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.
Friday, 30 October 2009
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
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