I realise I´ve been utterly rubbish at keeping this frequently updated, but we don´t always have internet access and even when we do its insanely slow. So anyway, the weekend following on from my last post turned out to be the best and worst weekend.
We all went through to Lima as a group to go to another museum which was really moving and captivating. We were being shown round a photo gallery about the history of terrorism in Peru. It was especially hard-hitting as our tour guide talked with so much passion and sorrow as she lost family to acts of terrorism, and Misael (our supervisor) was even getting teary eyed which was really shocking to see as up til then we´ve always seen him as this rough, macho, ex-prison convict with a tough history - and to see him so emotional was really moving as well as difficult for us to see someone we´ve grown so close to so upset.
The gallery hosted beautiful photography which delivered so much emotion, strong messages, and revolutionary history. It was the best museum tour I´ve ever experienced.
A lot of us decided to stay in Lima that night and we checked ourselves into a hostel called The Flying Dog which is specifically for travellers - Peruvians aren´t permitted to stay and if they do they have to pay extra. Sounds a bit discriminative but it was good in the way that we got to meet lots of different people from many different places. We fast became acquainted with the man who makes the Flying Dog such a wonderful experience, the legend that is Harry. He´s such a queen, funny, and makes a good strong cocktail! I do love Pachacutec and really enjoy the work that we do however I do also love our weekends away when we can all wind down and not have to worry about representing Platform2; we can be silly and carefree and not have to worry. After many cocktails curtesy of Harry, me and Millie were enjoying dancing along the bar and meeting more random people from around the world. Cocktail led to cocktail and eventually led to a gay club. I don´t think the majority of the group caught on to where we were til perhaps half an hour being there. We continued our crazy dancing swinging around poles and on hanging ledges which we soon got chucked off of as apparently someone had recently fallen off it and died...whoops. Gotta love the lack of health and safety in Peru.
Walking back to the hostel from the club we stopped by Metro to get some munchies. Metro is like the equivalent of Tesco; as we´ve all become accustomed to haggling in markets and getting things for a tupence, it always feels like we´re being utterly ripped off whenever we shop in Metro. Me and Millie quickly made our way to the deli counter and requested to have a taster of just about every filling possible, and then filled a stack of plastic tubs with lots of different food. Walking down the aisle on the way to the tills, whilst balancing our stacks of tubs, we decided that Metro couldn´t get away with ripping us off this time and that we were too cunning so we decided to stuff our faces with a potato mix that filled one of the tubs, before we reached the tills. We obviously underestimated just how much was in there. We were stuffing our faces so quickly the mix was practically going up our noses - attractive indeed - but nontheless the mix was gone by the time we´d reached the till.....granted half of it we dropped and shovelled underneath the shelves. We felt so proud when we didn´t have to pay for that extra box which probably only cost about and pound twenty - this was probably thankfully due to the fact that no-one spoke English....I say thankfully as I´m sure we were plotting this very loudly and its a good job they couldn´t understand us.
We finally made it back to the flying dog where we continued our banter with the random travellers, with Ironman in Spanish in the background. I finally crashed out about 6am however hardcore Millie stayed up all night and almost all morning, finally giving in at 9.30am....however she only caught an hour and a half hours sleep. I woke up to the most adorable cat licking my face and nuzzling into me, and Lauren the destined spinster instantly fell in love with this little kitty. We couldn´t enjoy that much of a long lie in the morning as some of the group had to get back for the baptism of the presidents daughter. Whilst leaving the hostel and saying bye to everyone including the cat, Lauren asked in a joking way if she could keep the cat, to which Harry got overly exicted and practically begged her to take her, who was called Ginger. So then Lauren got overly excited and being all syked up in the moment took the cat. From Lima its roughly a 2 hour journey back home, so Lauren emptied out her large shoulder bag and filled it with tissues so create and quick-shift pouch for Ginger to sit in while we travelled home - and she put all her belongings in Millies bag.
On the bus on the way back me and Lauren managed to get 2 seats together and Millie sat on a seat on the otherside of the aisle from us. Was bliss managing to get a seat as its rather rare with the buses constantly being crammed with people. Two stops after we got on, the dodgiest looking guy got on and sat next to Millie. He looked really shifty and kept looking at our bags. Millie, only having had not even 2 hours sleep, could barely stay awake and kept falling asleep on him, so we kept waking her up and telling her to be wary of him. He then kept trying to make conversation with us, but was kind of overly friendly and just came across as really weird and edgy. Even when me and Lauren were chatting away and laughing he kept laughing whenever we were laughing even though he clearly couldn´t understand a word we were saying. I was hugging on to my bag for dear life and me and Lauren were prepared for him to try and cause some kind of distraction to try and mug us or something. Sounds like utter paranoia, but our project manager is constantly telling us stories about how sly thieves are and how they are characters you´d least suspect most of the time. So for the most part of that 2hour journey, we were really tense, alert, and we kept waking Millie and making sure she had her bags etc. Two stops before we were due to get off, the weird guy got off the bus to our great relief, and we were totally laughing about the fact that he was probably a decent guy but he scared the crap out of us.
Two stops later we were getting off the bus in Ventanilla and just as the bus drove away, Millie went "Fuck...I left my bag on the bus"....after all that paranoia about some shifty looking character, we just left the most valuable bag on that bus to be picked up by anyone. Unfortunately for Lauren and Millie, that bag contained two digital cameras (one an SLR), their passports and immigration forms, and purses. Lauren just broke down on the pavement, and me and Millie stood their completely helpless. I took out my phone to ring Misael but my battery had died, and Lauren and Millie´s phones were in that bag. We then noticed a police car sat outside the Metro so we legged it over and tried to explain what the fook just happened through our very crude spanish, the police officer grasped what had happened so we jumped into the back of the car but he explained we couldn´t go anywhere til his partner returned and he was in the supermarket so he was ringing him off his mobile! Then a few minutes later - which felt like an eternity - we seen him slowly dondering along stuffing his face with munchies and he clearly wasn´t running so I just opened the door and yelled at him to hurry the fook up, to which he actually dropped his bag of crisps and started to run! He got in the car and before he´d even shut his door we were yelling DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!!! we didn´t even know where we wanted them to go! was soo much fun; they put the sirens on and we were speeding through red lights and had some very close calls with other vehicles on the road! They didn´t have a clue what we were saying, we didn´t really have a clue what they were saying, we were just manically driving like crazy speeding after some bus that quite frankly we couldn´t even really remember what it looked like!
Then a bus just drove by in the opposite direction and in a moment of desperation we thought ´of course that MUST have been the must we were on´ so we started screaming at the police officers in an awful attempt at Spanish (i swear we must sound as coherent as borat out here) and we made them do a U-turn and then it just got to the stage that we realised this was just ridiculous and they started to realise that we didn´t have a clue and the car just got slower and slower.....and slower until we must have been going about 20mph and we were all sitting there in silence - a complete contrast to the beginning of our little joyride. Then they just asked us if we wanted dropped off at the taxi or bus station.
Anyway, after a few other stupid attempts at trying to track down the bag - in short it was an epic fail all round - we went the the presidents house (it sounds important but considering he doesn´t even get paid for being the president of the community and he lives in a cardboard box you´ll understand that its a mere title) and interupted his daughters baptism where half the community were celebrating so anyway....everybody was interegating us about what had happened, asking us for every tiny detail which was really hard as everything had happened so fast and was difficult, but anyway when they were asking us about the people sitting near us on the bus we were describing that guy that Millie was sitting next to and then suddenly it clicked that he could have possibly taken it as Millie said that she sat the bag right beside her feet along with another bag and that when she went to get off the bus there was only the one bag at her feet but she didn´t click at the time as she was in such a rush to get off and was still half asleep. And then me and Lauren remembered that he got off at a really weird stop, like in the middle of nowhere and we remembered commenting on what a funny place it was to get off and that he did seem in a bit of a rush like he was late for something.
skipping lots of unecessary bumph we basically had to go back into Lima the next day to go to the British Embassy and the police station (one that was specifically for tourists) so thats what we did. We decided to not state that Millie was really tired and had kept falling asleep as otherwise they´d be able to claim nothing on their insurance. If anything that weekend just proved to me that such a thing as karma does exist as on the way there, on the bus, Millie was using my phone, and it got mugged clean out of her hand and the guys just ran away off the bus....and thats why you should never lie children. So yes, we got mugged....on they way to reporting getting mugged. When we finally got to the police station....the police didn´t believe us. So we had to go elsewhere. At the next police station when we explained everything, the police officer just laughed at us, but thankfully sorted out the necessary reports.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Monday, 7 December 2009
Day 29 - experiencing the rich side of the shanty town
12-11-09
This afternoon we all went for lunch with the other group in Miraflores. We all got split up into pairs - one from each group. Steven requested us to be paired up so we enjoyed a lovely luncheon together! Misael warned us before we left that it would be a real shock to see how privileged the other group are in comparison to our living conditions in Pachacutec. Right enough when we drove into their area on the bus, we were driving on an actual tarmac road, all the houses were made of brick and were all quite a bit larger than the tiny shacks we are all living in at Pachacutec, it was a lot cleaner without as many stray animals and rubbish around. We were greeted by the whole group at their community centre when we arrived. It was so great to see Steven, I absolutely love his chat! He showed me into his very secure, large house, which really was a complete contrast to my home in Pachacutec. He had actual rooms in the house, rather than one giant room with wooden and paper separators! He has three levels in his house, nice furniture - actual sofas I might add - a flushing toilet (and the toilet was also IN the house), a warm shower, private garden, a working oven (which seemed bizarre to me as I´ve become used to my mum using her oven for cupboard space), 2 pet tortoises and a pet dog. Steven´s mum is an amaaazing cook as well, as she runs her own foodstall at nights! She was such a comical character as well, was brilliant afternoon entertainment.
For their building project, all 16 of them are working on building a classroom for a school in Pachacutec, and they do english, dance, and cooking workshops. Sounds like they´ve got the easy life compared to us; nicer homes, later curfews, safer environment. But if I was given the choice, I would genuinely pick the Viviendas Saludables project that I´m on. I wanted the most challenging experience possible as I thought it would be more rewarding... and I think I was right to assume that.
This afternoon we all went for lunch with the other group in Miraflores. We all got split up into pairs - one from each group. Steven requested us to be paired up so we enjoyed a lovely luncheon together! Misael warned us before we left that it would be a real shock to see how privileged the other group are in comparison to our living conditions in Pachacutec. Right enough when we drove into their area on the bus, we were driving on an actual tarmac road, all the houses were made of brick and were all quite a bit larger than the tiny shacks we are all living in at Pachacutec, it was a lot cleaner without as many stray animals and rubbish around. We were greeted by the whole group at their community centre when we arrived. It was so great to see Steven, I absolutely love his chat! He showed me into his very secure, large house, which really was a complete contrast to my home in Pachacutec. He had actual rooms in the house, rather than one giant room with wooden and paper separators! He has three levels in his house, nice furniture - actual sofas I might add - a flushing toilet (and the toilet was also IN the house), a warm shower, private garden, a working oven (which seemed bizarre to me as I´ve become used to my mum using her oven for cupboard space), 2 pet tortoises and a pet dog. Steven´s mum is an amaaazing cook as well, as she runs her own foodstall at nights! She was such a comical character as well, was brilliant afternoon entertainment.
For their building project, all 16 of them are working on building a classroom for a school in Pachacutec, and they do english, dance, and cooking workshops. Sounds like they´ve got the easy life compared to us; nicer homes, later curfews, safer environment. But if I was given the choice, I would genuinely pick the Viviendas Saludables project that I´m on. I wanted the most challenging experience possible as I thought it would be more rewarding... and I think I was right to assume that.
Day 28 - rewarding day
11-11-09
Felt like a breakthrough day today! In English we were teaching the kids different emotions and feelings. Our group picked it up really quickly, mainly thanks to Gazz who came along to help out, and he was so great with the kids; he made it really fun and I know they especially enjoyed todays lesson.
Tonight was our drop-in session debut. We decided to set up a weekly drop in night at teh community centre where teenagers can come hang out; chat, listen to music, play games etc. We didn´t get a chance to design and print posters beforehand to advertsie it however there was a brilliant turnout with many new faces. I really enjoyed it - was great to spend time with some of the older teens in the community. We´ve spent the last few weeks with so many of the younger kids in all the various workshops that it was a really refreshing change! The teens seem to carry this reputation of being anti-social, rebellious groups who hang around in intimidating groups, but it seems they´re just normal teens with nothing to do, so we´re hoping that by setting this drop-in up, it shall bring the teens closer to the rest of the community and encourage them to use their time more resourcefully.
Felt like a breakthrough day today! In English we were teaching the kids different emotions and feelings. Our group picked it up really quickly, mainly thanks to Gazz who came along to help out, and he was so great with the kids; he made it really fun and I know they especially enjoyed todays lesson.
Tonight was our drop-in session debut. We decided to set up a weekly drop in night at teh community centre where teenagers can come hang out; chat, listen to music, play games etc. We didn´t get a chance to design and print posters beforehand to advertsie it however there was a brilliant turnout with many new faces. I really enjoyed it - was great to spend time with some of the older teens in the community. We´ve spent the last few weeks with so many of the younger kids in all the various workshops that it was a really refreshing change! The teens seem to carry this reputation of being anti-social, rebellious groups who hang around in intimidating groups, but it seems they´re just normal teens with nothing to do, so we´re hoping that by setting this drop-in up, it shall bring the teens closer to the rest of the community and encourage them to use their time more resourcefully.
Day 27 - hello churros, goodbye diet plans!
10-11-09
Went up the hill again today and Millie also joined me. Another great workout, although it was completely wasted as I snacked so much today. I have fast become addicted to churros, which are lovely hot pastry things with gooey toffee inside and showered with sugar on the outside - scrummy! Had a lovely chat with the family back home (scotland home) which was good banter, especially as I fiiiinally managed to reach my brother Drew! About blooomin time!
Our first sports class was set up today, not many people turned up however we´re planning to put up posters around the place to raise awareness so hopefully next week will bring a good turnout!
Went up the hill again today and Millie also joined me. Another great workout, although it was completely wasted as I snacked so much today. I have fast become addicted to churros, which are lovely hot pastry things with gooey toffee inside and showered with sugar on the outside - scrummy! Had a lovely chat with the family back home (scotland home) which was good banter, especially as I fiiiinally managed to reach my brother Drew! About blooomin time!
Our first sports class was set up today, not many people turned up however we´re planning to put up posters around the place to raise awareness so hopefully next week will bring a good turnout!
Day 26 - same shizzle different drizzle
09-11-09
Woke up at 6am and climbed to the peak of the mountain before breakfast - took about half an hour altogether and was a good workout as it´s such a steep climb. I´m going to aim to do that every morning as I really need to work off all these carbs I´m eating. I don´t want to have to eat less as I like the food here and eating is like an enjoyable hobby for me.
I wasn´t much help for building today as we had to move a giant concrete slab from one end of the garden to the other to cover our sillo. As we have limited tools here and of course no machinery, we simply had to move this giant slab with mere elbow grease....and of course my very helpful motivational cheers from the sidelines!
We taught the kids "head shoulders knees and toes" today in English. On Wednesday we inted to play a couple of games to incorporate them learning colours as well as body parts; that´s where my twister game in finally going to come into play!
After English I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Carla. We did a spot of rollerblading, I showed her how to play a couple of chords on the guitar and tomorrow she wants me to print out some Aventura guitar tabs from the internet shack so we can play some of their songs. I´ll try to play it seriously although I don´t know if I can as the lyrics are sooo bad. I´m sure in one song the lyrics actually went something like: "Baby I am a dog, but my love for you still burns..."... I´m sure I´ll fail but nontheless I shall try to play with utmost feeling.
On a less funny note - no pun intended - I heard from Millie that Mikel (another volunteer, not sure if i´ve mentioned him yet) hasn´t been the happiest as of late and this is apprently because his little sister is made to get up at 5am every morning to do the washing, cleaning etc. It´s upsetting for him of course as it seems that this young girl is being brought up to think that is what girls are to to and be. The other morning Mikel overheard her complaining to her mum that she was too tired, and he could then hear his mum hitting her. This is the first time I´ve heard of any issue to do with gender inequality since I´ve been out here and because it´s the only case (so far, possibly) I´m not sure if it´s a culture thing or just an odd case thing. Not nice either way.
Woke up at 6am and climbed to the peak of the mountain before breakfast - took about half an hour altogether and was a good workout as it´s such a steep climb. I´m going to aim to do that every morning as I really need to work off all these carbs I´m eating. I don´t want to have to eat less as I like the food here and eating is like an enjoyable hobby for me.
I wasn´t much help for building today as we had to move a giant concrete slab from one end of the garden to the other to cover our sillo. As we have limited tools here and of course no machinery, we simply had to move this giant slab with mere elbow grease....and of course my very helpful motivational cheers from the sidelines!
We taught the kids "head shoulders knees and toes" today in English. On Wednesday we inted to play a couple of games to incorporate them learning colours as well as body parts; that´s where my twister game in finally going to come into play!
After English I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Carla. We did a spot of rollerblading, I showed her how to play a couple of chords on the guitar and tomorrow she wants me to print out some Aventura guitar tabs from the internet shack so we can play some of their songs. I´ll try to play it seriously although I don´t know if I can as the lyrics are sooo bad. I´m sure in one song the lyrics actually went something like: "Baby I am a dog, but my love for you still burns..."... I´m sure I´ll fail but nontheless I shall try to play with utmost feeling.
On a less funny note - no pun intended - I heard from Millie that Mikel (another volunteer, not sure if i´ve mentioned him yet) hasn´t been the happiest as of late and this is apprently because his little sister is made to get up at 5am every morning to do the washing, cleaning etc. It´s upsetting for him of course as it seems that this young girl is being brought up to think that is what girls are to to and be. The other morning Mikel overheard her complaining to her mum that she was too tired, and he could then hear his mum hitting her. This is the first time I´ve heard of any issue to do with gender inequality since I´ve been out here and because it´s the only case (so far, possibly) I´m not sure if it´s a culture thing or just an odd case thing. Not nice either way.
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