists) so thats what we did. We decided to not state that Millie was really tired and had kept falling asleep as otherwise they´d be able to claim nothing on their insurance. If anything that weekend just proved to me that such a thing as karma does exist as on the way there, on the bus, Millie was using my phone, and it got mugged clean out of her hand and the guys just ran away off the bus....and thats why you should never lie children. So yes, we got mugged....on they way to reporting getting mugged. When we finally got to the police station....the police didn´t believe us. So we had to go elsewhere. At the next police station when we explained everything, the police officer just laughed at us, but thankfully sorted out the necessary reports.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Monday, 7 December 2009
Day 29 - experiencing the rich side of the shanty town
12-11-09
This afternoon we all went for lunch with the other group in Miraflores. We all got split up into pairs - one from each group. Steven requested us to be paired up so we enjoyed a lovely luncheon together! Misael warned us before we left that it would be a real shock to see how privileged the other group are in comparison to our living conditions in Pachacutec. Right enough when we drove into their area on the bus, we were driving on an actual tarmac road, all the houses were made of brick and were all quite a bit larger than the tiny shacks we are all living in at Pachacutec, it was a lot cleaner without as many stray animals and rubbish around. We were greeted by the whole group at their community centre when we arrived. It was so great to see Steven, I absolutely love his chat! He showed me into his very secure, large house, which really was a complete contrast to my home in Pachacutec. He had actual rooms in the house, rather than one giant room with wooden and paper separators! He has three levels in his house, nice furniture - actual sofas I might add - a flushing toilet (and the toilet was also IN the house), a warm shower, private garden, a working oven (which seemed bizarre to me as I´ve become used to my mum using her oven for cupboard space), 2 pet tortoises and a pet dog. Steven´s mum is an amaaazing cook as well, as she runs her own foodstall at nights! She was such a comical character as well, was brilliant afternoon entertainment.
For their building project, all 16 of them are working on building a classroom for a school in Pachacutec, and they do english, dance, and cooking workshops. Sounds like they´ve got the easy life compared to us; nicer homes, later curfews, safer environment. But if I was given the choice, I would genuinely pick the Viviendas Saludables project that I´m on. I wanted the most challenging experience possible as I thought it would be more rewarding... and I think I was right to assume that.
This afternoon we all went for lunch with the other group in Miraflores. We all got split up into pairs - one from each group. Steven requested us to be paired up so we enjoyed a lovely luncheon together! Misael warned us before we left that it would be a real shock to see how privileged the other group are in comparison to our living conditions in Pachacutec. Right enough when we drove into their area on the bus, we were driving on an actual tarmac road, all the houses were made of brick and were all quite a bit larger than the tiny shacks we are all living in at Pachacutec, it was a lot cleaner without as many stray animals and rubbish around. We were greeted by the whole group at their community centre when we arrived. It was so great to see Steven, I absolutely love his chat! He showed me into his very secure, large house, which really was a complete contrast to my home in Pachacutec. He had actual rooms in the house, rather than one giant room with wooden and paper separators! He has three levels in his house, nice furniture - actual sofas I might add - a flushing toilet (and the toilet was also IN the house), a warm shower, private garden, a working oven (which seemed bizarre to me as I´ve become used to my mum using her oven for cupboard space), 2 pet tortoises and a pet dog. Steven´s mum is an amaaazing cook as well, as she runs her own foodstall at nights! She was such a comical character as well, was brilliant afternoon entertainment.
For their building project, all 16 of them are working on building a classroom for a school in Pachacutec, and they do english, dance, and cooking workshops. Sounds like they´ve got the easy life compared to us; nicer homes, later curfews, safer environment. But if I was given the choice, I would genuinely pick the Viviendas Saludables project that I´m on. I wanted the most challenging experience possible as I thought it would be more rewarding... and I think I was right to assume that.
Day 28 - rewarding day
11-11-09
Felt like a breakthrough day today! In English we were teaching the kids different emotions and feelings. Our group picked it up really quickly, mainly thanks to Gazz who came along to help out, and he was so great with the kids; he made it really fun and I know they especially enjoyed todays lesson.
Tonight was our drop-in session debut. We decided to set up a weekly drop in night at teh community centre where teenagers can come hang out; chat, listen to music, play games etc. We didn´t get a chance to design and print posters beforehand to advertsie it however there was a brilliant turnout with many new faces. I really enjoyed it - was great to spend time with some of the older teens in the community. We´ve spent the last few weeks with so many of the younger kids in all the various workshops that it was a really refreshing change! The teens seem to carry this reputation of being anti-social, rebellious groups who hang around in intimidating groups, but it seems they´re just normal teens with nothing to do, so we´re hoping that by setting this drop-in up, it shall bring the teens closer to the rest of the community and encourage them to use their time more resourcefully.
Felt like a breakthrough day today! In English we were teaching the kids different emotions and feelings. Our group picked it up really quickly, mainly thanks to Gazz who came along to help out, and he was so great with the kids; he made it really fun and I know they especially enjoyed todays lesson.
Tonight was our drop-in session debut. We decided to set up a weekly drop in night at teh community centre where teenagers can come hang out; chat, listen to music, play games etc. We didn´t get a chance to design and print posters beforehand to advertsie it however there was a brilliant turnout with many new faces. I really enjoyed it - was great to spend time with some of the older teens in the community. We´ve spent the last few weeks with so many of the younger kids in all the various workshops that it was a really refreshing change! The teens seem to carry this reputation of being anti-social, rebellious groups who hang around in intimidating groups, but it seems they´re just normal teens with nothing to do, so we´re hoping that by setting this drop-in up, it shall bring the teens closer to the rest of the community and encourage them to use their time more resourcefully.
Day 27 - hello churros, goodbye diet plans!
10-11-09
Went up the hill again today and Millie also joined me. Another great workout, although it was completely wasted as I snacked so much today. I have fast become addicted to churros, which are lovely hot pastry things with gooey toffee inside and showered with sugar on the outside - scrummy! Had a lovely chat with the family back home (scotland home) which was good banter, especially as I fiiiinally managed to reach my brother Drew! About blooomin time!
Our first sports class was set up today, not many people turned up however we´re planning to put up posters around the place to raise awareness so hopefully next week will bring a good turnout!
Went up the hill again today and Millie also joined me. Another great workout, although it was completely wasted as I snacked so much today. I have fast become addicted to churros, which are lovely hot pastry things with gooey toffee inside and showered with sugar on the outside - scrummy! Had a lovely chat with the family back home (scotland home) which was good banter, especially as I fiiiinally managed to reach my brother Drew! About blooomin time!
Our first sports class was set up today, not many people turned up however we´re planning to put up posters around the place to raise awareness so hopefully next week will bring a good turnout!
Day 26 - same shizzle different drizzle
09-11-09
Woke up at 6am and climbed to the peak of the mountain before breakfast - took about half an hour altogether and was a good workout as it´s such a steep climb. I´m going to aim to do that every morning as I really need to work off all these carbs I´m eating. I don´t want to have to eat less as I like the food here and eating is like an enjoyable hobby for me.
I wasn´t much help for building today as we had to move a giant concrete slab from one end of the garden to the other to cover our sillo. As we have limited tools here and of course no machinery, we simply had to move this giant slab with mere elbow grease....and of course my very helpful motivational cheers from the sidelines!
We taught the kids "head shoulders knees and toes" today in English. On Wednesday we inted to play a couple of games to incorporate them learning colours as well as body parts; that´s where my twister game in finally going to come into play!
After English I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Carla. We did a spot of rollerblading, I showed her how to play a couple of chords on the guitar and tomorrow she wants me to print out some Aventura guitar tabs from the internet shack so we can play some of their songs. I´ll try to play it seriously although I don´t know if I can as the lyrics are sooo bad. I´m sure in one song the lyrics actually went something like: "Baby I am a dog, but my love for you still burns..."... I´m sure I´ll fail but nontheless I shall try to play with utmost feeling.
On a less funny note - no pun intended - I heard from Millie that Mikel (another volunteer, not sure if i´ve mentioned him yet) hasn´t been the happiest as of late and this is apprently because his little sister is made to get up at 5am every morning to do the washing, cleaning etc. It´s upsetting for him of course as it seems that this young girl is being brought up to think that is what girls are to to and be. The other morning Mikel overheard her complaining to her mum that she was too tired, and he could then hear his mum hitting her. This is the first time I´ve heard of any issue to do with gender inequality since I´ve been out here and because it´s the only case (so far, possibly) I´m not sure if it´s a culture thing or just an odd case thing. Not nice either way.
Woke up at 6am and climbed to the peak of the mountain before breakfast - took about half an hour altogether and was a good workout as it´s such a steep climb. I´m going to aim to do that every morning as I really need to work off all these carbs I´m eating. I don´t want to have to eat less as I like the food here and eating is like an enjoyable hobby for me.
I wasn´t much help for building today as we had to move a giant concrete slab from one end of the garden to the other to cover our sillo. As we have limited tools here and of course no machinery, we simply had to move this giant slab with mere elbow grease....and of course my very helpful motivational cheers from the sidelines!
We taught the kids "head shoulders knees and toes" today in English. On Wednesday we inted to play a couple of games to incorporate them learning colours as well as body parts; that´s where my twister game in finally going to come into play!
After English I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Carla. We did a spot of rollerblading, I showed her how to play a couple of chords on the guitar and tomorrow she wants me to print out some Aventura guitar tabs from the internet shack so we can play some of their songs. I´ll try to play it seriously although I don´t know if I can as the lyrics are sooo bad. I´m sure in one song the lyrics actually went something like: "Baby I am a dog, but my love for you still burns..."... I´m sure I´ll fail but nontheless I shall try to play with utmost feeling.
On a less funny note - no pun intended - I heard from Millie that Mikel (another volunteer, not sure if i´ve mentioned him yet) hasn´t been the happiest as of late and this is apprently because his little sister is made to get up at 5am every morning to do the washing, cleaning etc. It´s upsetting for him of course as it seems that this young girl is being brought up to think that is what girls are to to and be. The other morning Mikel overheard her complaining to her mum that she was too tired, and he could then hear his mum hitting her. This is the first time I´ve heard of any issue to do with gender inequality since I´ve been out here and because it´s the only case (so far, possibly) I´m not sure if it´s a culture thing or just an odd case thing. Not nice either way.
Saturday, 28 November 2009
Day 25 - more bonding with family and pachacutec
I decided to treat myself to an extra long lie in and got up around 9am - this was partly due to me not wanting to face more difficult communication problems. However it turned out to be a lovely day!
When we first arrived in Peru, we were all warned that we were most likely going to put on weight during our stay as their diet is so starchy and full of carbs. Well todays breakfast just took the piss: rolls filled with rice, chicken, potato, egg, and mayonnaise. Really tastey but I´m sure I´ll be paying for that soon enough with a new layer of MENTECA!
After breakfast we all went to Pachacutec market, and Sara came along too. Our Mama and Papa bought food for Cerviche - a Peruvian dish consisting of raw fish, chili, onions and lemon - fantastically tastey! The food section of the market is so chaotic! Narrow lanes lined with many many food stalls. The place was heaving; with so many people crammed and bustling in such a narrow space made the environment insanely uncomfortable and chlaustrophobic. The smell was gaggingly overpowering and the sight of a large pile of chicken legs, insides of chickens hung up, and a disply of ipg heads - all enough for the stomach muscles to tense up a bit.
Whilst wandering around I found a DVD of Carla´s favourite boyband "Aventura", so I bought her that and we watched it over lunch. I was again a bit nervous about lunch without Millie as my Spanish is rubbish and I was worried about looking rude for not making much conversation, but on the contrary lunch lasted a very long time as Papa Milvor was teling me about his side of the family. His parents are famers up north in the highlands. Papa Milvor proceeded to take out photo albums to show me his family and home up north, which was just lovely! Afterwards, Papa Milvor and my uncles sat outside drinking beer in the scorcing sun whilst me, Carla and Mama Juli sat watching Fater of the Bride and flicking through Avon and shoe magazines. It was a lovely girly session. Who would have thought you´d get avon out here??
Sara then came round for me and we went to get Jack and Sadiq, brought a guitar and my sketchbook and went to climb to the very top of the mountain that we live on. It was a very very steep climb but didn´t take long, maybe around 15 minutes, and we were at teh top, playing guitar, sketching, and enjoying the sun. We could see right over most of Pachacutec, and out to the sea. We could see our houses as tiny little dots below and it was bizarre to see our small community layed out, part of something soooo much bigger. These last 3 weeks I´ve felt so great about being here and I´ve felt on top of the world about the work that we are doing, but seeing the vastness of where we are, just made the work that we do feel like we´d only started cleaning a giant dirty floor with a child size toothbrush. We were looking over a murky sight of pollution, over-populated, unhygienic "houses", disease, and ultimately people in need. I´m already jealous of the next batch of volunteers who get sent out here to work, help, and live.
The four of us went to explore another hill close to where we were and discovered a large patch of untouched white sand. It was like finding gold amongst the unclean murky sand we were used to walking upon. We played around like carefree kids, jumping off steep edges and rolling around. We had such fun that we stayed until the clouds had gathered so thich around the top of the mountain that we could no longer see Pachacutec beneath us and could see as far as 5 metres perhaps.
When we got back down from the top, we hung out at Sadiqs for a while watching video clips from my birthday party, which was hilarious. Before dinner, me and Sara briefly hung out a Jack and Gazz´s and seeing their house made me realise how well off my family are in comparison to some of the other families here. Jack and Gazz´s bedroom in tiny; only enough room for their bunkbed and then space beside it to get in. Their roof is only made up of black bin bags and they don´t have a proper floor, just sand. Me and Millie are so lucky with the family that we have. Jack and Gazz´s mum kindly fed us desipte us just about to leave for our own dinners back home, but it was very yummy hospitality. When I did go home for dinner, a very hungover Millie was back! We caught up on eachothers weekends over dinner and then watching some more Aventura with Carla.
When we first arrived in Peru, we were all warned that we were most likely going to put on weight during our stay as their diet is so starchy and full of carbs. Well todays breakfast just took the piss: rolls filled with rice, chicken, potato, egg, and mayonnaise. Really tastey but I´m sure I´ll be paying for that soon enough with a new layer of MENTECA!
After breakfast we all went to Pachacutec market, and Sara came along too. Our Mama and Papa bought food for Cerviche - a Peruvian dish consisting of raw fish, chili, onions and lemon - fantastically tastey! The food section of the market is so chaotic! Narrow lanes lined with many many food stalls. The place was heaving; with so many people crammed and bustling in such a narrow space made the environment insanely uncomfortable and chlaustrophobic. The smell was gaggingly overpowering and the sight of a large pile of chicken legs, insides of chickens hung up, and a disply of ipg heads - all enough for the stomach muscles to tense up a bit.
Whilst wandering around I found a DVD of Carla´s favourite boyband "Aventura", so I bought her that and we watched it over lunch. I was again a bit nervous about lunch without Millie as my Spanish is rubbish and I was worried about looking rude for not making much conversation, but on the contrary lunch lasted a very long time as Papa Milvor was teling me about his side of the family. His parents are famers up north in the highlands. Papa Milvor proceeded to take out photo albums to show me his family and home up north, which was just lovely! Afterwards, Papa Milvor and my uncles sat outside drinking beer in the scorcing sun whilst me, Carla and Mama Juli sat watching Fater of the Bride and flicking through Avon and shoe magazines. It was a lovely girly session. Who would have thought you´d get avon out here??
Sara then came round for me and we went to get Jack and Sadiq, brought a guitar and my sketchbook and went to climb to the very top of the mountain that we live on. It was a very very steep climb but didn´t take long, maybe around 15 minutes, and we were at teh top, playing guitar, sketching, and enjoying the sun. We could see right over most of Pachacutec, and out to the sea. We could see our houses as tiny little dots below and it was bizarre to see our small community layed out, part of something soooo much bigger. These last 3 weeks I´ve felt so great about being here and I´ve felt on top of the world about the work that we are doing, but seeing the vastness of where we are, just made the work that we do feel like we´d only started cleaning a giant dirty floor with a child size toothbrush. We were looking over a murky sight of pollution, over-populated, unhygienic "houses", disease, and ultimately people in need. I´m already jealous of the next batch of volunteers who get sent out here to work, help, and live.
The four of us went to explore another hill close to where we were and discovered a large patch of untouched white sand. It was like finding gold amongst the unclean murky sand we were used to walking upon. We played around like carefree kids, jumping off steep edges and rolling around. We had such fun that we stayed until the clouds had gathered so thich around the top of the mountain that we could no longer see Pachacutec beneath us and could see as far as 5 metres perhaps.
When we got back down from the top, we hung out at Sadiqs for a while watching video clips from my birthday party, which was hilarious. Before dinner, me and Sara briefly hung out a Jack and Gazz´s and seeing their house made me realise how well off my family are in comparison to some of the other families here. Jack and Gazz´s bedroom in tiny; only enough room for their bunkbed and then space beside it to get in. Their roof is only made up of black bin bags and they don´t have a proper floor, just sand. Me and Millie are so lucky with the family that we have. Jack and Gazz´s mum kindly fed us desipte us just about to leave for our own dinners back home, but it was very yummy hospitality. When I did go home for dinner, a very hungover Millie was back! We caught up on eachothers weekends over dinner and then watching some more Aventura with Carla.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Day 24 - Jogging isn´t recommended in Pachacutec
07-11-09
Desipte it being a Saturday I thought I´d get up at 6am this morning for a nice healthy run. It started off nice, and it was indeed healthy as the run was mroe f a sprint; I´ve never had so much motivation to run so fast in all my life - a pack of rabid dogs started chasing me halfway through my jog. Initially I kept telling myself that it was fine, that they were all bark and n bite....that is until they started jumping up on me! I felt a pair of paws on the lover of my back, then more pairs on my legs - then I ran like mad. It felt as scary as that scene from Beauty and the Beast when Belle´s father gets lost and is chased by them wolves. I don´t think I´ll be making jogging a regular occurence.
We were supposed to be doing community development today but it got cancelled as Misael is having girlfriend problems :S Sooo myself, Millie, Sara and Lauren went into Ventanilla for a wander round the markets. We hopped on the usual rickety old bus to head down. Unlike some of the other buses we´ve taken, this bus had a full floor with no holes, however halfway there whilst the four of us were belting out some classic tunage, we heard and felt this almighty BANG! We seen something had broken off from beneath the bus and was lying in the middle of the road behind us, gradually getting smaller and smaller as we continued to roll down the hill. The biscuit tin on wheels pulled into the next place possible and after a quick check, the driver discovered that it was part of the axle holding the front wheels together that had broken off....kind f important. Luckily we managed to hail another bus into Ventanilla.
Walking through Ventanilla was very uncomfortable. We were getting lots of unwanted attention, pervy comments, whistles, and guys pestering us for our numbers. This attention was mst likely drawn by our blondie Sara nd even mre likely because Lauren was dressed even crazier than her normal hippy self; she was still wearing her jammy bottoms, paired up with a gypsy shirt, and wearing her hair in a beehive that made Amy Winehouse look tame. We found some cool second hand vintage stalls so we got a good few steals.
Millie and Lauren have gone away to Lima for the night so I had my first experience with the whole family minus Millie and her much better Spanish. We all went down to the big Pachacutec market as Papa Milvor needed to buy his pal a birthday present. It was a nice leisurely wander and they introduced me to Churro and Morado. Churros are lovely hot pastry things with gooey toffee inside and showered with sugar on the outside - utterly scrummy! And Morado is just like rice pudding with ChiCha (black maize) and topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon - also yummy but not as god as Churro!
Conversation was tough over dinner when we got back and I knew they were heading out for a birthday party but I really didn´t want to go as I´d understand nobody. So I tried to ask them if I could stay home, even consulting my dictionary and phrasebook and depite this effort and aid, they didn´t have a CLUE what I was trying to say. I even tried a spot of mime to further humiliate myself, and failed again. So I ended up going to the party but it actually turned out alright as I got to sit in with the kids and teens and played PS2 the whole night. Pirated games no less! I didn´t even know you could get pirated video games! Again in this house, priorities seemed incoherent to me; they had a flat widescreen TV with a PS2 in the bedroom yet there was only one bedroom with 2 double beds crammed next to eachother and hardly any more room roundabout it and this is where all the family sleep. You´d think they´d want to invest in a few mre bits of wood to extend their shack for extra room.
Desipte it being a Saturday I thought I´d get up at 6am this morning for a nice healthy run. It started off nice, and it was indeed healthy as the run was mroe f a sprint; I´ve never had so much motivation to run so fast in all my life - a pack of rabid dogs started chasing me halfway through my jog. Initially I kept telling myself that it was fine, that they were all bark and n bite....that is until they started jumping up on me! I felt a pair of paws on the lover of my back, then more pairs on my legs - then I ran like mad. It felt as scary as that scene from Beauty and the Beast when Belle´s father gets lost and is chased by them wolves. I don´t think I´ll be making jogging a regular occurence.
We were supposed to be doing community development today but it got cancelled as Misael is having girlfriend problems :S Sooo myself, Millie, Sara and Lauren went into Ventanilla for a wander round the markets. We hopped on the usual rickety old bus to head down. Unlike some of the other buses we´ve taken, this bus had a full floor with no holes, however halfway there whilst the four of us were belting out some classic tunage, we heard and felt this almighty BANG! We seen something had broken off from beneath the bus and was lying in the middle of the road behind us, gradually getting smaller and smaller as we continued to roll down the hill. The biscuit tin on wheels pulled into the next place possible and after a quick check, the driver discovered that it was part of the axle holding the front wheels together that had broken off....kind f important. Luckily we managed to hail another bus into Ventanilla.
Walking through Ventanilla was very uncomfortable. We were getting lots of unwanted attention, pervy comments, whistles, and guys pestering us for our numbers. This attention was mst likely drawn by our blondie Sara nd even mre likely because Lauren was dressed even crazier than her normal hippy self; she was still wearing her jammy bottoms, paired up with a gypsy shirt, and wearing her hair in a beehive that made Amy Winehouse look tame. We found some cool second hand vintage stalls so we got a good few steals.
Millie and Lauren have gone away to Lima for the night so I had my first experience with the whole family minus Millie and her much better Spanish. We all went down to the big Pachacutec market as Papa Milvor needed to buy his pal a birthday present. It was a nice leisurely wander and they introduced me to Churro and Morado. Churros are lovely hot pastry things with gooey toffee inside and showered with sugar on the outside - utterly scrummy! And Morado is just like rice pudding with ChiCha (black maize) and topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon - also yummy but not as god as Churro!
Conversation was tough over dinner when we got back and I knew they were heading out for a birthday party but I really didn´t want to go as I´d understand nobody. So I tried to ask them if I could stay home, even consulting my dictionary and phrasebook and depite this effort and aid, they didn´t have a CLUE what I was trying to say. I even tried a spot of mime to further humiliate myself, and failed again. So I ended up going to the party but it actually turned out alright as I got to sit in with the kids and teens and played PS2 the whole night. Pirated games no less! I didn´t even know you could get pirated video games! Again in this house, priorities seemed incoherent to me; they had a flat widescreen TV with a PS2 in the bedroom yet there was only one bedroom with 2 double beds crammed next to eachother and hardly any more room roundabout it and this is where all the family sleep. You´d think they´d want to invest in a few mre bits of wood to extend their shack for extra room.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Day 23
06-11-09
just about broke my back today! We had to compact the ground at work today but of course as we have limited and crap tools out here we had to make the compacters ourselves! I really have nooo idea how they compact in the UK but I´m pretty certain its nothing like the way the do it in Peru. We got a large empty biscuit tin which we filled with cement and then once it dried we wrapped lots of wire round it to form a sturdy enough handle and voila; this was our compacter! If it wasn´t such a rubbish internet connection I´d upload a photo but alas thats one of the downsides of signing up to live in a shanty town. With this compacter which was about 30cm x 30cm and about 60cm in height, we had to lift it up and drop it down, lift it up, drop it down - and we were covering a piece of land which I´d say was 3metres by 5m! Three of us, taking turns with this ONE compacter!! took forever and now i´m craving a proper good massage!
After our weekly meeting, myself and a few others attended the dance class for the first time! Was great fun; traditional Peruvian dance. We got completely laughed at as we were all so rubbish but nontheless it was a hoot and we´re coming back for more every week! The teacher is great! Sassy lassy! She moves just like Beyonce, whereas I move about as flexible as a lamp post.
Random school girls keep coming up to us whenever we´re out and about walking and asking us if we can sing a song in English. Tragically they usually request Celine Dion My Heart Will Go On.
just about broke my back today! We had to compact the ground at work today but of course as we have limited and crap tools out here we had to make the compacters ourselves! I really have nooo idea how they compact in the UK but I´m pretty certain its nothing like the way the do it in Peru. We got a large empty biscuit tin which we filled with cement and then once it dried we wrapped lots of wire round it to form a sturdy enough handle and voila; this was our compacter! If it wasn´t such a rubbish internet connection I´d upload a photo but alas thats one of the downsides of signing up to live in a shanty town. With this compacter which was about 30cm x 30cm and about 60cm in height, we had to lift it up and drop it down, lift it up, drop it down - and we were covering a piece of land which I´d say was 3metres by 5m! Three of us, taking turns with this ONE compacter!! took forever and now i´m craving a proper good massage!
After our weekly meeting, myself and a few others attended the dance class for the first time! Was great fun; traditional Peruvian dance. We got completely laughed at as we were all so rubbish but nontheless it was a hoot and we´re coming back for more every week! The teacher is great! Sassy lassy! She moves just like Beyonce, whereas I move about as flexible as a lamp post.
Random school girls keep coming up to us whenever we´re out and about walking and asking us if we can sing a song in English. Tragically they usually request Celine Dion My Heart Will Go On.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Day 22 - cruel to be kind?
05-11-09
Bonfire night - now thats one thing I´m missing out on as they don´t celebrate that here obviously! We´re not long back from Mikel´s where we were all watching a movie. I´m so content with the set up I´m in and the group of volunteers here. I love spending time with them all and I treasure the times we can just hang out together not working and not as Platform2 representatives. We are such a diverse bunch and I believe this is the only situation we´d all be hanging around together. But I feel so lucky that we´ve all been brought together through such an amazing experience and I´m sure we´ll be meeting up as frequently as possible once we´re back in the UK. It´s great as we all get on as one giant group and there are no segmentations within, and I really hope it stays that way.
Yesterday at work, the kids were being rough with the kittens so again a few of us got concerned. Lauren asked our supervisor Ricardo if we´d be able to take them into a safer environment so after much enquiring and to-ing and fro-ing between families, the owner of the kittens said that we could have all 4 in 2 weeks as she doesn´t want them to be seperated from their mother any sooner. I´m a wee bit torn as to what to do as I really hate the kittens being where they are now and it´s great that we´re allowed to take care of them, but what happens when we have to leave? Will they be old enough to fly back to the UK with us? Can we afford pet passports not to mention vet/jag costs? And that is if we are even considered eligible of whatever. I´m not really sure what the drill is. If taking them back to the UK isn´t an option, which I´m thinking it most likely isn´t an option, where do they go? Cat Shelters are all full and we can´t really impose this kind of thing on people. It´s hard because Lauren especially has already grown so attached and doesn´t want to think of those important questions just now, but I´m just worried that we may ironically be doing more damage by having big hearts.
Bonfire night - now thats one thing I´m missing out on as they don´t celebrate that here obviously! We´re not long back from Mikel´s where we were all watching a movie. I´m so content with the set up I´m in and the group of volunteers here. I love spending time with them all and I treasure the times we can just hang out together not working and not as Platform2 representatives. We are such a diverse bunch and I believe this is the only situation we´d all be hanging around together. But I feel so lucky that we´ve all been brought together through such an amazing experience and I´m sure we´ll be meeting up as frequently as possible once we´re back in the UK. It´s great as we all get on as one giant group and there are no segmentations within, and I really hope it stays that way.
Yesterday at work, the kids were being rough with the kittens so again a few of us got concerned. Lauren asked our supervisor Ricardo if we´d be able to take them into a safer environment so after much enquiring and to-ing and fro-ing between families, the owner of the kittens said that we could have all 4 in 2 weeks as she doesn´t want them to be seperated from their mother any sooner. I´m a wee bit torn as to what to do as I really hate the kittens being where they are now and it´s great that we´re allowed to take care of them, but what happens when we have to leave? Will they be old enough to fly back to the UK with us? Can we afford pet passports not to mention vet/jag costs? And that is if we are even considered eligible of whatever. I´m not really sure what the drill is. If taking them back to the UK isn´t an option, which I´m thinking it most likely isn´t an option, where do they go? Cat Shelters are all full and we can´t really impose this kind of thing on people. It´s hard because Lauren especially has already grown so attached and doesn´t want to think of those important questions just now, but I´m just worried that we may ironically be doing more damage by having big hearts.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Day 20 - Turning 22
03-11-09
Best birthday ever, hands down!! Really didn´t think I´d be saying this 3 weeks ago as I didn´t think many people out here would even know it was my birthday, but I don´t think I´ve ever had such a fuss made over me! I´m jitteringly buzzing just thinking of the whole of today!
My being of 22 began in the early hours of the morning when I was awoken by not the cockerel, but by my brother David ringing me from New Zealand having seriously worked out the time difference wrongly! So after a brief happy birthday from him I went back to sleep as of course I had building early in the morning. So as per usual I woke up at 6am, but unlike most mornings I awoke to see balloons hanging above my bed which Millie had hung up last night while I was dead to the world. Appropriately she had drawn on the balloons for them to read "Happy Birthday Ken!" Seeing that I was awake, Millie then proceeded to make quite an excited racket, gushing out many a Feliz Cumpleaños! Then our bedroom door opened and in came Carla with breakfast in bed which consisted of a cereal bar and a fancy-muffiny-bread-type-thing with a candle on top - whilst Millie was belting out Happy Birthday in the background! Mama Juli then came in with a homemade card from the whole family; the most precious card I´ve ever received. Inside on one page was a hand and foot print from baby Nicole, then the next page was from Mama Juli which I can roughly work out as translating into:
"Angela I am very happy that you are here as part of our family and I wish you a very Happy Birthday. We love you very much."
Then she wrote "Japi Verde Tu Yo Angela" - which totally makes no sense in Spanish and took me ages to work out that she was trying to write Happy Birthday in English as their J´s can be pronounced with a weird groggy H sound and they pronounce all their V´s as B´s, bless her!
The next page was from Papa Milvor, which again roughly translates into:
"Angela me and my family are very blessed to have you here. Sorry but I have to leave before 6am but I hope you find someone to spend the rest of your life with. We love you very much. Happy Birthday." - bit of a weird message, could be wrong with the translation and i suspect i am however Misael (our peruvian supervisor) reassured thats what it said....I´m thinking that Milvor´s handwriting is just really awful, either that or he was seriously tired in the morning! Or maybe thats a normal birthday message in Peru!
Then the next page was from dear Carla:
"Angela I don´t know if you can understand but I love you very much and I hope that your stomach ache is better. Please don´t forget me when you return. Very Happy Birhtday!"
The last page was signed by Millie:
"Happy Birthday Hermana Anckkkk! Have a bloody lovely day! Thankyou for being born, I am so grateful to have someone as wonderfully fantastic as you to share this experience with. Love you lots Ken, Millie xxxx"
Then beneath that it reads: "Te Quiero tu simbolo sexual, Mozo xxx y moz hermano xx"
What a touching start to being 22! It was nice meeting a large group in the morning for work and receiving lots of warm birthday wishes. Eké even serenaded me in the middle of the park with a funked up Happy Birthday! Dancing n all! He´s definetely the clown of our group!
Today work was a laugh as usual with Teamo Supremo! We discovered that the cat belonging to the family of the house we´re working on, has had 4 kittens! But to our dismay the children were throwing the poor things around as if they were stuffed toys! The parents blatently didn´t care so me Jack and Yas took them off the kids just as an automatic reaction and tried to show them to be gentle, and they obviously didn´t care either. We had to get back to work but I was soooo reluctant to give the kittens back. I know it doesn´t make it right, but I suppose when you can barely afford to feed and shelter your family, animal welfare doesn´t really rank high in your list of priorities. It´s hard trying to accept a completely different mindset in a completely different culture. Feeling that we couldn´t really do anything in that situation, we were obliged to leave the kittens and return to building.
The workshops today were music and circus but I missed most´ve music to phone home and I wish that I stayed on the phone longer as circus was awful today! It was the very first time I´ve had a real battle trying to communicate and understand people and I was getting ridiculed by 12 year old boys for my very poor Spanish. It was so embarrassing and humiliating. The most I could work out was that they were laughing at the fact I turned 22 today as I look 15. Burn!! Alhtough to be fair it is true ha! I decided to leave early as the struggle was starting to get to me and I felt really helpless so I just wanted to run home to learn more Spanish but we noticed Dina had burst into hysterical tears and ran to José the Youth Worker. She was in a panic saying that her Mum had gone into a man´s house just next to where we were all playing. José told her not to worry, that everything was going to be fine and that he´d called the police already. We were all so confused. Dina´s peers were going up to the wooden shack her Mum had entered and were trying to listen to what was going on through the wood. We slowly picked up that Dina´s mum is a prostitute and was there on business. She came out a while after looking dirty, off her face, and utterly rancid. She walked straight past Dina without even looking at her, which made Dina cry even harder. I have never seen such a repulsing set up; a 10 year olds own mother flaunting her dirty work right on her doorstep, infront of all her friends, and more people. I can´t imagine what that must be like to deal with!
I left that workshop feeling pretty low and helpless. I really need to speed up my learning in Spanish so that if any of the kids just want to talk, I can at least be there to listen and hopefully understand fully! Following that upsetting episode I briefly went to the internet shack for a spot of cheer as I received many lovely birthday wishes =) and that brief connection with the otherside of the world lifted my spirits somewhat!
Jade then popped in and asked me if I´d help her pick up a big water tank thing from Mikel´s house to take down to hers so of course I came to help! On the way to Mikel´s, the sky looked like it was flaming irn bru! Was such an immense sunset I just wanted to stand and watch it til it was gone. When we got to Mikel´s, not only was Mikel there, but the WHOLE group to yell SURPRIIIISE! To my utmost astoundment, they´d decked the house out in purple balloons, Pucca stuff everywhere, and a giant banner saying HAGGIS BIRTHDAY, and pics of me from Halloweén. They presented me with a purple tiara and a giant homemade purple card with a group photo on the front and everyone had left lovely messages inside. Cringingly Sadiq was recording everything all night on his video camera, although that isn´t so bad as the next part of the evening I would love to re-live again and again and again. We were all directed outside and made to sit in a giant circle. Lauren sat down with a guitar, and I may add that Lauren can´t actually play the guitar yet and so was just banging out random bung twangy chords to which Millie was singing along to; they´d written a comical song about me with the funniest lyrics - once I get a copy of them off Millie, I´ll have to post them, or even better, if Sadiq uploads the video I can display the most performace ever witnessed! As if that wasn´t immense enough, Mikel was dancing along in the middle of our circle illustrating the song through the art of immpresionist dance. How he kept a straight face the whole time, I´ll never know. I almost passed out from laughing so hard! Locals were walking past with the most confused, bemused, and horrified expressions - this is probably what they think the average Brit acts like now.
When we got back inside I received a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday and was presented with a giant piece of break shaped into a turtle with birthday candles! So course I made my wish, and then everybody started singing Happy Birthday again...strange? I thought so too. Out they brought a fudgingly maheeeeesive purple beauty BEAST of a cake! So I got another wish!!
Spoilt enough?! Oh no! In true birthday style we had a game of pass the parcel; in every layer there was a lolly and a dare! The music stopped on Yas first who had to sing me Happy Birthday Marilyn Munroe style....he failed epicly but as ever sufficed to entertain us all! Mikel had to sing whenever he wanted to speak, Richard and Gazz had to swap clothes and act like eachother...there was many many more fun things but I´m sure they´d be boring to read to anyone else´s eyes!
Spoilt enough?? Oh no! They´d even bought a Pucca costume for Sara to wear so I could have my own life size Pucca, AND at one point she was made to dance to the Jackson 5!
Spoilt enough? Oh no! They´d even got a giant Pucca píñata. Apparently I almost took a few people out whilst trying to hit it...way off, way off! I probably wouldn´t have been much better without the blindfold!
Spoilt enough?? Oh of course no! Present time! I can´t even list everything that they got me, bless them, it just seemed to keep coming and coming. I was stunned! Can´t believe they´d put so much effort and thought! Even Misael got me a present!
Spoilt enough? Not quite! They´d bought me Beauty and the Beast on DVD in Spanish, which we all watched at the end of the night as Misael allowed us an extended curfew and let all our families know! Millie and Laren were even thoughtful enough to read out the subtitles in a Scottish accent just to be sure I understood what was going on, as of course English subtitles can always be tricky.
It was such a fun-filled evening! Leaving Mikel´s and walking home just felt magical looking over the lights of Ventanilla! Me and Millie reluctantly said Buenos Noches to the rest of the group and crept in home as everyone was asleep. I totally can´t sleep! Absolutely buzzing! Still can´t believe the guys actually organised such an epic entertaining party! We all had such an amazing amazing time and there wasn´t a drop of alocohol in any of us! I´m soooo soo so happy here! I love being 22, I love my group, I lvoe my family out here, I love Pachacutec. Life is pretty sweet right now. I´m so lucky!
Best birthday ever, hands down!! Really didn´t think I´d be saying this 3 weeks ago as I didn´t think many people out here would even know it was my birthday, but I don´t think I´ve ever had such a fuss made over me! I´m jitteringly buzzing just thinking of the whole of today!
My being of 22 began in the early hours of the morning when I was awoken by not the cockerel, but by my brother David ringing me from New Zealand having seriously worked out the time difference wrongly! So after a brief happy birthday from him I went back to sleep as of course I had building early in the morning. So as per usual I woke up at 6am, but unlike most mornings I awoke to see balloons hanging above my bed which Millie had hung up last night while I was dead to the world. Appropriately she had drawn on the balloons for them to read "Happy Birthday Ken!" Seeing that I was awake, Millie then proceeded to make quite an excited racket, gushing out many a Feliz Cumpleaños! Then our bedroom door opened and in came Carla with breakfast in bed which consisted of a cereal bar and a fancy-muffiny-bread-type-thing with a candle on top - whilst Millie was belting out Happy Birthday in the background! Mama Juli then came in with a homemade card from the whole family; the most precious card I´ve ever received. Inside on one page was a hand and foot print from baby Nicole, then the next page was from Mama Juli which I can roughly work out as translating into:
"Angela I am very happy that you are here as part of our family and I wish you a very Happy Birthday. We love you very much."
Then she wrote "Japi Verde Tu Yo Angela" - which totally makes no sense in Spanish and took me ages to work out that she was trying to write Happy Birthday in English as their J´s can be pronounced with a weird groggy H sound and they pronounce all their V´s as B´s, bless her!
The next page was from Papa Milvor, which again roughly translates into:
"Angela me and my family are very blessed to have you here. Sorry but I have to leave before 6am but I hope you find someone to spend the rest of your life with. We love you very much. Happy Birthday." - bit of a weird message, could be wrong with the translation and i suspect i am however Misael (our peruvian supervisor) reassured thats what it said....I´m thinking that Milvor´s handwriting is just really awful, either that or he was seriously tired in the morning! Or maybe thats a normal birthday message in Peru!
Then the next page was from dear Carla:
"Angela I don´t know if you can understand but I love you very much and I hope that your stomach ache is better. Please don´t forget me when you return. Very Happy Birhtday!"
The last page was signed by Millie:
"Happy Birthday Hermana Anckkkk! Have a bloody lovely day! Thankyou for being born, I am so grateful to have someone as wonderfully fantastic as you to share this experience with. Love you lots Ken, Millie xxxx"
Then beneath that it reads: "Te Quiero tu simbolo sexual, Mozo xxx y moz hermano xx"
What a touching start to being 22! It was nice meeting a large group in the morning for work and receiving lots of warm birthday wishes. Eké even serenaded me in the middle of the park with a funked up Happy Birthday! Dancing n all! He´s definetely the clown of our group!
Today work was a laugh as usual with Teamo Supremo! We discovered that the cat belonging to the family of the house we´re working on, has had 4 kittens! But to our dismay the children were throwing the poor things around as if they were stuffed toys! The parents blatently didn´t care so me Jack and Yas took them off the kids just as an automatic reaction and tried to show them to be gentle, and they obviously didn´t care either. We had to get back to work but I was soooo reluctant to give the kittens back. I know it doesn´t make it right, but I suppose when you can barely afford to feed and shelter your family, animal welfare doesn´t really rank high in your list of priorities. It´s hard trying to accept a completely different mindset in a completely different culture. Feeling that we couldn´t really do anything in that situation, we were obliged to leave the kittens and return to building.
The workshops today were music and circus but I missed most´ve music to phone home and I wish that I stayed on the phone longer as circus was awful today! It was the very first time I´ve had a real battle trying to communicate and understand people and I was getting ridiculed by 12 year old boys for my very poor Spanish. It was so embarrassing and humiliating. The most I could work out was that they were laughing at the fact I turned 22 today as I look 15. Burn!! Alhtough to be fair it is true ha! I decided to leave early as the struggle was starting to get to me and I felt really helpless so I just wanted to run home to learn more Spanish but we noticed Dina had burst into hysterical tears and ran to José the Youth Worker. She was in a panic saying that her Mum had gone into a man´s house just next to where we were all playing. José told her not to worry, that everything was going to be fine and that he´d called the police already. We were all so confused. Dina´s peers were going up to the wooden shack her Mum had entered and were trying to listen to what was going on through the wood. We slowly picked up that Dina´s mum is a prostitute and was there on business. She came out a while after looking dirty, off her face, and utterly rancid. She walked straight past Dina without even looking at her, which made Dina cry even harder. I have never seen such a repulsing set up; a 10 year olds own mother flaunting her dirty work right on her doorstep, infront of all her friends, and more people. I can´t imagine what that must be like to deal with!
I left that workshop feeling pretty low and helpless. I really need to speed up my learning in Spanish so that if any of the kids just want to talk, I can at least be there to listen and hopefully understand fully! Following that upsetting episode I briefly went to the internet shack for a spot of cheer as I received many lovely birthday wishes =) and that brief connection with the otherside of the world lifted my spirits somewhat!
Jade then popped in and asked me if I´d help her pick up a big water tank thing from Mikel´s house to take down to hers so of course I came to help! On the way to Mikel´s, the sky looked like it was flaming irn bru! Was such an immense sunset I just wanted to stand and watch it til it was gone. When we got to Mikel´s, not only was Mikel there, but the WHOLE group to yell SURPRIIIISE! To my utmost astoundment, they´d decked the house out in purple balloons, Pucca stuff everywhere, and a giant banner saying HAGGIS BIRTHDAY, and pics of me from Halloweén. They presented me with a purple tiara and a giant homemade purple card with a group photo on the front and everyone had left lovely messages inside. Cringingly Sadiq was recording everything all night on his video camera, although that isn´t so bad as the next part of the evening I would love to re-live again and again and again. We were all directed outside and made to sit in a giant circle. Lauren sat down with a guitar, and I may add that Lauren can´t actually play the guitar yet and so was just banging out random bung twangy chords to which Millie was singing along to; they´d written a comical song about me with the funniest lyrics - once I get a copy of them off Millie, I´ll have to post them, or even better, if Sadiq uploads the video I can display the most performace ever witnessed! As if that wasn´t immense enough, Mikel was dancing along in the middle of our circle illustrating the song through the art of immpresionist dance. How he kept a straight face the whole time, I´ll never know. I almost passed out from laughing so hard! Locals were walking past with the most confused, bemused, and horrified expressions - this is probably what they think the average Brit acts like now.
When we got back inside I received a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday and was presented with a giant piece of break shaped into a turtle with birthday candles! So course I made my wish, and then everybody started singing Happy Birthday again...strange? I thought so too. Out they brought a fudgingly maheeeeesive purple beauty BEAST of a cake! So I got another wish!!
Spoilt enough?! Oh no! In true birthday style we had a game of pass the parcel; in every layer there was a lolly and a dare! The music stopped on Yas first who had to sing me Happy Birthday Marilyn Munroe style....he failed epicly but as ever sufficed to entertain us all! Mikel had to sing whenever he wanted to speak, Richard and Gazz had to swap clothes and act like eachother...there was many many more fun things but I´m sure they´d be boring to read to anyone else´s eyes!
Spoilt enough?? Oh no! They´d even bought a Pucca costume for Sara to wear so I could have my own life size Pucca, AND at one point she was made to dance to the Jackson 5!
Spoilt enough? Oh no! They´d even got a giant Pucca píñata. Apparently I almost took a few people out whilst trying to hit it...way off, way off! I probably wouldn´t have been much better without the blindfold!
Spoilt enough?? Oh of course no! Present time! I can´t even list everything that they got me, bless them, it just seemed to keep coming and coming. I was stunned! Can´t believe they´d put so much effort and thought! Even Misael got me a present!
Spoilt enough? Not quite! They´d bought me Beauty and the Beast on DVD in Spanish, which we all watched at the end of the night as Misael allowed us an extended curfew and let all our families know! Millie and Laren were even thoughtful enough to read out the subtitles in a Scottish accent just to be sure I understood what was going on, as of course English subtitles can always be tricky.
It was such a fun-filled evening! Leaving Mikel´s and walking home just felt magical looking over the lights of Ventanilla! Me and Millie reluctantly said Buenos Noches to the rest of the group and crept in home as everyone was asleep. I totally can´t sleep! Absolutely buzzing! Still can´t believe the guys actually organised such an epic entertaining party! We all had such an amazing amazing time and there wasn´t a drop of alocohol in any of us! I´m soooo soo so happy here! I love being 22, I love my group, I lvoe my family out here, I love Pachacutec. Life is pretty sweet right now. I´m so lucky!
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Day 19
02-11-09
I was sooo looking forward to last Saturday as we´d all planned to go out in Lima for Halloweén but the night before I had a rather sleepless night as I was up spewing my guts out for a lot of it. I woke up in the morning feeling like death and was very close to just staying home and giving Lima a miss. However I knew that I´d be missing out big time so I decided to suck it up like a sweetheart and just go! Millie was an absolute dream that morning; she went out really early to get me oranges and bread, she made me a hot drink with rehydration salts, and even offered to stay in with me that night if I still felt rubbish, but of course that was not going to happen!
We all set off early in the morning so that we had the whole day to spend in Lima. Firstly we visited the museum where we learnt a bit about history and seen lots of pots. I usually find it hard to concentrate at things like that so I didn´t take much in which, yes I know, is awful! We then followed the uneventful museum tour with luncheon and cocktails in the park which was just lovely! Millie started ballroom dancing with a random 90 year old Peruvian man who of course was swooned! Millie´s a top dollar belter KEN!?
After lunch we all went shopping as a lot of us hadn´t even got our costumes for that night yet! Sadiq was buying a pink t-shirt for himself and I begged him to go as a pink carebear which of course he dismissed. But following mine and Sara´s constant pleas, he said that if we managed to find him pink trousers and pink bear ears in the space of 10 minutes he would. To Sadiq´s severe horror we actually managed to find him a pink hair band and two scrunchies we could make into bear ears, and pink trackies! Me and Sara were just about wetting ourselves with utter glee and excitement! Sadiq´s the type of guy who has very strong principles and never goes back on his word so he was devasted and moreover the guy is Muslim so couldn´t eve drink away the humiliation!
Getting ready was the best part of that night! Bless Sadiq! He was so nervous when I was painting him pink and covering him with love hearts! We were standing in the toilets-shower room doing his facepaints and everytime he´d dear somebody on the otherside of the door he quickly hide behind the shower curtain. When he was finally ready Sadiq received the most amazing response - it was like he´d been crowned an ultimate legend! I love Sadiq. So anyway, after a few wines in the hostel we all headed out to a rather expensive bar where we played a couple of drinking games and got told off for being too rowdy so then proceeded onwards on a very long and oblivious trek trying to find some jumping reggae club which Richard had somehow heard about. We finally found the place and were completely disappointed! It was completely empty and was more like somebody´s big house rather than a club, was quite bizarre. Nontheless, we decided to stay for at least one drink, which led to many more and a craching time of merry ridiculous dancing! I think the owner of the club-house-thing was absolutely astounded that there were actually people in his club-house-thing so much so trhat he was taking pictures of us all night. Bit creepy but we were too merry to care!
Following that hefty dosage of horrendous dancing, we all decided to move onto another club. I don´t even know how long we were walking about for trying to all decide on a place to go, and I´m not quite sure how it started but people started arguing about what they wanted to do and it just escalated and escalated until a couple of us did a double take to see a werewolf, sweeney todd, a carebear, a dead barbie, a witch, a badger, and a pirate amongst some other weird characters arguing in the middle of a crowded area all about nothing! Quite amusing really! So we returned to the hostel a bit earlier than expected. When we returned, there was a cleaner in our hostel and the random time of half one in the morning cleaning up our toilets, which Millie refused to accept and kept screaming at him "NO MAS TRABACHAAAA!!! COME DOWNSTAIRS TO THE PUB AND HAVE A DRINK" so a few of us sat downstairs eating cake and chatting to some guy we could not understand, and he kept checking out poor petrified Sadiq.
In the morning, thankfully everyone seen the funny side of the argument the night before, so it was all dandy! We pretty much all spent most of the day lazing down at the beach. Was just stunning, and it was great to be able to breath in clean fresh air and relax instead of constantly working!
Getting home back to Pachacutec was a tricky adventure as we had to get three buses, which we somehow managed if not the long way round. The buses used to amuse me here, but after a night out, they are far from pleasant! They squish people into buses even tighter than families squish more family members into tiny shacks here! And the buses home wasn´t a short one! We left between 4 and 4.30pm and arrived home at about 8.30pm. it should have only taken about 2 and a half hours. Newbies! By the time I´d gotten home I felt sooo awful! My whole body was aching, and was shivery and shakey, had a banging head, felt like a was going to spew.
Mama Juli could see that me and Millie didn´t look to great when we finally got in so just offered us soup which I loved the sound of! Always the ticket when you´re feeling like death warmed up! So I thankfully sat down at the table infront of my hot steamy plate of soup, dipped my spoon in, and lifted out a whole chicken leg! I actually heaved but managed to contain myself! It still had the claws and everything! At that point, I knew I´d be taking a day off work the next day!
I was sooo looking forward to last Saturday as we´d all planned to go out in Lima for Halloweén but the night before I had a rather sleepless night as I was up spewing my guts out for a lot of it. I woke up in the morning feeling like death and was very close to just staying home and giving Lima a miss. However I knew that I´d be missing out big time so I decided to suck it up like a sweetheart and just go! Millie was an absolute dream that morning; she went out really early to get me oranges and bread, she made me a hot drink with rehydration salts, and even offered to stay in with me that night if I still felt rubbish, but of course that was not going to happen!
We all set off early in the morning so that we had the whole day to spend in Lima. Firstly we visited the museum where we learnt a bit about history and seen lots of pots. I usually find it hard to concentrate at things like that so I didn´t take much in which, yes I know, is awful! We then followed the uneventful museum tour with luncheon and cocktails in the park which was just lovely! Millie started ballroom dancing with a random 90 year old Peruvian man who of course was swooned! Millie´s a top dollar belter KEN!?
After lunch we all went shopping as a lot of us hadn´t even got our costumes for that night yet! Sadiq was buying a pink t-shirt for himself and I begged him to go as a pink carebear which of course he dismissed. But following mine and Sara´s constant pleas, he said that if we managed to find him pink trousers and pink bear ears in the space of 10 minutes he would. To Sadiq´s severe horror we actually managed to find him a pink hair band and two scrunchies we could make into bear ears, and pink trackies! Me and Sara were just about wetting ourselves with utter glee and excitement! Sadiq´s the type of guy who has very strong principles and never goes back on his word so he was devasted and moreover the guy is Muslim so couldn´t eve drink away the humiliation!
Getting ready was the best part of that night! Bless Sadiq! He was so nervous when I was painting him pink and covering him with love hearts! We were standing in the toilets-shower room doing his facepaints and everytime he´d dear somebody on the otherside of the door he quickly hide behind the shower curtain. When he was finally ready Sadiq received the most amazing response - it was like he´d been crowned an ultimate legend! I love Sadiq. So anyway, after a few wines in the hostel we all headed out to a rather expensive bar where we played a couple of drinking games and got told off for being too rowdy so then proceeded onwards on a very long and oblivious trek trying to find some jumping reggae club which Richard had somehow heard about. We finally found the place and were completely disappointed! It was completely empty and was more like somebody´s big house rather than a club, was quite bizarre. Nontheless, we decided to stay for at least one drink, which led to many more and a craching time of merry ridiculous dancing! I think the owner of the club-house-thing was absolutely astounded that there were actually people in his club-house-thing so much so trhat he was taking pictures of us all night. Bit creepy but we were too merry to care!
Following that hefty dosage of horrendous dancing, we all decided to move onto another club. I don´t even know how long we were walking about for trying to all decide on a place to go, and I´m not quite sure how it started but people started arguing about what they wanted to do and it just escalated and escalated until a couple of us did a double take to see a werewolf, sweeney todd, a carebear, a dead barbie, a witch, a badger, and a pirate amongst some other weird characters arguing in the middle of a crowded area all about nothing! Quite amusing really! So we returned to the hostel a bit earlier than expected. When we returned, there was a cleaner in our hostel and the random time of half one in the morning cleaning up our toilets, which Millie refused to accept and kept screaming at him "NO MAS TRABACHAAAA!!! COME DOWNSTAIRS TO THE PUB AND HAVE A DRINK" so a few of us sat downstairs eating cake and chatting to some guy we could not understand, and he kept checking out poor petrified Sadiq.
In the morning, thankfully everyone seen the funny side of the argument the night before, so it was all dandy! We pretty much all spent most of the day lazing down at the beach. Was just stunning, and it was great to be able to breath in clean fresh air and relax instead of constantly working!
Getting home back to Pachacutec was a tricky adventure as we had to get three buses, which we somehow managed if not the long way round. The buses used to amuse me here, but after a night out, they are far from pleasant! They squish people into buses even tighter than families squish more family members into tiny shacks here! And the buses home wasn´t a short one! We left between 4 and 4.30pm and arrived home at about 8.30pm. it should have only taken about 2 and a half hours. Newbies! By the time I´d gotten home I felt sooo awful! My whole body was aching, and was shivery and shakey, had a banging head, felt like a was going to spew.
Mama Juli could see that me and Millie didn´t look to great when we finally got in so just offered us soup which I loved the sound of! Always the ticket when you´re feeling like death warmed up! So I thankfully sat down at the table infront of my hot steamy plate of soup, dipped my spoon in, and lifted out a whole chicken leg! I actually heaved but managed to contain myself! It still had the claws and everything! At that point, I knew I´d be taking a day off work the next day!
Day 16
30-10-09
It seems to be getting warmer finally, now that we´re getting closer to Summer! Bring on the tan! Although the downside to the increase in temperature is that everything smells ten times worse! As it was nice and hot today I put on my sandals but anytime I was walking anywhere I was extra aware of where I was placing my feet as there is dog excrement, rubbish, dirty nappies and broken glass just about everywhere.
Yas has got bronchitis due to the amount of sand and dust in the air, as well as the air being damp and moist at night and early mornings. Yas is such a funny character; on a completely different planet from the rest of us. He uses an inhaler which expired in 2005 yet he swears by it, he wears women´s jumpers claiming that they are for men, he thinks that humans don´t contribute a thing to global warming and that the high rate of growing CO2 emissions is completely natural, during work today he actually said "poverty is no excuse for uncleanliness and lack of hygiene", and worryingly his life ambition is to become a doctor in the army. I´m sure by the end of this project we´ll be able to write a book on Yas.
Carla seemed to be really upset this evening and looked like she had been crying a lot but I don´t know what about. So me and Millie decided to ditch our plans for going to Dina´s Halloweén party and bought lots of pigging out snacks for us all to eat whilst watching Al Fondo Hoy Sitio, and we got Millie´s face paints out and pised around all night and that seemed to cheer her up immensely! I love our family here!
It seems to be getting warmer finally, now that we´re getting closer to Summer! Bring on the tan! Although the downside to the increase in temperature is that everything smells ten times worse! As it was nice and hot today I put on my sandals but anytime I was walking anywhere I was extra aware of where I was placing my feet as there is dog excrement, rubbish, dirty nappies and broken glass just about everywhere.
Yas has got bronchitis due to the amount of sand and dust in the air, as well as the air being damp and moist at night and early mornings. Yas is such a funny character; on a completely different planet from the rest of us. He uses an inhaler which expired in 2005 yet he swears by it, he wears women´s jumpers claiming that they are for men, he thinks that humans don´t contribute a thing to global warming and that the high rate of growing CO2 emissions is completely natural, during work today he actually said "poverty is no excuse for uncleanliness and lack of hygiene", and worryingly his life ambition is to become a doctor in the army. I´m sure by the end of this project we´ll be able to write a book on Yas.
Carla seemed to be really upset this evening and looked like she had been crying a lot but I don´t know what about. So me and Millie decided to ditch our plans for going to Dina´s Halloweén party and bought lots of pigging out snacks for us all to eat whilst watching Al Fondo Hoy Sitio, and we got Millie´s face paints out and pised around all night and that seemed to cheer her up immensely! I love our family here!
Day 15
29-10-09
Totally feeling the strain on my back today from building. We´re still working away on building the silo and making good progress, especially considering the tools here are very primitive and not in the best condition.
Circus class was immense fun today - I was being taught how to juggle with clubs; I can just about manage two! Again we weren´t really teaching the kids anything new however they seem to enjoy simply interacting with us, but I do feel we need to have some worthwhile input soon! One girl inparticular called Dina seemed to latch onto me today and was reluctant to let me leave, which got a bit worrying hehe. She invited me to her Halloweén party tomorrow evening so I´m bringing along Mille, Lauren and Sara incase she makes it difficult for me to leave again, bless her! I´m looking forward to getting the face paints out!
Carla made me bracelet today and Millie was moaning (in a joking way) that I was the favourite, which weirdly does seem to be the case - even if I do say so myself =P - to be honest ever since I said that I was from Scotland they´ve seemed to have more of an interest. I´ll have to print some pictures of home to show them, and perhaps try to cook them something Scottish one night although I´m not sure what as I doubt I´ll be able to get haggis over here.
Totally feeling the strain on my back today from building. We´re still working away on building the silo and making good progress, especially considering the tools here are very primitive and not in the best condition.
Circus class was immense fun today - I was being taught how to juggle with clubs; I can just about manage two! Again we weren´t really teaching the kids anything new however they seem to enjoy simply interacting with us, but I do feel we need to have some worthwhile input soon! One girl inparticular called Dina seemed to latch onto me today and was reluctant to let me leave, which got a bit worrying hehe. She invited me to her Halloweén party tomorrow evening so I´m bringing along Mille, Lauren and Sara incase she makes it difficult for me to leave again, bless her! I´m looking forward to getting the face paints out!
Carla made me bracelet today and Millie was moaning (in a joking way) that I was the favourite, which weirdly does seem to be the case - even if I do say so myself =P - to be honest ever since I said that I was from Scotland they´ve seemed to have more of an interest. I´ll have to print some pictures of home to show them, and perhaps try to cook them something Scottish one night although I´m not sure what as I doubt I´ll be able to get haggis over here.
Friday, 30 October 2009
Day 14
28-10-09
Did a bit of brick laying and cementing today and felt like a proper builder! If I hadn´t have given up chocolate for my new years resolution, I´d well have eaten a yorkie whilst working away! I love building!
Took our second English class today where we were teaching numbers and days of the week. Again, I somehow managed to wing it with nothing prepared and without knowing much Spanish. Although it was enjoyable, I felt quite drained so I just spend the rest of the day sitting in with Carla.
It seems that quite a few of the people in the group are getting really really homesick. Personally I think its wonderful here and can´t imagine being homesick as I´m having such a brilliant time. I´m sure I will though at some point. Although nobody has much out here, and people in the UK would see this way of living as being extremely poor and undesirable, I see it as ideal. Yes ok I´m only here for 10 weeks and I would most likely choose my life back home over here but really if you strip it down; sure nobody has much here and there is some struggle in their ways of living, but on the whole it´s not what I would call a devastating condition. Nobody is starving....excluding dogs on the street. Kids are getting education, food and shelter. At night time they have the best view as being so high up, we can see over Ventanilla all lit up....although Lauren pointed out the other night that it isn´t pretty in her eyes as she thinks about what each of those lights represent: more streets and streets of the one we were standing on, with shacks, stray cats and dogs and just a typcial scene of the developing world. I do see that a lot of helt is needed, for example water and sanitation is an issue but from my perspective, although living like this may not be what we call the most ideal way of life, but nontheless its THEIR way of life; a non-materialistic kind of life. Nothing showy, very modest and humble. Remarkably I find that despite them having so little, they have amazing spirit, joy, and sense of family within their community. Our materialistic desires can cloud out what is really important but over here, through choice or not, its all stripped down to the bare values that matter and some may see that as unfortunate but I feel people here are just as ruch as us back home if not more.
Did a bit of brick laying and cementing today and felt like a proper builder! If I hadn´t have given up chocolate for my new years resolution, I´d well have eaten a yorkie whilst working away! I love building!
Took our second English class today where we were teaching numbers and days of the week. Again, I somehow managed to wing it with nothing prepared and without knowing much Spanish. Although it was enjoyable, I felt quite drained so I just spend the rest of the day sitting in with Carla.
It seems that quite a few of the people in the group are getting really really homesick. Personally I think its wonderful here and can´t imagine being homesick as I´m having such a brilliant time. I´m sure I will though at some point. Although nobody has much out here, and people in the UK would see this way of living as being extremely poor and undesirable, I see it as ideal. Yes ok I´m only here for 10 weeks and I would most likely choose my life back home over here but really if you strip it down; sure nobody has much here and there is some struggle in their ways of living, but on the whole it´s not what I would call a devastating condition. Nobody is starving....excluding dogs on the street. Kids are getting education, food and shelter. At night time they have the best view as being so high up, we can see over Ventanilla all lit up....although Lauren pointed out the other night that it isn´t pretty in her eyes as she thinks about what each of those lights represent: more streets and streets of the one we were standing on, with shacks, stray cats and dogs and just a typcial scene of the developing world. I do see that a lot of helt is needed, for example water and sanitation is an issue but from my perspective, although living like this may not be what we call the most ideal way of life, but nontheless its THEIR way of life; a non-materialistic kind of life. Nothing showy, very modest and humble. Remarkably I find that despite them having so little, they have amazing spirit, joy, and sense of family within their community. Our materialistic desires can cloud out what is really important but over here, through choice or not, its all stripped down to the bare values that matter and some may see that as unfortunate but I feel people here are just as ruch as us back home if not more.
Day 13
27-10-09
Got the first bit of cementing done today so in contrast to yesterday we are now ahead! Yas really upped his game today and the results really showed! I´m so glad that we´re building for this family inparticular. Even when we´re finished building, it will still be such a tiny space for so many people to live in, however at least it will be hygienic. At the moment I physically hold my breath everytime I walk through their house and its a good job we wear safety goggles for work as they´re also handy for walking through the swarms of flies. It´s an awful environment for kids to grow up in and I´m so happy that its going to change for them.
It´s odd how people prioritise here. For example the family we are building for inparticular are living like sardines, so much so that some of the children don´t even have neds, they store the little amount of clothes they have in cardboard boxes, they have no lights and so the house is in constant darkness, no toilet, no sink, no cooker just a camping stove ' and yet they have a TV and a booming HiFi.
Today we partook in music and circus classes, however there was no real structure and so everyone was really just mucking around and having fun, which yes is a laugh but not at all resourceful so we´re all going to have to work on some form of structure for Thursday.
Got the first bit of cementing done today so in contrast to yesterday we are now ahead! Yas really upped his game today and the results really showed! I´m so glad that we´re building for this family inparticular. Even when we´re finished building, it will still be such a tiny space for so many people to live in, however at least it will be hygienic. At the moment I physically hold my breath everytime I walk through their house and its a good job we wear safety goggles for work as they´re also handy for walking through the swarms of flies. It´s an awful environment for kids to grow up in and I´m so happy that its going to change for them.
It´s odd how people prioritise here. For example the family we are building for inparticular are living like sardines, so much so that some of the children don´t even have neds, they store the little amount of clothes they have in cardboard boxes, they have no lights and so the house is in constant darkness, no toilet, no sink, no cooker just a camping stove ' and yet they have a TV and a booming HiFi.
Today we partook in music and circus classes, however there was no real structure and so everyone was really just mucking around and having fun, which yes is a laugh but not at all resourceful so we´re all going to have to work on some form of structure for Thursday.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Day 12
26-10-09
Good productive day for building today; dug out a huge hole for the silo tank. We stayed an extra half hour in the hope to catch up but we´re still behind, so we´ll probably opt to stay longer again tomorrow and me and Jack will just have to deprive Yas of his a-bit-too-regular-and-long breaks.
Did some knitting before going to partake in our very first lesson teaching English. I really didn´t have a clue how on earth this was going to go as my Spanish is still pretty darn basic but thankfully it went very very well! We got a great turnout from the community of both adults and children; possibly between 25-30 people showed up which was amazing as we weren´t expecting over 5 as it was just the first lesson and we weren´t sure if many people had heard about it. Me and Hannah took a group of about 10 children ranging from 7 yr olds to 12 yr olds. We just taught them the basics for introducing yourself. Although our Spanish is still really basic, we knew enough to teach them a little English which was enough as they didn´t even know how to speak a word of English. Without any prior experience to this sort of thing, and with no guidance or direction from our supervisors, it thankfully went really really well for us all and they all seemed keen tocome back for more so we´ll hopefully be seeing them all back on Wednesday.
Today Millie took me to this vintage stall she´d found at the market. Its amazing. I got an Abercrombie & Fitch wooley cardigan for the equivalent of a pound! And also an Alpaca cardigan, again for a pound! I think we shall be browsing there frequently for some smashing steals! We had such a laugh with Carla tonight pissing around taking stupid pictures on my camera - literally rolling about laughing, good times!
Hmmmm I can hear somebody walking on the roof of our bedroom again as I write this, and I´m feeling rather nervous as I can see the metal roof bend under his every step! Please let there be no surprise visitors tongiht!
Good productive day for building today; dug out a huge hole for the silo tank. We stayed an extra half hour in the hope to catch up but we´re still behind, so we´ll probably opt to stay longer again tomorrow and me and Jack will just have to deprive Yas of his a-bit-too-regular-and-long breaks.
Did some knitting before going to partake in our very first lesson teaching English. I really didn´t have a clue how on earth this was going to go as my Spanish is still pretty darn basic but thankfully it went very very well! We got a great turnout from the community of both adults and children; possibly between 25-30 people showed up which was amazing as we weren´t expecting over 5 as it was just the first lesson and we weren´t sure if many people had heard about it. Me and Hannah took a group of about 10 children ranging from 7 yr olds to 12 yr olds. We just taught them the basics for introducing yourself. Although our Spanish is still really basic, we knew enough to teach them a little English which was enough as they didn´t even know how to speak a word of English. Without any prior experience to this sort of thing, and with no guidance or direction from our supervisors, it thankfully went really really well for us all and they all seemed keen tocome back for more so we´ll hopefully be seeing them all back on Wednesday.
Today Millie took me to this vintage stall she´d found at the market. Its amazing. I got an Abercrombie & Fitch wooley cardigan for the equivalent of a pound! And also an Alpaca cardigan, again for a pound! I think we shall be browsing there frequently for some smashing steals! We had such a laugh with Carla tonight pissing around taking stupid pictures on my camera - literally rolling about laughing, good times!
Hmmmm I can hear somebody walking on the roof of our bedroom again as I write this, and I´m feeling rather nervous as I can see the metal roof bend under his every step! Please let there be no surprise visitors tongiht!
Day 11
25-10-09
Another long lie in today. Then me and Millie met up with Alina and Eke for a 40 minute work out. We did a bit of stretching, running, sit ups etc. We were using the climbing frame in the park to do pull ups, strecthes etc - I felt like Rocky! After that we took Carla to the market where she got more Al Fondo Hoy Sitio stickers and me and Alina got some wool and knitting needles - lots of scarfs are to be made! I am never ever buying food from that market; they had lots of "fresh" fish but even more flies swarming around them. There´s also a few stalls selling chicken just freshly plucked - they still had the legs on them sticking up in the air. They didn´t even look real. It was like looking at a series of stuffed rubber chicken.
When we got back to the house we had a maaaasssive lunch: for starters we had a Peruvian dish which consisted of raw fish with onions and chilis. Really tastey but reallypainful too. At one point I had to run to get some tissue as I was actually crying! It felt like the skin on mytongue had been singed right off, but I managed to finished thatstarted like a crying trooper with a runny nose! Lovely! For our main we had rice, pork, fish, and different types of tatties as Peru seems to have them in abundancy - as in hundreds of different kinds. They even have purple potatoes which are utterly yum! During our meal our family seemed to be really intrigued by Scotland and kept asking me questions about the food and music. Next time I´m in the internet cafe I´ll try to download some Scottish music and burn it onto disc as I don´t think my impression of bagpipes really did Scottish music justice.
After lunch a few of us went to a school for disabled children, where we spent a few hours. They were all lovelyand a joy to be around. In som cases the language barrier wasn´t reallysuch an issue as some couldn´t communicate verbally very well. We could see that there was a lot of support from the community for this particular school and it has been a great highlight of my week. We were outside playing with the kids in the sand where there were stray dogs hanging about covered in fleas and most likely disease infested. We were also sitting amongst broken glass with which some kids were playing with. One child inparticular placed some broken glass over his eye to pretend it was a monocle. To my concern and shock, the parents/teachers were just sitting around not at all alarmed. We stopped the kids from playing with the glass and cleared away as much as we could, but it seemed they didn´t really understand what the big deal was.
Another long lie in today. Then me and Millie met up with Alina and Eke for a 40 minute work out. We did a bit of stretching, running, sit ups etc. We were using the climbing frame in the park to do pull ups, strecthes etc - I felt like Rocky! After that we took Carla to the market where she got more Al Fondo Hoy Sitio stickers and me and Alina got some wool and knitting needles - lots of scarfs are to be made! I am never ever buying food from that market; they had lots of "fresh" fish but even more flies swarming around them. There´s also a few stalls selling chicken just freshly plucked - they still had the legs on them sticking up in the air. They didn´t even look real. It was like looking at a series of stuffed rubber chicken.
When we got back to the house we had a maaaasssive lunch: for starters we had a Peruvian dish which consisted of raw fish with onions and chilis. Really tastey but reallypainful too. At one point I had to run to get some tissue as I was actually crying! It felt like the skin on mytongue had been singed right off, but I managed to finished thatstarted like a crying trooper with a runny nose! Lovely! For our main we had rice, pork, fish, and different types of tatties as Peru seems to have them in abundancy - as in hundreds of different kinds. They even have purple potatoes which are utterly yum! During our meal our family seemed to be really intrigued by Scotland and kept asking me questions about the food and music. Next time I´m in the internet cafe I´ll try to download some Scottish music and burn it onto disc as I don´t think my impression of bagpipes really did Scottish music justice.
After lunch a few of us went to a school for disabled children, where we spent a few hours. They were all lovelyand a joy to be around. In som cases the language barrier wasn´t reallysuch an issue as some couldn´t communicate verbally very well. We could see that there was a lot of support from the community for this particular school and it has been a great highlight of my week. We were outside playing with the kids in the sand where there were stray dogs hanging about covered in fleas and most likely disease infested. We were also sitting amongst broken glass with which some kids were playing with. One child inparticular placed some broken glass over his eye to pretend it was a monocle. To my concern and shock, the parents/teachers were just sitting around not at all alarmed. We stopped the kids from playing with the glass and cleared away as much as we could, but it seemed they didn´t really understand what the big deal was.
Day 10
24-10-09
Lovely lie in today before we all met at 10am to go to Lima. 2 and a half hours and various bus connections later and we were there, shopping in quirky markets, haggling or getting ripped off. Was great to spend a whole day with the whole group together. And it was also really really great to enjoy the hot sunshine down from the mountain! At first it was quite strange being back in a bustling, thriving, more wealthy, and more familiar environment. Initially it felt rather estranged as the quiet, pitiful, crumbling shanty towns that were just last week culture-shocking and devasting to see, were now what we see as our home; our home which was are all extremely happy living in. Despite the hustle and bustle, we all enjoyed a laid back day slowly meandering through the markets, having lunch, and seeing more of Lima.
When we got home it was just Carla in as Mama Ulee was next door hanging out with a group of pals. She came in briefly when we got back to feed us bless her; she was sooo happy! She was bouncing around the kitchen making as much conversation as our coherence could suffice before she headed back next door. Of course because next door is only made of wood, and our walls don´tclose all the gaps between it and the roof, we could totally hear her and her friends laughing away and having a really good time. Was lovely to see and hear Mama Ulee so hyped up! Me and Millie spent some time with Carla and have arranged to go down to the market with her tomorrow.
Later on me and Millie were just hanging out in our room and just talking about how much we love everyone in our group, and the conversation also went on to discussing if everyone in the group were all animals what they would be. Further down our random conversation we decided that the dictionary we bought together the other day needed a name.....of course it did. Millie made the clever connection that he (yes it seems obvious to us that he is indeed a he) is full of words.....so the name Steword seemed fitting....but not quite. So i looked up the Spanish word for steward which is Mozo, THUS "The Holy Book of Knowledge......and Lard" was born, otherwise known as Mozo. The lard part is really about me and Millie wanting to get fit and healthy so we´ve forbidden eachother from snacking so that we don´t look like lard.....obviously. If we see eachother going to the shop for snakcs we have to shout out MANTECA!!!!! which is the Spanish word for Lard. Doesn´t really have anything to do with the dictionary right enough, but it made sense at the time. I actually had SUCH a laugh with Millie tonight; couldn´t breath for laughing. Brilliant times.
Lovely lie in today before we all met at 10am to go to Lima. 2 and a half hours and various bus connections later and we were there, shopping in quirky markets, haggling or getting ripped off. Was great to spend a whole day with the whole group together. And it was also really really great to enjoy the hot sunshine down from the mountain! At first it was quite strange being back in a bustling, thriving, more wealthy, and more familiar environment. Initially it felt rather estranged as the quiet, pitiful, crumbling shanty towns that were just last week culture-shocking and devasting to see, were now what we see as our home; our home which was are all extremely happy living in. Despite the hustle and bustle, we all enjoyed a laid back day slowly meandering through the markets, having lunch, and seeing more of Lima.
When we got home it was just Carla in as Mama Ulee was next door hanging out with a group of pals. She came in briefly when we got back to feed us bless her; she was sooo happy! She was bouncing around the kitchen making as much conversation as our coherence could suffice before she headed back next door. Of course because next door is only made of wood, and our walls don´tclose all the gaps between it and the roof, we could totally hear her and her friends laughing away and having a really good time. Was lovely to see and hear Mama Ulee so hyped up! Me and Millie spent some time with Carla and have arranged to go down to the market with her tomorrow.
Later on me and Millie were just hanging out in our room and just talking about how much we love everyone in our group, and the conversation also went on to discussing if everyone in the group were all animals what they would be. Further down our random conversation we decided that the dictionary we bought together the other day needed a name.....of course it did. Millie made the clever connection that he (yes it seems obvious to us that he is indeed a he) is full of words.....so the name Steword seemed fitting....but not quite. So i looked up the Spanish word for steward which is Mozo, THUS "The Holy Book of Knowledge......and Lard" was born, otherwise known as Mozo. The lard part is really about me and Millie wanting to get fit and healthy so we´ve forbidden eachother from snacking so that we don´t look like lard.....obviously. If we see eachother going to the shop for snakcs we have to shout out MANTECA!!!!! which is the Spanish word for Lard. Doesn´t really have anything to do with the dictionary right enough, but it made sense at the time. I actually had SUCH a laugh with Millie tonight; couldn´t breath for laughing. Brilliant times.
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Day 9
23-10-09
Building was really frustrating today as it felt like we were getting nowhere! There was a lot of waiting around to be told what to do next, or waiting for our shot of certain tools or materials. As there are only 3 people in our team and no official superviser to help out yet, we´re now very behind. However we all had a group meeting today to dicuss the past week so I raised that issue so hopefully next week will be better. We also discussed which issues we´re going to cover for out research projects but I´ve still not decided. I´d like to do a few issues and talk about how they affect or are affected by eachother. That way, I feel the importance and significance of each, can truly be portrayed.
Building was really frustrating today as it felt like we were getting nowhere! There was a lot of waiting around to be told what to do next, or waiting for our shot of certain tools or materials. As there are only 3 people in our team and no official superviser to help out yet, we´re now very behind. However we all had a group meeting today to dicuss the past week so I raised that issue so hopefully next week will be better. We also discussed which issues we´re going to cover for out research projects but I´ve still not decided. I´d like to do a few issues and talk about how they affect or are affected by eachother. That way, I feel the importance and significance of each, can truly be portrayed.
Friday, 23 October 2009
Day 8
22-10-09
Surprisingly it wasn´t the silly cockerel to wake me from my slumber this morning, but it was Millie! At around 4am this morning, Millie turned over in her bed and the whole thing collapsed!! Poor girl definetely got the short straw with the beds as the other night it was raining and there just happened to be a hole in the roofing right above her head and she was woken up from a cold raindrop dropping in her ear! I offerend Millie just to bide in my bed but she said she´d probably end up spooning me and didn´t feel we were at that point in our relationship yet. So she grumpily arranged her sleeping bag on the concrete floor grumbling "In the morning this is going to be soooo funny, but right now I am NOT impressed!"
Today wasn´t the most productive day for building as we had to give away our boogie....which is what they call a wheelbarrow here. There´s only 3 boogies to share amongst 5 teams and as we had it yesterday and made quite good progress, it was another teams turn. So we blamed our lack of progress on the boogie; we couldn´t blame it on the sunshine afterall as it´s actually quite cold where we are. Because we are situated so high up a mountain, it´s rather chilly however even though its been cloudy since we arrived last week, a lot of us have still gotten sunburnt! Sneaky sneaky rays! I´m hoping it´s going to get warmer soon as the majority of my clothes are summer wear. This morning it was so misty that when I walked out my front door I felt like I´d stepped into a cloud! It was eerily like being back in Scotland.
This afternoon the whole group went shopping in Ventanilla. In the market we had to get several security guards to escort us as a few questionable characters were hanging around a bit too closely and following us around the entire time. Me and Millie purchased a cute pair of Pucca slippers for our lil baby sis Nicole, and a few packs of "Al Fondo Hoy Sitio" stickers for Carla along with a purse, a giant lolly, and hasir clasps. We also briefly met up with the other group which was nice - I think we´re all meeting up again in Lima for Halloweén weekend, wooot! Millie, the sweetie that she is, bought me adorable Pucca clasps which I proudly wore home and after we´d given Carla and Nicole their presents, I attempted to say to Carla in Spanish that Mille had bought me these awesome Pucca clasps and I showed her one. Carla, holding the clasp I was showing her with much glee, then said "Gracias!" and put it in her hair. Forcing myself to hold a fake grin on my face, I turned to Millie and said "I REALLY need to work on my Spanish" to which Millie replied "Yep, you reeeeally do!".
Despite accidently giving away my much adored clasp, it was a great evening; Carla did my nails, taught me one of those clappy hand thing schoolgirls do, did some funny exercise routine, watched The Simpsons and of course Al Fondo Hoy Sitio during which Carlos came in. I don´t think I´ve mentioned Carlos yet, but he´s gained the name amongst our group as "The Devil Child". He´s Carla´s cousin and lives in Sara and Lauren´s house (other volunteers). Since we´ve arrived he´s been very difficult; rude, hostile, and menacing. Whenever you say "Hola!" to him, he never replies and just gives you a dirty look.
So this evening when he came over, I said "Hola Carlos!" to which I got the usual reply of a silent nasty glare. Surprisingly though, we ended up playing catch together and Carlos was actually smiling, laughing, interacting, and he even asked me over to his house to play some more but I said it was too late so I´d play tomorrow. It then occured to me after he left - and this could be completely far-fetched and ridiculous - that Carlos may have special needs. Not that I¨m an expert on the subject but I suspect he may be on the autistic spectrum. It´s just when I was playing with him, the way he was interacting and communicating, along with some other things and the fact that last week Lauren was saying she was speaking to his mum about him, and Lauren seemed to understand that Carlos wasn´t hers but she loved him just the same. But I wonder if the language barrier and rubbish mime mislead Lauren to interpret that wrong. Maybe. Maybe not. Just to me, there does seem to be something quite different about Carlos.
Surprisingly it wasn´t the silly cockerel to wake me from my slumber this morning, but it was Millie! At around 4am this morning, Millie turned over in her bed and the whole thing collapsed!! Poor girl definetely got the short straw with the beds as the other night it was raining and there just happened to be a hole in the roofing right above her head and she was woken up from a cold raindrop dropping in her ear! I offerend Millie just to bide in my bed but she said she´d probably end up spooning me and didn´t feel we were at that point in our relationship yet. So she grumpily arranged her sleeping bag on the concrete floor grumbling "In the morning this is going to be soooo funny, but right now I am NOT impressed!"
Today wasn´t the most productive day for building as we had to give away our boogie....which is what they call a wheelbarrow here. There´s only 3 boogies to share amongst 5 teams and as we had it yesterday and made quite good progress, it was another teams turn. So we blamed our lack of progress on the boogie; we couldn´t blame it on the sunshine afterall as it´s actually quite cold where we are. Because we are situated so high up a mountain, it´s rather chilly however even though its been cloudy since we arrived last week, a lot of us have still gotten sunburnt! Sneaky sneaky rays! I´m hoping it´s going to get warmer soon as the majority of my clothes are summer wear. This morning it was so misty that when I walked out my front door I felt like I´d stepped into a cloud! It was eerily like being back in Scotland.
This afternoon the whole group went shopping in Ventanilla. In the market we had to get several security guards to escort us as a few questionable characters were hanging around a bit too closely and following us around the entire time. Me and Millie purchased a cute pair of Pucca slippers for our lil baby sis Nicole, and a few packs of "Al Fondo Hoy Sitio" stickers for Carla along with a purse, a giant lolly, and hasir clasps. We also briefly met up with the other group which was nice - I think we´re all meeting up again in Lima for Halloweén weekend, wooot! Millie, the sweetie that she is, bought me adorable Pucca clasps which I proudly wore home and after we´d given Carla and Nicole their presents, I attempted to say to Carla in Spanish that Mille had bought me these awesome Pucca clasps and I showed her one. Carla, holding the clasp I was showing her with much glee, then said "Gracias!" and put it in her hair. Forcing myself to hold a fake grin on my face, I turned to Millie and said "I REALLY need to work on my Spanish" to which Millie replied "Yep, you reeeeally do!".
Despite accidently giving away my much adored clasp, it was a great evening; Carla did my nails, taught me one of those clappy hand thing schoolgirls do, did some funny exercise routine, watched The Simpsons and of course Al Fondo Hoy Sitio during which Carlos came in. I don´t think I´ve mentioned Carlos yet, but he´s gained the name amongst our group as "The Devil Child". He´s Carla´s cousin and lives in Sara and Lauren´s house (other volunteers). Since we´ve arrived he´s been very difficult; rude, hostile, and menacing. Whenever you say "Hola!" to him, he never replies and just gives you a dirty look.
So this evening when he came over, I said "Hola Carlos!" to which I got the usual reply of a silent nasty glare. Surprisingly though, we ended up playing catch together and Carlos was actually smiling, laughing, interacting, and he even asked me over to his house to play some more but I said it was too late so I´d play tomorrow. It then occured to me after he left - and this could be completely far-fetched and ridiculous - that Carlos may have special needs. Not that I¨m an expert on the subject but I suspect he may be on the autistic spectrum. It´s just when I was playing with him, the way he was interacting and communicating, along with some other things and the fact that last week Lauren was saying she was speaking to his mum about him, and Lauren seemed to understand that Carlos wasn´t hers but she loved him just the same. But I wonder if the language barrier and rubbish mime mislead Lauren to interpret that wrong. Maybe. Maybe not. Just to me, there does seem to be something quite different about Carlos.
Day 7
21-10-09
Made gret progress this morning in building! We dug masses of ground, so now as well as ruining the woman´s plants, she now has a giant hold in her backyard! We had our first Spanish lesson today which was great - the time just flew by that it only felt like 20mins. We had a free afternoon so I went to he internet cafe to update my blog etc. I also tried to upload some pictures but the connection speed is far too slow so I may have to wait til I´m back in the UK to get them online....unless I develop some saintly patience. Whilst there, the owner was trying to converse despite my utterly poor Spanish. He showed me his collection of 25 guinea pigs! I asked him why he had so many and he said because he eats them. Sounds shockingly disgusting but I am definetely up for trying it! I also phoned home in my spare time, was great to chat to my parents. Although time has flown, it feels like I´ve been here a lot longer than a week.
Later on at home, I sat drawing with Carla whilst eating lollies and I gave her a friendship bracelet I´d bought of a woman making them on the street. Dinner was scrummy as per usual - our Mama is an amaaazing cook - and of course before heading to bed we all watched "Al Fondo Hoy Sitio".
Made gret progress this morning in building! We dug masses of ground, so now as well as ruining the woman´s plants, she now has a giant hold in her backyard! We had our first Spanish lesson today which was great - the time just flew by that it only felt like 20mins. We had a free afternoon so I went to he internet cafe to update my blog etc. I also tried to upload some pictures but the connection speed is far too slow so I may have to wait til I´m back in the UK to get them online....unless I develop some saintly patience. Whilst there, the owner was trying to converse despite my utterly poor Spanish. He showed me his collection of 25 guinea pigs! I asked him why he had so many and he said because he eats them. Sounds shockingly disgusting but I am definetely up for trying it! I also phoned home in my spare time, was great to chat to my parents. Although time has flown, it feels like I´ve been here a lot longer than a week.
Later on at home, I sat drawing with Carla whilst eating lollies and I gave her a friendship bracelet I´d bought of a woman making them on the street. Dinner was scrummy as per usual - our Mama is an amaaazing cook - and of course before heading to bed we all watched "Al Fondo Hoy Sitio".
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Day 6
20-10-09
What an amazing day! Although it didn´t start out that way as it seems the cockerel serenading the community at 3am was NOT a one off! He´s just on the other side of the wall beside which I sleep so his cries were piercing. It says a lot as I´m usually a heavy sleeper and I have been known to sleep through fire alarms and on one occasion even an actual fire. I couldn´t face another shockingly cold shower this morning, so my Mama Ule boiled some water for me and I washed myself from out of a bucket. Lovely.
It was our first day of building today and I´ve been put in a team with Jack and Yas. The three of us are going to build a lady a new toilet and silo tank in 10 weeks, having no experience whatsoever....easy! The house we´re working on is barely a shack; flies everywhere, thick nasty stench in the air, and hardly any room for the woman and her five children, her husband who comes home at weekends, and the baby she´ll be expecting any day now! Today was more of a gardening job as we had to replant all of her plants from one side of her garden to the other so as to prepare the area for building. We killed a few in the process as we weren´t graceful enough with them. We felt really guilty as her plants are like mint and other herby things which of course she uses for her food. Anyway, after we replanted some of her garden, and killed the rest, we had to break up all the soil and level it. The builders drew out rough guidelines on the soil so as to ensure we didn´t burst any waterpipes with our pik-axes. Well, guess who burst a water pipe? Whoopsy! Although, to be fair, I stayed inside the guidelines, so it was partly the builders fault for putting them down wrong! So anyway I freaked out major style, however when on of the builders returned he didn´t seem to stressed about it at all. Got to love the Peruvian laid back attitude. So after we wrecked that poor woman´s garden and destroyed her water pipe we left for lunch back with our families.
Carla (our 12 year old little sister) was just back from school. The other night she was telling me about her favourite soap: "Al Fondo Hay Sitio" the cheesiest thing I´ve ever seen. She´s got a magazine for it that requires her to buy and gradually collect 212 stickers to fill her magazine in order to be entered into a competition where the prize is to go visit the set and meet the cast! So when she came in from school she ran into my room, shared some fudge with me and showed me the latest stickers she´d got for her magazine. I heped her put them all in; one she already had so she gave it to me. You only get 5 stickers per pack so I´m going to buy her looooads when I´m next at the market. I love Carla. She´s soo kind natured and a wonderful sister to Nicole (her 8 month old baby sis). I get my first Spanish lesson tomorrow so hopefully I will learn more conversational phrases to I can converse even more with Carla and tone it down on the mime side of things.
After lunch we attended our first music and circus workshops. Music was amaaaazing as the kids performed folk songs on guitars, panpipes and drums which were large hollow boxes on that they sat on and smacked with their hands. They´re all so talented! One young girl who we´ve all become good friends with over the last few days, got up to show us how they dance. She then came over and pulled me up to the centre with her! Yes indeed utterly embarassing, but Jade and Millie also got pulled up so it wasn´t so bad!
For the circus workshop, we got taught how to juggle. I´ve pretty much/almost got the hang of it, I just need to practice now. A few others went on stilts. Funniest thing I´ve seen since I´ve been here. Yas lasted 2 seconds before he plummeted face first into the sand! He was like Bambi on ice...but on sand obv. Ironically they were more like workshops for the volunteers rather than for the kids!
A fun fun fun day all round! When we got home we had dinner at the same time as our Papa Salvador, which doesn´t seem to happen very often as he always works til quite late. He´s very nice and makes good effort to converse with me and Millie even though he knows no English. He said he was very pleased with my gift to them which was Scottish shortbread. After dinner we sat and watched "Al Fondo Hay Sitio" with Carla.
I love it here.
What an amazing day! Although it didn´t start out that way as it seems the cockerel serenading the community at 3am was NOT a one off! He´s just on the other side of the wall beside which I sleep so his cries were piercing. It says a lot as I´m usually a heavy sleeper and I have been known to sleep through fire alarms and on one occasion even an actual fire. I couldn´t face another shockingly cold shower this morning, so my Mama Ule boiled some water for me and I washed myself from out of a bucket. Lovely.
It was our first day of building today and I´ve been put in a team with Jack and Yas. The three of us are going to build a lady a new toilet and silo tank in 10 weeks, having no experience whatsoever....easy! The house we´re working on is barely a shack; flies everywhere, thick nasty stench in the air, and hardly any room for the woman and her five children, her husband who comes home at weekends, and the baby she´ll be expecting any day now! Today was more of a gardening job as we had to replant all of her plants from one side of her garden to the other so as to prepare the area for building. We killed a few in the process as we weren´t graceful enough with them. We felt really guilty as her plants are like mint and other herby things which of course she uses for her food. Anyway, after we replanted some of her garden, and killed the rest, we had to break up all the soil and level it. The builders drew out rough guidelines on the soil so as to ensure we didn´t burst any waterpipes with our pik-axes. Well, guess who burst a water pipe? Whoopsy! Although, to be fair, I stayed inside the guidelines, so it was partly the builders fault for putting them down wrong! So anyway I freaked out major style, however when on of the builders returned he didn´t seem to stressed about it at all. Got to love the Peruvian laid back attitude. So after we wrecked that poor woman´s garden and destroyed her water pipe we left for lunch back with our families.
Carla (our 12 year old little sister) was just back from school. The other night she was telling me about her favourite soap: "Al Fondo Hay Sitio" the cheesiest thing I´ve ever seen. She´s got a magazine for it that requires her to buy and gradually collect 212 stickers to fill her magazine in order to be entered into a competition where the prize is to go visit the set and meet the cast! So when she came in from school she ran into my room, shared some fudge with me and showed me the latest stickers she´d got for her magazine. I heped her put them all in; one she already had so she gave it to me. You only get 5 stickers per pack so I´m going to buy her looooads when I´m next at the market. I love Carla. She´s soo kind natured and a wonderful sister to Nicole (her 8 month old baby sis). I get my first Spanish lesson tomorrow so hopefully I will learn more conversational phrases to I can converse even more with Carla and tone it down on the mime side of things.
After lunch we attended our first music and circus workshops. Music was amaaaazing as the kids performed folk songs on guitars, panpipes and drums which were large hollow boxes on that they sat on and smacked with their hands. They´re all so talented! One young girl who we´ve all become good friends with over the last few days, got up to show us how they dance. She then came over and pulled me up to the centre with her! Yes indeed utterly embarassing, but Jade and Millie also got pulled up so it wasn´t so bad!
For the circus workshop, we got taught how to juggle. I´ve pretty much/almost got the hang of it, I just need to practice now. A few others went on stilts. Funniest thing I´ve seen since I´ve been here. Yas lasted 2 seconds before he plummeted face first into the sand! He was like Bambi on ice...but on sand obv. Ironically they were more like workshops for the volunteers rather than for the kids!
A fun fun fun day all round! When we got home we had dinner at the same time as our Papa Salvador, which doesn´t seem to happen very often as he always works til quite late. He´s very nice and makes good effort to converse with me and Millie even though he knows no English. He said he was very pleased with my gift to them which was Scottish shortbread. After dinner we sat and watched "Al Fondo Hay Sitio" with Carla.
I love it here.
Day 5
19-10-09
This morning I was awoken by the loud cries of our cockerel. I thought to myself, fantastic - what a great way to wake up every morning. I then checked the time on my phone and it was quarter past three in the morning! Silly incompetent cock! We had a late start anyway today as we haven´t officially started working on the projects. We had to meet at 10am at the community hall this morning and we took a brief tour of the houses we´ll be working on and the place where we´ll be doing the teaching workshops.
I thought the house that me and Mille are staying in was basic but some of the houses we looked at that we´re going to be working on weren´t even fit for animals. Some of them didn´t even have 4 wooden walls, but some walls were plastic sheets or fabric! One lady didn´t even have a proper floor and was using large collected plastic signs to form more stable flooring for her ´house´. A lot of them you could barely class as shelter, and the hygiene was just awful; swarming flies, lingering bad smells, no means of cleaning. I can´t wait to start building to help them!
After our tour we returned to our houses for lunch. Just before, I nipped our into the back garden for a numero uno, and to my dismay there were lots of flies flying around the toilet bowl, so I desperately wafted them away, swatted the one I could, and poured water down the toilet to take care of any others down there. I quickly did my business and to my horror I seen a fly, fly out from the toilet bowl! I ran back inside to Mille and whinned: "Milliiiiie! I´m really scared I´ve got a fly up my fanny!"....she of course found this hilarious and stated if that was the case, I´d know about it. Lets hope she´s right!
Time for bed! Lets hope that cockerel isn´t feeling too lively in the early hours again!
This morning I was awoken by the loud cries of our cockerel. I thought to myself, fantastic - what a great way to wake up every morning. I then checked the time on my phone and it was quarter past three in the morning! Silly incompetent cock! We had a late start anyway today as we haven´t officially started working on the projects. We had to meet at 10am at the community hall this morning and we took a brief tour of the houses we´ll be working on and the place where we´ll be doing the teaching workshops.
I thought the house that me and Mille are staying in was basic but some of the houses we looked at that we´re going to be working on weren´t even fit for animals. Some of them didn´t even have 4 wooden walls, but some walls were plastic sheets or fabric! One lady didn´t even have a proper floor and was using large collected plastic signs to form more stable flooring for her ´house´. A lot of them you could barely class as shelter, and the hygiene was just awful; swarming flies, lingering bad smells, no means of cleaning. I can´t wait to start building to help them!
After our tour we returned to our houses for lunch. Just before, I nipped our into the back garden for a numero uno, and to my dismay there were lots of flies flying around the toilet bowl, so I desperately wafted them away, swatted the one I could, and poured water down the toilet to take care of any others down there. I quickly did my business and to my horror I seen a fly, fly out from the toilet bowl! I ran back inside to Mille and whinned: "Milliiiiie! I´m really scared I´ve got a fly up my fanny!"....she of course found this hilarious and stated if that was the case, I´d know about it. Lets hope she´s right!
Time for bed! Lets hope that cockerel isn´t feeling too lively in the early hours again!
Monday, 19 October 2009
Day 4
(This is the first time I´ve had internet access since landing in Peru so I´m just copying what i´ve written in a diary, incase you´re wondering why the date isn´t correct)
18-10-09
In finally hit me today that I´m in Peru, living in a shanty town, a million miles away from home, I can barely understand a word of Spanish where nobody speaks a word of English, and I´m living one of the most amazing experiences of my life and having the most amazing time!
The last few days have been a bit surreal. Although time has flown by so fast it´s hard to believe I only met all the volunteers in my group just three days ago! The group hosts a wide variety of quirky characters with whom its a pleasure to share this immense experience with. Already certain members of the group have entertained me, inspired me, and moved me; which coincedentely surprised me as I didn´t expect to learn so much fgrom the volunteers I´m working with as well as from the projects I´ll be working on and the hard-hitting things I´ll be witnessing during my stay.
32 of us landed in Lima 4 days ago where we were split into two separate groups to receive out orientation for our different projects. I´m quite gutted that we won´t be seeing much of the other group as they´re all great guys however we´re all going to try and meet up as much as possible on our days off.
The first three days allowed us to experience the capital Lima as tourists, and yet it still hadn´t sunk in that my whole world was on the verge of flipping! So far I´m enjoying the Peruvian cuisine, culture, and charisma. We all went for a few drinks to celebrate our last night in Lima where we were entertained by a busker....playing a saw....with a cello bow. Random but true, and also surprisingly good to listen to.
This morning after breakfast we packed up all our stuff and waved goodbye to our hostel which felt more like a homely flat as our group of 16 dominated the whole thing. 2 and a half hours later, our bus was driving into our community which we had only seen on a hand drawn map. As soon as I stepped off that bus and touched the turf of the area I´ll be calling home for the next two and a half months, it suddenly hit me. Finally.
Looking around at the unstable shacks that people were living in, seeing the kids´playpark, the community hall which was the same size as my garden shed back home - all of these thing we´d only seen on paper represented by black lines and boxes with name tags....up til now. Now it is real.
We crammed ourselves and our luggage into the community hall where we waited pensively to meet our families we´d be living we´d be living with. In drips and drabs they filtered in, instantly expressing the deepest warmth and gratitude. Then a couple with two daughters (one a baby) walked in holding a sign with their family name on it "Salvador Jaramillo" - My Family!! Seeing them provoked a large lump to form in my throat and tears to well up in my eyes. I then looked over at Millie (who was also going to be living with them) and she was already sobbing! However I just about managed to contain myself so that no tear would trickle.
Before me and Millie were properly united with our new family, we were required to stand up infront of all the volunteers and families to introduce ourselves in Spanish! EEEeeEEeeek indeed! I just about managed ´Hello my name is Angela (I even pronounced it as ´Áng-Hella´) I am 21 years of age, I speak very little Spanish. I´m sorry.´....and then I had to get someone to translate the rest so that I could say that I was very happy to be there and to thank them for welcoming us into their community. We then sat and ate a delicious meal together, prepared my the women in the community. Two young cute girls sitting beside me were trying to converse with me but there was only so much we could communiate. I was desperately rooting through my phrasebook trying to find something to use for conversation in vain. The best phrases I could find were "Do you have a first aid kit?", "HELP!", "I would like one ticket please", "Another beer". Nothing! However they were pleasantly patient and persistant in their attempts to converse with me.
After lunch, our family led me and Millie to their house; a three minute walk down some dusty murky streets and we were there. Whilst walking, I felt about as significant as an ant. Our community is just a tiny sector of Pachacutec; we are so high up we look over a sea of cloudy brown, with masses of scattered lego, stretching out til they were mere dots in the distance.
Myself and Millie were welcomed into our familys very modest home of brick walls, tin roofing, and wooden boards and paper acting as interior walls. As basic as it is, it feels so homely and I am utterly ecstatic to be here! Out in the back garden we were shown the toilet which is basically a toilet bowl with no flush so we´ve got to manually flush it with a bucket of water. This same space is also used for the shower, so everytime I showever I´ll be wearing flipflops and be scrubbing extra hard with extra strong soap! They also keep chicken, a cockerel, ducks, and ducklings in the garden, which are very cute so I´m hoping I won´t have to witness any deaths.
That afternoon half of the group were playing volleyball with the kids out in the street and it was great to get to know some of the children in the area. It got dark rather quickly, and the sea of dirty brown was lost into the dark night and all we could see was a sea of lights; as we are so high up, we could see right over Ventanilla! Beautiful! Police cars were patroling to our surprise however we soon discovered that there was a gang nearby and of course we were an obvious target.
In the evening after dinner I got to know my younger sister Carla a bit better. The whole time she was speaking fluent Spanish, but I just about managed to understand her favourite Spanish soap, that she´s a fan of Hannah Montana, High School Musical...other cheesey disney stuff! So next time I go into Lima, I´ll have to keep my eye out for stuff for her =)
Anyway, my time has ran out for now! So I shall say Hasta Luego! Until my next post! xx
18-10-09
In finally hit me today that I´m in Peru, living in a shanty town, a million miles away from home, I can barely understand a word of Spanish where nobody speaks a word of English, and I´m living one of the most amazing experiences of my life and having the most amazing time!
The last few days have been a bit surreal. Although time has flown by so fast it´s hard to believe I only met all the volunteers in my group just three days ago! The group hosts a wide variety of quirky characters with whom its a pleasure to share this immense experience with. Already certain members of the group have entertained me, inspired me, and moved me; which coincedentely surprised me as I didn´t expect to learn so much fgrom the volunteers I´m working with as well as from the projects I´ll be working on and the hard-hitting things I´ll be witnessing during my stay.
32 of us landed in Lima 4 days ago where we were split into two separate groups to receive out orientation for our different projects. I´m quite gutted that we won´t be seeing much of the other group as they´re all great guys however we´re all going to try and meet up as much as possible on our days off.
The first three days allowed us to experience the capital Lima as tourists, and yet it still hadn´t sunk in that my whole world was on the verge of flipping! So far I´m enjoying the Peruvian cuisine, culture, and charisma. We all went for a few drinks to celebrate our last night in Lima where we were entertained by a busker....playing a saw....with a cello bow. Random but true, and also surprisingly good to listen to.
This morning after breakfast we packed up all our stuff and waved goodbye to our hostel which felt more like a homely flat as our group of 16 dominated the whole thing. 2 and a half hours later, our bus was driving into our community which we had only seen on a hand drawn map. As soon as I stepped off that bus and touched the turf of the area I´ll be calling home for the next two and a half months, it suddenly hit me. Finally.
Looking around at the unstable shacks that people were living in, seeing the kids´playpark, the community hall which was the same size as my garden shed back home - all of these thing we´d only seen on paper represented by black lines and boxes with name tags....up til now. Now it is real.
We crammed ourselves and our luggage into the community hall where we waited pensively to meet our families we´d be living we´d be living with. In drips and drabs they filtered in, instantly expressing the deepest warmth and gratitude. Then a couple with two daughters (one a baby) walked in holding a sign with their family name on it "Salvador Jaramillo" - My Family!! Seeing them provoked a large lump to form in my throat and tears to well up in my eyes. I then looked over at Millie (who was also going to be living with them) and she was already sobbing! However I just about managed to contain myself so that no tear would trickle.
Before me and Millie were properly united with our new family, we were required to stand up infront of all the volunteers and families to introduce ourselves in Spanish! EEEeeEEeeek indeed! I just about managed ´Hello my name is Angela (I even pronounced it as ´Áng-Hella´) I am 21 years of age, I speak very little Spanish. I´m sorry.´....and then I had to get someone to translate the rest so that I could say that I was very happy to be there and to thank them for welcoming us into their community. We then sat and ate a delicious meal together, prepared my the women in the community. Two young cute girls sitting beside me were trying to converse with me but there was only so much we could communiate. I was desperately rooting through my phrasebook trying to find something to use for conversation in vain. The best phrases I could find were "Do you have a first aid kit?", "HELP!", "I would like one ticket please", "Another beer". Nothing! However they were pleasantly patient and persistant in their attempts to converse with me.
After lunch, our family led me and Millie to their house; a three minute walk down some dusty murky streets and we were there. Whilst walking, I felt about as significant as an ant. Our community is just a tiny sector of Pachacutec; we are so high up we look over a sea of cloudy brown, with masses of scattered lego, stretching out til they were mere dots in the distance.
Myself and Millie were welcomed into our familys very modest home of brick walls, tin roofing, and wooden boards and paper acting as interior walls. As basic as it is, it feels so homely and I am utterly ecstatic to be here! Out in the back garden we were shown the toilet which is basically a toilet bowl with no flush so we´ve got to manually flush it with a bucket of water. This same space is also used for the shower, so everytime I showever I´ll be wearing flipflops and be scrubbing extra hard with extra strong soap! They also keep chicken, a cockerel, ducks, and ducklings in the garden, which are very cute so I´m hoping I won´t have to witness any deaths.
That afternoon half of the group were playing volleyball with the kids out in the street and it was great to get to know some of the children in the area. It got dark rather quickly, and the sea of dirty brown was lost into the dark night and all we could see was a sea of lights; as we are so high up, we could see right over Ventanilla! Beautiful! Police cars were patroling to our surprise however we soon discovered that there was a gang nearby and of course we were an obvious target.
In the evening after dinner I got to know my younger sister Carla a bit better. The whole time she was speaking fluent Spanish, but I just about managed to understand her favourite Spanish soap, that she´s a fan of Hannah Montana, High School Musical...other cheesey disney stuff! So next time I go into Lima, I´ll have to keep my eye out for stuff for her =)
Anyway, my time has ran out for now! So I shall say Hasta Luego! Until my next post! xx
Thursday, 8 October 2009
bit of perspective...
Poverty remains a global problem of huge proportions. Of the world's 6 billion people, 2.8 billion live on less than $2 a day and 1.2 billion on less than $1 a day. Eight out of every 100 infants do not live to see their fifth birthday. Nine of every 100 boys and 14 of every 100 girls who reach school age do not attend school. Poverty is also evident in poor people's lack of political power and voice and in their extreme vulnerability to ill health, economic dislocation, personal violence and natural disasters. And the scourge of HIV/AIDS, the frequency and brutality of civil conflicts, and rising disparities between rich countries and the developing world have increased the sense of deprivation and injustice for many.
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." - Mother Teresa
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." - Mother Teresa
Thursday, 24 September 2009
3 weeks from today!
Last June I attended a 2 hour interview within which I was grilled about why on earth I would want to send myself away for two and a half months to live in a developing country, knowing nobody, living in very basic conditions, and challenging myself to the max! Personally the thought of this sounds great! And I'm lucky enough to have secured a place on the Platform2 programme!
In less than a month I'll be jetting off to Peru til the end of the year to do charity work in the form of Teaching (English, Art, Music and Dance), Community Development and also a spot of Building! Thats right! Me in a hard hat actually building; my childhood dreams of becoming a builder are soon going to become a reality!
Last Friday I attended a 'Connect Day' where I met a bunch of other guys going away through Platform2 also, not only to Peru, but there were lots going to India and a few others going to Ghana! Met some really cool guys, some of which I'm gutted aren't going to Peru with me, but I'm sure I'll see them when we're all back!
I've ordered my spanish phrasebook, I'm looking for a decent bag so I can start getting through my checklist, I'm flicking through all the documentation from Platform2 to make sure I've done everything such as getting jags, insurance blah blah blah - and hopefully in three weeks time, I'll be all set to flip my lifestyle right round!
Can't wait!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn_6oaV8KE4
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