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.
Saturday, 28 November 2009
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)