The Ciudad Olympics- TAKE 2

On the weekend of the 2/3rd of June we had the Ciudad Olympics annual event. Somehow last year it was in September so we were here for it and this year they changed it so we managed to be here for 2 years worth. And i´m so glad we were. It´s definately my favourite event of Ciudad.

Preparations started a couple of weeks before when the poster got stuck up with the team lists. As soon as they were up all of the boys were going around asking who´s in what team, which team is going to win and hassling the other teams. We had a few meetings to sort out who would participate in which event, decide on and learn some sort of chant and team song and to learn the dance. We had all of the meetings in Niño Jesús at around 8pm after all of the boys had fallen asleep. I´ve never known anybody to be in such a deep sleep. All of the lights were turned on, the music was deafening and everyone was talking loudly, yet not one of the 25 boys woke up. Amazing. 2 days before the Olympics the blue team staff (me, Anita, Doris, Elisa and Christoph. Minus Hannah and Pedro) went on a trip to central Lima during the break to buy all of the things; balloons, whistles, things that make a lot of booyah (noise) and stuff for our costumes. It took over an hour to get there and back so we ended up only just getting back intime to pick up the boys from school. Elisa and Christoph had to stay longer though as we´d ordered a giant chinese dragons head which they were waiting for. When they brought it back, it turns out it wasn´t the one we´d ordered and looked more like a duck than a scary dragon. So... Anita, Doris, Christoph and I all went back to Central Lima to sort it out and get what we´d ordered. After lots of arguing we finally got the dragon and 15 sol (about 3 pounds) off the price for the hassle. We´d already missed the whole afternoon of work but then on the way back in our combi (mini bus type bus) a man decided to call the police over when they pulled to the side of the road as the driver hadn´t apparantly stopped at a bus stop where he wanted to get off. This lead to a lot more arguing, passengers on the bus yelling their side of the story, and Christoph yelling that we had to get back for alabanza (dancing in church). We finally did get back but not until 6.30pm in time for tea. Friday night preparations included a full team meeting at 9pm to go over dance moves and chants, then working through until 12.30am to paint the rubbish cart (which ended up looking really nice and blue), blow up balloons to make a balloon arch, make a giant sign etccc. It was a very long day.


The Actual Weekend

Last year the blue team mascots were Smurfs so this year we decided to do Avatars. Hannah, Christoph and I started painting ourselves at around 7.30am and only just finished in time for the grand entrance at 9am.

At 9am all of the teams lined up down the main street in Ciudad. Blue team at the back (obviously to save the best til last). Everyone started walking towards the cancha (pitch where the presentation was taking place) doing their best to out-do the other teams. There were horns, whistles, balloons waving etc. Blue team had a chant going the whole way which went:

Nadie nos puede parar... AZUL                                 No one can stop us... BLUE
Hay que salir a ganar... AZUL                                   We have to go out to win... BLUE
Vamos azul que tu puedes volver a empezaaar.         Come on blue you can start again.

Nadie nos puede parar... AZUL                                 No one can stop us... BLUE
Hay que salir a ganar... AZUL                                   We have to go out to win... BLUE
Vamos azul que tu puedes llegar a ganaaar.               Come on blue you can win.

And our other chant was:

Todo el mundo sabe que azul es bacan bacan bacan bacan x2
A la derecha - la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, EQUIPO AZUL
A la izquierda - la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, la vuelta, EQUIPO AZUL

Everyone knows that blue is cool cool cool cool x2

To the right - turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, BLUE TEAM

To the left - turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, BLUE TEAM

I don´t think, or at least didn´t hear, any other team with a chant or song or anything. Once all of the teams had arrived at the cancha the presentations started. Each team made a dance or a drama thing to try and outdo the other teams. For ours the avatars and older boys all did a dance to Balada Boa, an amazing Brazilian song. There´s a video on the Ciudad facebook which is here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=482644045084527  I don´t know if the link will work but fingers crossed as it´s a video of the full dance and also our chants after. So with all of that the winners for the presentation were.... BLUE TEAM!

Josue - LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM!

After all the presentations etc we had the races. Little kids against littles and bigs against bigs. Then the long jump. Sunday was a less dressed up day as we couldn´t really be fussed to paint ourselves fully again. So instead, Hannah and I got the paints out and attacked the kids with them. Made sure nearly all of them had some sort of paint splatter (or a nice pattern/Army stripes). All of Sunday was football so there was a lot of group competition and jeering other teams. Anyway it finished Sunday afternoon with the presentations of medals to the boys and the copa (cup) to... BLUE TEAM! So we won over all much to all the other teams annoyance as Blue team won last year. It also lead to other tutors claiming that blue team cheated and lots of arguments going on in the last tutor meeting. But, we know we won through effort so all´s good.

Next year´s volunteers have a lot to live up to though as out of us 4 project trust girls we´re now called Hermana Avatar, the other Hermana Avatar, Hermana Leon (Sister Lion) and Hermana Abeja (Sister Bee).

Only 2 weeks left of work now. I don´t want to leave my boys!

Eviecita x

Realisation

With the realisation of only having 5 weeks left of working here I have been thinking about all of the things that I am going to miss from Peru.

- speaking Spanish: I´m not particularly looking forward to being back where everyone speaks English and pretty much no-one speaks Spanish. Just the fact that my Spanish has improved so much this year and the thought of not speaking it every day is quite sad. I´m trying to persuade the tutors here to get skype so we can talk and I can keep practicing.

- teaching my cheeky little Sonrisa boys pointless things like making a duck noise with a piece of grass, pretending to cut off half their thumb, trying and failing to whistle with their fingers, getting a good towel whipping motion, etc. Then seeing their faces when they manage to achieve it.

- watching Andrew, Alex and Jhover's faces in church as they sing along to the songs. Never before have I seen such effort. I´m talking red faces, furrowed brows and bulging veins in the neck.

- watching Doris (hermana from San Antonio) and Eliza (hermana from Niño Jesús) in church. Never before have I seen such bad co-ordination. It´s bloody hilarious.

- the bus system: Having men dangling out of the door/window of a bus shouting out where it´s going and trying to persuade you to get on. Being able to get on wherever you are in the street and having the guy come to collect money off you once you´re sat down. I have a feeling when I get back I´ll be trying to wave down buses in the street and just go sit down and forget to pay the driver.

- taxis: as dangerous as some of them can be, it's great just walking down a street and being able to flag one down. Having to pre-call a taxi sounds ridiculous right now.

- milk: It comes in a bag and doesn´t need to be refrigerated. Amazing.

- how friendly everyone is: Probably down to the fact that we´re gringas (white foreign girls) so everybody wants to practice their limited English on us, but still.

- that a weekend trip can be a 9 hour bus journey somewhere: It only costs around 15 pounds and you can just hop on most buses without pre-planning.

- food and drink: specifically- pisco, maracuya juice (passion fruit juice, so not the same in England), piscinas (giant blue fish bowls with vodka, rum, gin, pisco and a couple of non alcoholic drinks. Sounds nasty but tastes good), pollo a la brasa (basically chicken and chips but you don't get it like this in the UK), ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime and chilli with onions and sweet potato. I didn't like it at first but i've grown to like it).

- surprisingly, the religion: It has been a struggle this year but now that we´re finally settled into the routine of praying before and after every meal, going to church every day and doing God knows (lol) how many Padre Nuestros (Our Fathers) and Hail Marys, I have a feeling I´m going to miss it. Especially seeing nuns and monks wandering around. Nun punch wont be half as fun to play at home.

- general cheapness: The fact that a taxi to Miraflores (40 minutes away) costs about 3 pounds, whereas a taxi from my House to Huddersfield (5 minutes drive) costs 4 pounds. That a kilo of mandarins costs 50p, avocados cost 25p and ciabatta bread costs 5p.

- my night time walks: The only alone time I can really have here. As long as I go out after curfew at 9pm, Ciudad is all mine to wander.

- mototaxis: These little death contraptions definately need to be brought into the UK. Basically a motorbike with a little hut over it which can take up to 3 people (4 if you lie across everyone). So cheap and can weave in and out of cars and down little back streets.

- meeting people: I´ve met some amazing people from all over the world being here. America, Australia, Ireland, France, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, etc. Most people are either travelling or working abroad so there are so many interesting stories to hear.

- small moments with the boys: just when you're watching a film with a boy on your knee and they cling onto your arm, or when they run from one end of the street to the other just to give you a hug, or making sure they get their kiss before bed. Little things like that really make my day.

It's really starting to sink in now how little time I have left here and how different it's going to be when I get home. I feel like I'm sort of ready to finish working at Ciudad (although I probably wont be thinking the same in my last week when I have to start saying my goodbyes) as we have worked so hard here and I really feel like we need a good break and a long rest. Even starting work at 8am when I get home and finishing at 5pm would count as a long rest for me. Just not getting up at 5.15am and finishing at 8pm anymore would be amazing.

But over all as much as I want to see everyone at home and experience British life again, I still don't feel ready to leave Peru. I feel like this is my second country, my second home and I have a very large extended family here. I'm trying to keep my mind off leaving for now and juse enjoy the rest of my days here and the people that I'm spending them with, then think about travelling in Bolivia after. At least we've got that to look forward to so it's a step-by-step process. First is to leave the kids and the people but not South America, then 3 weeks later leave South America. Honestly, I'm shitting myself about leaving knowing that I'm most likely not going to see any of the people again that I've spent my whole year with. I'm definately going to keep a list of my boys names then in 10 years time stalk them all on facebook to see who's about and what they've turned out like. If I remember anyway.

Mucho amor,
Eviecita

A Firing and a Traditional Easter

Good stuff and bad stuff in this one. Times are looking up for Niño Jesús and in general but other shit is going doooown.

More Big Changes

I have never really written about the full goings on abuse wise that happened whilst I was working in Sonrisa. I guess it was because this blog is public and I didn´t want the wrong people reading it and problems to come from that. But the problem has finally been taken care of so I feel like I can finally talk about it openly.

From the first week I was working in Sonrisa in September, one of the hermanas would pull the kids ears, cheeks, necks, any open skin area, hit them across the face, hit them with books, bags, belts and just generally use physical punishment rather than anything that would actually work and not just make the kids cry and want to punch the hermana but then go punch another kid to let it out. This was one of the reasons that I left Sonrisa as it was awful being there when for example the boys were being smacked round the head with their school bags (everyone knows how heavy they can be), and the worst things would happen when the other hermanas weren´t there to see and it was just me and her.

So 2 weeks ago all the volunteers and I had a meeting with Hugo to discuss a few topics such as our new oven, homework time and then treatment of the kids in the houses. We were quite vague about it as we didn´t want to name names and get anyone fired. We were just hoping to let him know that there is a general problem of discipline in the houses (I.e. Sonrisa but again we didn´t want to name names) and that maybe there could be some more training on how to discipline the kids in other ways or just raise the issue with the tutors to let them know that it isn´t acceptable. So in the next tutor meeting Hugo mentioned it to the tutors as right now the laws are changing in Peru to make it illegal to take forceful measure against children (about time) and that they need to be aware of this and what it could mean for them if they contine. So we thought that this was successful as it had been brought up infront of her and the other hermanas. However, even though she apparently improved a bit over the next couple of weeks, last Thursday she took it waaaay too far.

One of the 7yr old boys had pooed his pants so she decided as a punishment it would be good to take his shitty underwear and rub it all over his face, then in the faces of 4 other boys who had gotten bad grades in their exams in school. Bearing in mind these are 7-9 year old boys who have come from families of abuse and are here to get away from it all. I don´t think I´ve ever been so angry in my life. My heart was beating way over the limit, I was shaking and eventually burst into tears from anger. Rosanna and Harriet had to literally yell after me after I´d started marching off to go and 'talk' to her. So instead, all 4 of us Project Trust girls went to talk to Hugo, the director here about it and just told him direct what has been happening. He asked me and Rosanna to write down a list of everything that we´ve seen her do to the kids, we gave it him and by Monday, she had been fired and there is now a new hermana working in Sonrisa who used to work in San Jose 3 years ago.

That whole weekend was such a stressful one for all of the volunteers as we all had such strong views and opinions on what had happened. It also made it worse that on Saturday, Rosanna went to ask Hugo what was happening and he said that if Flor (head hermana who has been working here 15 years and Hugo thinks she can 'control' her) accepted her, she was possibly going to just be moved up a house to San Antonio. Hearing this, Laura who works in San Antonio went to talk to Flor to give her a heads up and let her know the real situation (as Hugo didn´t tell her the real reason why she was being made to leave Sonrisa) which lead to Flor giving Hugo a downright no, that she didn´t want to work with her. So thanks to Laura, and also Elsa who had been to talk to Flor too, she no longer works here. It´s such a relief though and I feel like the kids are so much better off not having to be flinching every time she walks past etc. I do feel a bit sorry for her though. She had plenty of warnings about it, decided not to change her behaviour and now she has lost her job, 6 months into being pregnant. I just hope that for her sake she decides to get some help as no-one can treat kids as she does without having had her own problems.

Anyway, on to better news and happier times.


Pascua / Easter

Easter here was a lot different from any other Easter that I have experienced. We actually celebrated the real reason for it. I.e. Jesus dying and resurrecting. I never really knew much about the Easter story apart from what we learnt about in Primary school which I had forgotten most of. I knew it would be a big deal here as it´s obviously a Catholic organisation and everything they do it about Jesus/God. It first got mentioned around 3 weeks before Easter during a tutors meeting when everyone was deciding how we were going to organise everything over the 4 days (Holy Thursday, Holy Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday). That was when I realised we wouldn´t just be eating chocolate eggs and slobbing about all day. As Jackie, the main woman that runs things in the office here, knew that us 4 Project Trust girls aren´t Catholic she kindly printed us off a sheet giving us, in English, the basic details of what Easter is so that if the boys asked us any questions we would know how to answer. So, as it was such a big deal to them, we did some more homework beginning with watching 'The Passion of the Christ' which was gruesome but we learnt quite a bit from that. Surprisingly it quite interested me and I wanted to learn a bit more about it so Laura showed me the part of the Bible which talks about Easter and everything that happened so I read 4 whole pages of the Bible! Crazy I know. And before you all get worried, I´m not converting, it was just really interesting to learn about what they actually believe in here.

So actual Easter turned out to be a very long process. The Sunday a week before Easter Sunday was Palm Sunday and as it was Niño Jesus' turn to run alabanza, we had all of the boys up by the front waving palm leaves around whilst singing. This Holy Thursday and Friday the boys had off school which meant working 14 hour days again. However, for me there was a very Christmassy feel to it all as everyone was feeling festive and in a good mood. Eliza even brought us Pisco Sour´s whilst we were watching the kids play which was nice and bien rico. The first Eastery thing that we did was Mass at 7pm on Thurday which was for 1.5 hours, then from then until 10pm everyone sat in the church in absolute silence with a few songs inbetween to break up the silence. This was painful. Sitting in silence for an hour and a half is hard enough for me, never mind 26 3-6yr olds. By 9.30pm ish even though they´d had a 2 hour nap during the day, the majority of the little ones were fast asleep or crying because they weren´t allowed to sleep, so luckily Hugo just came over and told us we could take them back early (win win).

Friday was a day of 'silence' or more like 'attempted silence' as it was the day of Jesus' death. Each house had a half hour time slot in the morning to go and sit in the church in silence and pray to God. Then at 3pm we had another Mass, 1.5 hours again, then at 5pm was the 'Stations of the Cross'. This was a re-enactment of what happened the night that Jesus died. It was re-enacted within a rope made into a square so that no-one apart from the actors could enter, then everyone else followed behind to watch the action performed by Familia San Francisco. It started at the entrance to Ciudad and went around all of Ciudad passing by each station which had been set up by each house. At each station they stopped, acted out what happened then someone read a prayer and we did a 'Padre Nuestro' (I.e. said the Our Father prayer). In the part where Jesus is getting whipping whilst carrying his cross the boys didn´t let up on the whipping, they were full on whipping the poor boy acting as Jesus with a giant rope. Everyone was wincing a bit at the sound of the thwacks! Hannah, Amy and I also had to do some acting as we were given the roles of crying women so had to enter the acting circle at one point!

Jesus Dying on the Cross


Saturday was our free day so we were off until Mass again at 6.30pm. This one was actually a really nice service. It started with a bonfire outside San Francisco, then everyone lit their candles that they had been given and we walked into the church which had all the lights turned off. As everyone entered more and more light obviously came in which was to signify light coming back into Jesus' life as he resurrected. It was a little bit of a tricky situation as 3yr olds with candles isn´t too safe but overall it went fine. Minus our youngest, Jossepf, trying to lick the candle like a lolly which I quickly had to blow out. After that it was just a lovely service, they had the same choir and band in that they had for Christmas with amazing singers. They made the hymns that we sing every day with the boys actually sound really nice rather than kids just shouting the words.

The boys with their Candles

Sunday started with Mass at 6am which was just a normal style Mass and like the ending to Easter. This was followed by a big breakfast of Spaghetti Soup, a boiled egg, a chicken leg, canchitos, a bread roll and coffee. A bit weird for a breakfast but it´s what we had on Christmas and one of the ´Day of the Saints´ so it felt special. Plus the section where Niño Jesus eats is normally closed off from the rest of the comedor but for the day it got opened so we were technically sat with everyone which was nice. After that we had a few photos of the familia Niño Jesus and then the boys had an easter egg hunt. All very festive and it was such a lovely last couple of days. I have to admit that with over 11 hours of Mass and churchy things over the space of 4 days it was nice once it was all over but I´m definately glad that I have experienced a real Easter and actually understand it now.

The boys with their Easter Eggs.

General Ciudad Stuff

- I find alabanza quite funny these days as a lot of the boys in Niño Jesus either don´t know how to dance, stand there looking really dazed, or they full on go for it with a really angry face which is hilarious to watch. It´s either that or they are asleep which can also be slightly funny. The other day Enrique was asleep and somehow managed to fall off the bench and crack his head on the floor (not a funny bit) during a silent moment prompting everyone in the church to turn around and stare. Jossepf also managed to smack his face on the bench infront when asleep. I also got one of the other 3yr olds, Angel, mid-prayer saying outloud "Hermana Evie, vamos a comer?" (Sister Evie, are we going to eat?) which again prompted a lot of stares and dirty looks my way. All fun though.

Angel all dressed up during Easter, the cutie.

- A few weeks ago we put on a bit of a puppet show for the boys. I was sapito (little frog), Hannah was azulito (little blue), Anita was chanchito (little pig) and Elisa was tigre (tiger). It was a little show about tigre stealing toys off us and how we should share toys etc. The boys loved it, cheering outloud and shouting YES and NO when we asked questions. There was even a charge at the stage at one point! After that when we were putting the boys to bed one boy, Abram, came up to me and gave me a ´blessing´ where he drew a cross on my head and said something about Maria and Jesus Amen. Then loads of boys came up to me asking me to give them a blessing so I had to kind of make something up whilst drawing a cross on their head, saying Amen and giving them a goodnight kiss. I don´t think I did it right but they seemed to be happy enough with it.

- The other week I witnessed one of my favourite punishments since being in Ciudad. Elisa, an absolutely hilarious woman who I work with, decided that the kids who wouldn´t get into bed would go and sit in the roperia (clothes room). This is a normal punishment for 1 or 2 kids but after she´d sent around 10 kids there, there was no other thing to do than to put the radio on and have them all dancing the night away until they wore themselves out enough to fall straight into bed.

- Once the workers had finished the patio roof, me and Hannah had to clean the patio outside Niño Jesus as it was disgusing. We did it during alabanza and teatime so there was no-one else around so we blasted 107.7 musica ingles, got a hose out and blasted out our amazing singing voices to Adele whilst spraying water and soap around. It was bien divertido. Due to the nun convent being right next to Niño Jesus the nuns came out at one point and I thought that they were telling Hannah to turn the music off but apparently they told us to keep singing as they were enjoying listening! Haha.


2nd Gap Year

Recently, a lot of my plans have changed with regards to what I´ll be doing when I get back from Peru. I´ve had to start thinking about it a lot more as scarily I only have 7 more weeks working here and 11 until i´m back home! So to update everyone or any family that still haven´t been informed, I have deferred my entry to University by another year and have decided to take another Gap Year. I am planning to go to Canada to do a ski season from November until April/May time. Then after that depending on the money situation I might stay out seen as though my visa would last until November, or maybe travel a bit of Canada/America. That´s all depending on me being able to get my visa anyway. It has been a long and complicated process and depending on whether there are any remaining spaces for UK citizens, I should be good. But that´s the plan and it gives me something very exciting to look forward to when I get home. I found out last week that one of the jobs that I applied to has accepted so even though it´s not definately the job that I´ll take it´s just exciting to know that I´ll have one and don´t have to search when I arrive. It´s with Affirmity Rentals which is the rental shop at the bottom of the mountain where everyone rents their boards and skis. Sounds awesome.

All this has made me realise though how little time I have left here! Only 7 more weeks of work and 11 weeks until I´ll be back in the UK. I´m quite nervous about being home as I know how different it´s going to be compared to here. Just simple things like seeing so many white people again. I kind of understand why Peruvians stare at us now as there as so few white people that if we see another white person, we stare too. I am looking forward to starting a whole new adventure though but hating the thought of leaving everyone here behind. The hermanos/tutores, the boys, the Americans, Christoph and just in general Peru. It has definately become my home away from home and adjusting back will be difficult but I guess I´ll pull through. Cannot wait to see all the family though for Katy´s wedding 2 days after I´m home and then back to Yorkshire to see everyone!

Hasta muy pronto!

Evie x

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

Stress.

This is a bit of a depressing blog so if you still want to believe that I'm loving every minute you may not want to read this post.

After getting back from travelling we had around a week before our orientation started. We spent the whole week just relaxing, going to the beach, watching films, going out to our first discoteca (club) in Lima (5 months here and it was our first - crazy I know) and just generally doing things for ourselves. Hannah was still off working in Loki Lima so I spent the majority of the week with Laura and the other Americans.

Orientation week started on the Monday until the Friday where all of the staff in Ciudad had workshops with psychologists and groups that came in to work. Mon, Wed and Fri were actually really fun days where we did things like played a lot of games, in partners drew around each other, then filled in our bodies with things that represent us, we acted out scenes that could happen and how we would resolve them... e.g. I had to fight with Guillermina (the tutora in Familia San Martin) because she was playing whilst walking to the comedor and bumped into me, so I had to turn around and smack the shit out of her. It was great role play. The Tuesday wasn't quite so fun. It was our spiritual day which was run by the monks and was all about Jesus, God and their roles in the life of Ciudad. It also included 2 hours in church, with 40 minutes of that kneeling in silence praying to God. I don't think I've ever hated religion as much in my life as I did that day. And the whole thing about it being compulsory made me feel so forced into the religion that I literally went back to the flat after raging to Hannah who hadn't gone as she was ill. Thursday was a day about children's rights which was interesting for a while, then got boring as they started reading from the presentation screen. Thursday night was good though. We decided during dinner that me, Hannah, Laura and the hermanas from Sonrisa and San Antonio would all go watch a film together before the boys came back so we went to San Antonio with Elsa, Marisol, Flor, Doris and Sara and put some pillows and rugs on the floor and all sprawled out to watch Sister Act 2. It was really nice. The whole week was nice really, just in terms of actually getting to know the other tutors that work at Ciudad as you don't normally get to spend any time with the other tutors from other houses.

On Saturday the boys came. We started cleaning the house at 7am which for me meant weeding the whole patio where a rainforest had managed to grow over the holidays. At 10am the boys started arriving so I had the job of walking them from the registration area in the comedor to the house. It was generally alright apart from one boy who's mum didn't end up leaving until after lunch (2 hours after everyone else has left) as he was screaming, kicking walls and eventually tried to escape and ended up running all around ciudad. He's been an absolute little shit since arriving and seems to be trying to do everything he possibly can to get kicked out or just to go home. The hermanas don't think he'll end up staying as boys from previous years that have been like him go home within the first month. I know it sounds bad as he's obviously got problems at home etc but I don't think I can cope with him for much longer. He makes me want to pull my hair out. There's one other boy who also starts crying at random times like when we were doing drawings of their holidays, during mealtimes etc. Unfortunately he's my favourite new boy so it's so upsetting seeing him like this and when I've spoken to him he just says 'I just really want to go home to my mum'. He's such a lovely kid though. He helps when asked, does as he's told, giggles a lot and is just chubby and adorable. As for the other boys I'm not sure what to think really. I think the fact that since last Saturday the hermanas and I have been working from 6am until 8pm without a break due to the boys not starting school yet, it's not helping at all. Every day I've been more tired than the last and I know that my views of the boys would be different if I wasn't so tired but right now, every little thing annoys me. I'm at the stage for the first time since arriving that I just want to go home to England. It's not even because I'm homesick, just that I miss silence, personal space, being able to do what I want and sleep past 6am, not being so tired that I'm in bed and asleep by 8.30pm every night, and using my Saturday off to do something for me, rather than absolutely nothing because I'm too tired to go anywhere. And the most depressing thing is that this cycle is going to continue until March 5th when finally the boys start school and we should get from 8am until 1pm off again every day. I don't want to wish the time away but that's all I want right now. Then maybe I can start making proper relationships with the boys.

Another thing that's making it a bit more stressful is that since the holidays I have spoken to the 3 women I work with to say that I want things like my own week of servicio (setting up meals etc) so that the boys would see me more as a tutora than a volunteer and therefore gain a bit more respect. So we've agreed that now I'm supposedly 100% a tutora. So I have my own week of servicio, I now rotate in the cleaning schedule, I get my own grade of boys to work with when they start school, i.e. make sure they finish their homework, mark their work, check their books and sign their planners etc. The only downside to this is that their agreement was that it is only fair that if I'm a tutora, I should have the same time off as them which is one day a week rather than two. So now I have Saturday's off but I'm back to work Sundays, which seen as today is Saturday, is a really depressing thought that I'm working tomorrow at 6.30am again. I understand that it's more fair with regards to my house situation but it means that I have less time off that the other volunteers and I also still won't gain full respect from the kids as I don't speak good enough Spanish and they know that I'm leaving in June. But honestly, I think our house is going to fall apart later on in the year as I'm leaving in June, Marisol will be leaving sometime around July, Elsa is going to see if she can swap to San Antonio where she worked before so that will just leave Maribel with around 30 kids. So being a 'full tutora' now also makes me feel too guilty to ask them for an hours break now and then during the week as they don't get any time off and haven't even taken their day off this week. So my last 7 days have been spent with the boys cleaning the house everyday and attempting to get Gabriel (the boy who just wants to leave) to help out, playing mata gente (translates to 'Kill People' but is actually just dodge ball), supervising them playing outside after Tuesday as I'd run out of energy to play with them, trying to resolve fights and arguments when I'm too tired to understand who's actually to blame, sitting with them as they copy out of the dictionary for 4 hours (apparently they needed to learn how to write quickly for when they go back to school), sit with them whilst they draw what they did in the holidays, shower them and set up for all the meals. I just want March 5th already.

So yeah, sorry about the depressing blog but I'm not feeling being here right now. Give it 3 weeks and hopefully I'll have a really up beat blog not understanding why I was complaining so much in this one.

Chau for now,
Evie x