Big Changes.

I realise that my last few blogs have not been too positive so I felt that I´d best write another one to let people know how things have been changing in the last few weeks.

The main change that has happened is that I am no longer working with the 7-9 year olds in Sonrisa Franciscana. I´m now with the 3-6yr olds in Nino Jesus which is the age group that I had wanted to work with from the start. I really loved my time working in Sonrisa before Christmas. I had a great relationship with the boys and the hermanas and by the time it came up to Christmas I really felt like a part of the family there. The only trouble is that since being back after Christmas, the majority of the boys were new and I still wanted to work with the babies so thought that rather than regretting not changing and never getting the experience to work with them, I spoke to Maribel, Anita and Hugo to check that it would be alright and the next week I changed houses!

So far I have to say that I am loving being in Nino Jesus. The work with the kids is a lot more the kind of work that I have wanted to do rather than the disciplinary role I was fulfilling in Sonrisa. Now, I am teaching kids how to tie their shoelaces by making the cross and bunny ears, I´m brushing the 3yr olds teeth telling them how important it is to have lovely white healthy teeth (they all have naaasty teeth in Peru) and I have 3 4yr old boys to do homework with and teach how to write out letters and numbers etc (technically I preferred teaching the older boys how to do mathmatical equations and write stories but this is good too). I also actually look forward to seeing the boys after my breaks rather than just getting stressed as I knew that it would be another afternoon of telling kids off, playing a bit, them losing respect then telling kids off again. It´s made me realise that I don´t actually hate kids which is the idea I was really starting to believe. There is one little boy in Nino Jesus called Angel. He´s 3 and is the cutest little kid i´ve ever seen. He waddles around with his big watery eyes and says things like "Miwa el cawo" instead of "Mira el carro" i.e. Look at the car. I love him.

The only problem I´ve had since changing houses has unsurprisingly been with the Sonrisa hermanas. If you´ve been following my blog from the start you´ll know that I had my problems with them in the first couple of months too. I thought at first maybe it was the way I work or my personality but i´ve come to the conclusion that they just have weird personalities. Before leaving Sonrisa I spoke to Maribel, but never actually said I was changing to Elsa and Marisol as Maribel had already told them. This gave me a bit of an easy way out really as I´d been a bit worried about telling them both anyway. Never take the easy way out. Since them both finding out, neither of them hardly said a word to me in my last week in Sonrisa and haven´t made eye contact with me since. I didn´t know whether it was because I left them or whether it was that I didn´t say to their faces that I was leaving or another reason but it was really getting me down as these are women I´d worked with for 7 months yet were able to drop me so easily without even telling me why they were so pissed off. So after having enough of the awkwardness whenever Nino Jesus and Sonrisa passed, I went to speak to Elsa (as Marisol did speak to me a couple of times when Elsa wasn´t there) to ask her what the problem is and just to explain to me the exact reason so that we could try and sort it out. She sat there and told me that there is no problem whatsoever and that the only reason she doesn´t look at me, smile at me or even say a quick hi is that she has to put all of her attention on the kids and doesn´t have time for things like that. Bullshit. It takes nothing to turn your head and say hello which Maribel does everytime. So if she´s not wanting to tell me the real reason and throw away any relationship that we had before Christmas then fair enough. It´s not worth me caring about. At least the boys haven´t deserted me and everytime I walk past any of them they all yell things like the typical "buenos dias hermana Evie" or the more unusual " te adoro hermana Evie" (I adore you sister Evie). I do miss a lot of the boys that were there last year and a few of the new ones. And I really do miss working with Maribel but I´m so glad I changed. Anita and Eliza are great to work with. After a week in Nino Jesus I already feel like more a part of the tutoras there than I ever did in Sonrisa. We had a tutora meeting straight away and they told me that what´s theirs is mine and that I should feel at home in the house, if I need anything to go straight to them and that if i´m ever feeling a bit ill, upset or anything that I just need to say and I can go take a break. They´re definately a lot easier to talk to than the others. I´m now working with Hannah too which was PT´s plan from the start!

On other news, our new (or 1 month old) Project Trust foursome partnership is going swimmingly. I just don´t think PT really thought too well about the fact that there are now 3 Yorkshire girls together and when you add a Scot and an American into the mix, things get messy. We´re all loving it though. To say that before Christmas we´d only been out about 3x, we´re definately making up for it now. Every week we go through the whole ´I´m not going out this week´ malarky, just to find ourselves getting dolled up (putting mascara and jeans on) and heading out. I´m really not looking forward to going out when I get home as it will involve spending more than 10 minutes getting ready just to go out and listen to only english music in the clubs. I´m going to miss a good bit of reggaeton!

So in general, things are on the up. I look forward to work again, have a social life and have realised that I don´t actually hate kids. Always a good thing!

Also, crazy thought. 3 months today we´ll be setting off to Bolivia and 4 months today I will be flying home! Don´t quite know how to feel about that.

Boys and rules.

I realised I haven´t actually mentioned about the new boys yet. Last year we had 24 boys, this year we have 30 and 21 of them are new. I´m not sure what´s gone on with a lot of my boys from last year as only one boy (Jesus, my absolute favourite who I miss so so much but still gives me hugs everyday and comes to talk to me through the fence) has moved up to San Antonio and the others don´t live at Ciudad anymore. I know some of their situations have improved which means they can live at home again which is great but there´s still some boys that i´m not too sure about. Having so many new boys also added to the stress at the start as there are so so so (I can´t stress how many so´s I need right now) many rules in Ciudad, a ridiculous amount. So obviously a lot of my job was to teach them how we work here. Just a few of the rules are:

- when praying you have to hold your hands together perfectly flat.
- when praying you must chant along to all the prayers.
- when praying in the comedor you must face the front at all times.
- when stood still / sat in church / walking, you must have your arms folded, you can´t scratch an itch, play with your hands, hair etc.
- in church you are not allowed to turn around, swing your legs, fidget etc.
- distancia, firmes, descanso, atencion. I.e. an army march that all the kids have to do to get their attention.
- when stood in distancia your hand musn´t touch the boys shoulder infront.
- no talking in the comedor until you´ve finished everything on your plate.
- even if you obviously struggle reading and writing you still have to stay inside until you´ve finished the obviously too hard homework that you´ve been given.
- when stood in line in the house on the checkered floor you must be stood 2 square blocks behind the boy infront with your feet together.
- everyone helps with limpieza (cleaning) in the mornings.
- when playing outside you´re only allowed on the patio, no-one is allowed to go up the steps to the higher level where there is sand, monkey bars, swings, a slide and a see-saw.
- no-one is allowed to go play with the San Antonio boys on their side.

I´m pretty sure there are loads more which I can´t think of right now.

I find it hard to be an authoritive figure when there are ridiculous rules like some of these. Like walking with your arms folded is obviously not a very comfortable way to walk and sitting for an hour in church with your arms folded is made even worse when it´s bloody boiling and everyone is sweating. The worst one is definately them not being allowed to play on all the monkey bars, slides etc. When I was a kid, that would´ve been the first place i´d go play, especially when there´s nothing to play with on the patio. Their excuse is that dogs pee in the sand up there and there´s lots of illnesses in the sand so they´re not allowed incase they get ill. That´s fair enough but the kids go up there anyway before we see them and get them to come down, so they kick sand down when they jump and pick up as many illnesses in other places as they would there. Sometimes I just wish they were a bit more relaxed here as I feel my job is more to direct the kids rather than actually build up relationships with them and enjoy my time with them rather than feeling like if I left right now, I wouldn´t be too bothered.

Again another depressing blog but i´m just getting so sick of rules. And as there are so many, the boys break them all the time which then means that I have to tell them off which I hate doing when it´s something that I don´t believe in anyway. But then if I don´t say anything they think they can get away with anything when i´m around. Its just a vicious cycle. I feel bad for Hannah as she loves her work with the 3-6 year olds but I need someone to chat to about it which means that she has to hear all my rants. I guess that´s what PT partners are for.

Missing home,

Eebs x

2 PT volunteers become 4.

So big news from Lima - Harriet and Rosanna, the PT girls that have been working in Chiclayo in the north since we arrived, have now joined us here in Ciudad! They´d been having problems in Chiclayo as there was pretty much no work for them to do apart from an hour to spend with the kids in the afternoon. A bit of an opposite problem to what we have here where we don´t get away from the kids until 8pm at night. So after a lot of hassle with Project Trust trying to change projects since around November, they finally just packed their things and gave them the ultimateum of either they find them another project or they just leave. It ended up in them just leaving and spending 2 weeks in Huanchaco until PT had contacted Hugo and it all got sorted that they could join us here. Great news. There´s now 4 of us, more than there are American Cap Corps volunteers so we´re taking over! Hazza P´s been put in San Antonio to work with Laura and Rosanna is with me in Sonrisa. Niceee. With two new people comes two new sets of clothes so yesterday we had one big wardrobe try on and it looks like we´re all going to be swapping clothes for the next few months. We also went to Tottus to get home things like a water jug, shower mat, toilet paper etc so now we´re all properly settled in with our community feel going on. I even treated myself to 35 sol (around 10 pounds) worth of herbal essences shampoo and conditioner. I actually can´t wait to wash my hair again, so much better than the Peruvian stuff. We also had our first Lima night out together last night to celebrate Laura´s birthday which was on Friday. This included us actually dressing up for the first real time since being in Peru and actually wearing dresses. Started with a good old game of Ring of Fire before hitting Barranco. Crazy stuff.

Other than that i´m still generally absolutely knackered as their arrival doesn´t mean that the 14hr days haven´t stopped. However... the boys start school tomorrow WOOOOOOOP! So finally we´ll get our break back from 8am to 1pm. I can´t wait to only work 9-10 hour days. I don´t feel like i´ve really had much chance to get to know the new kids too well yet. We may have spent all day with them but I can´t remember the last time I wasn´t knackered and therefore had enough energy to play football with them or find the silly little things they do funny and not just annoying. The chair outside in the playground has become my best friend. Atleast I know it´s not just me though as when we go outside to watch the kids i´m nearly falling asleep in one chair, Marisol has her feet up passed out and Elsa uses 2 chairs and takes her pillow outside for a nap whilst the kids give her a foot massage. When i´m in this kind of mood it´s easy to start disliking kids when they´re constantly coming up to me saying things like ´hermanita, hermanitaaaa, dile que no moleste´ (sister, sisterrrrr, tell him to not annoy me) or just having two boys who you´ve just seen kick the shit out of each other try and act innocent and say they did nothing but the other boy just attacked them. I know i´ve not got as much respect as the other hermanas in my house as as soon as they come into a room the kids shut up and stop doing whatever they were doing wrong but with me they just carry on unless I whap out the threats. I´m currently guarding of a big bag of sugar puffs when one boy thought even though I told him he wasn´t allowed his snacks as it was 15 minutes before tea, he could try sneak some. I´m also looking after around 30 taps right now from Guillermo who decided it was fun to go up to a cute little boy playing cards in a corner, pick up all his cards and throw them all over the patio before ripping a couple up and chucking them in the bin. We´ll see if his behaviour outisde improves but I can´t see it happening anytime soon, he´s a little shit. So as I have a little bit more respect than I did last year as i´m supposedly a ´tutora´, it means that when the boys get into fights, they come up to me rather than just finding one of the other hermanas so I have to try and find out what really happened from the boys involved and the boys that saw what happened and just enjoy getting involved. All stressful with around 4 boys all explaining different stories at the same time in pretty rapid Spanish. But fingers crossed once they´re back at school and have homework time, when they finally get round to playing outside they´ll be too tired to be running around punching and kicking the other kids.

On another note, if anyone feels like sending us out any haribo tangfastics or fruit pastilles or something like that it would be much appreciated. They´re seriously lacking out here.

Hope all´s well back home and everyone´s enjoying the cold. Never thought I´d say it but I miss the cold. I can´t remember the last time I wasn´t sweating it´s so hot here.

Chau for now,

Evie/Ebay/Ingrie/Inglie/Yuy/Ivy and whatever else the new boys want to call me x