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