The other weekend my whole family of 18 people, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles and obviously my mum, dad and brother had a huge get together for my Grandparents joint 80th birthdays. They rented a house in Cornwall, had a fancy meal, all dress up nicely and had formal family photos taken. I was the only one in the family that wasn't there so i'll admit it made me feel quite homesick after talking to each and every one of them on the phone after they'd made a queue to talk to me (skype wouldn't work).
I also found out a few weeks ago that my cousin Katy who i'm really close to is going to get married to her now fiance Anton, so obviously I really don't want to miss her wedding and all the family will be together again then too. She's having it next summer on July 28th when i'm supposed to still be here, so I thought long and hard about it and decided that I can't do with missing that as well.
Soooo, I have changed my flight date with Project Trust from August 18th to July 25th. Only around 3 weeks less than before and it will definately be worth it as I know how much i'd regret missing out on Katy's wedding for just 3 more weeks in Peru. The plan now is to leave Ciudad sometime in June, travel for a month and then fly back on my own on the 25th of July and go straight from Heathrow down to Devon. And i'm so excited now I know i'll be at the wedding!
Sorry to those of you who read this title and thought it meant that i'd be coming home and you'd be seeing me anytime soon. Didn't mean to get your hopes up haa.
Sloppy kisses,
Evie x
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Friday, 4 November 2011
Earthquakes & Halloween
Last week I felt my first ever earthquake!! It was during lunchtime when we were eating in the comedor with all of the boys and hermanas. At first I thought I was feeling ill as i just started shaking, until I saw Marisol's face across the table who looked really worried and then noticed that hermanas were starting to stand up and all boys were looking around. The whole place shook for about a minute. Not bad enough that anything fell over so i'm not sure why the hermanas looked quite so worried and to be honest I found it all really exciting. I had to try and hide my huge grin whilst it was happening just incase it was going to get worse. Obviously it wasn't serious where we were but after talking to Elsa (hermana I work with) that afternoon I found out that there had been a big earthquake in Ica with houses falling down etc (4 hours south of here where we were actually going for the weekend but decided not to last minute!), which is where her 6yr old son and mum live so she was obviously worried and couldn't even leave to visit as the Panama highway which leads down the south coast had been closed.
El Aniversario
This was a couple of Sundays ago and was Ciudad's 56th anniversary. There were stands set up all down the main street of ciudad with each house selling one type of food, then Ciudad selling all the products that they make here like shoes, bread, cakes etc. At 12pm there was Mass which was absolutely packed, i've never seen a church so full. Then we had lunch where i chose Pachamanca which is basically pork and potatoes all cooked underground which was really nice apart from that everyone else that ate it was ill for a few days after. Not so sure why I wasn't ill too. Then at 3pm there was a show where each house did a dance. Nino Jesus did such a cute dance where they all wore suits and sunglasses. My house, Sonrisa, did a traditional dance so were all wearing traditional outfits and dancing to flutey music. but obviously the highlight of the event was the volunteers dance. There are 9 of us here so we ended up starting off with Glee's Don't Stop Believing, then the three boys learnt the dance to Beyonce's Single Ladies (which was hilarious) then for the finale, we did a rendition of Titanic's My Heart Will Go On seen as the boys here seem to love that song. Slightly embarassing but over all it was just funny and people seemed to enjoy it.
Halloween
Due to it being Halloween on Monday the boys had Monday and Tuesday off school (why don't we get that in England?) which meant that instead of coming back from their salida on Sunday like they normally do, they came back at 3pm on Tuesday so we got Sat-Tue off. Lauren, Hannah's friend from home who is working in Arequipa, decided that she would come up for the weekend so we all went to stay in Pariwana, a hostal in Miraflores half an hour away from here. Far enough away that we can be ourselves without the religious eyes judging us for wanting to have a drink and just sit around getting a tan. It seems to have become our home away from home when we just need to escape. We spent Saturday looking around the Mercado Indio which has all the touristy style clothes and bags etc. I ended up getting an alpaca wool jumper, some reggae style Peruvian trousers and an alpaca wool hat. So when I wear them all together I'm a 'Twat in a Hat' according to Hannah. I actually miss the insults that get thrown between friends in England and just general English banter. No-one here really gets that when we call each other 'oy dickhead' that it's a term of affection. Atleast Hannah makes up for it with her own range. I have to admire her for that. It was so good staying in Pariwana again. Everyone that stays there is a traveller so everyone has good stories, advice and is there to actually have a good time, which we made sure we did. There were 6 Irish people and two Aussie guys that we spent most of the time with and they were all hilarious. One of the Australian's actually looked like Jesus so the two lives that we seem to lead here may have crossed over a little bit. We decided to all dress up for halloween as there was a party at the hostal. The Irish went as Greeks and as we hadn't really thought about it until 7pm that night we just ended up borrowing red paint from the guys, facepaint from the Irish and cutting up our own clothes and covering them in 'blood'. Gutted I didn't win the first prize of a free night and bottle of vodka after all that effort. Turned out to be a really good night though and lets just say, after not drinking much for 10 weeks, nights out are a lot cheaper.
Religion
"Evie, you need to fold the clothes neater because they're the clothes of Jesus Christ."
This is the one line that was said to me last week and I haven't been able to get it out of my head as I was just that stunned at how deep their beliefs seem to go. I have to admit, I think i'm going slightly crazy with being surrounded by religion 24hrs a day, feeling like we're being pitied because we don't believe in God. We pray around 12x a day, and prayer here isn't a quick one. It means holding your hands out whilst saying the whole of the Lords prayer (Our Father, who art in Heaven...), doing the 'Hail Mary' and then lots of others. I did a sneaky timing of it on my watch one morning at breakfast and prayer took 4.27 minutes. Morning prayer is the longest one and at other prayer times it probably lasts about 2 minutes but we do it before and after every meal, a quick one before we leave the house for meals, when we get back to the house after the meal and before bed. This is on top of going to church 5 days a week (since opting out of going to church in the morning with the hermanas too) and having to hear things like 'Did you sacrifice yourself and have your hands and feet nailed to a cross? Exactly, no.' and when the boys are naughty, 'Do you want to get into Heaven?'. I'm even tempted to try out the 'What would Jesus do?' seen as though using religion seems to be the best way to get them to do things, sort of like blackmail. It also doesn't help living in an apartment attached to the back of the church as even though we don't go to church in the morning, we can still hear it from our room, and it means that we also get to hear them practicing the church songs everyday which seems to always be during our free time or at night.
The Boys
I feel like little by little I am making more of an impact on the boys here. For one I taught them all how by putting a bit of thick grass between their thumbs and blowing, it makes a noise like a duck. A skill which they can keep with them forever. I also taught them how to pretend to cut their thumb in half so that it looks like the two halves are separate. They love it! Another thing I thought i'd teach them was to play 'Bulldogs Charge'. Maybe not my best idea as I can now remember why it got banned in my primary school. They seem to have adapted the rules from just tagging someone, to having to swing them by their necks to the ground. No accidents yet but it's nothing worse than how they play or fight anyway, this time it just has rules. I love how here the boys are free to play with big metal poles, pieces of wire, huge wooden sticks etc and no-one says a thing. Health and safety is riduculous in England so it's nice to see the boys playing with whatever they find, and if someone gets hurt, so what. They're boys and are going to get hurt anyway. That's how they learn what to do and what not to do. One of the boys, Jean Pierre, last week asked me when i'm staying until (for about the 5th time), then when I said July he asked me whether I planned on coming back to visit once I'd left because he wants me to. This is one of the boys who hardly talked to me in the first 6 weeks or so and now he's saying things like this, always asking me about my home life and wanting me to help him with homework. I am definately noticing changes in the boys towards me which is nice. There were 3 boys in my house at the start that i'll be honest, I really didn't like. Then there was one boy who I thought was the cutest boy in the whole house. Now, 10 weeks in, I don't find him the slightest bit cute as he is such a troublemaker, yet out of the three boys I really didn't like at the start, two of them I am probably closer to than most of them. And the boys who I didn't think were cute at all to start with, now i've gotten to know them, they're absolutely the most gorgeous boys and just want to squeeze their faces whenever I see them. I've had my doubts and obviously still have my doubts about this project but I do understand what Samina was on about by saying it would be a waste to change projects now when i've gotten so far with the boys here.
Travels
51 days until Christmas Day and our travels begin! In Pariwana we met lots of people who had worked in the Loki hostal in Mancora where we're staying for New Year and it sounds absolutely amazing. Apparently people only go there to relax, surf and party! Plus all of us girls are meeting there so I literally cannot wait! I mentioned everything else that we're doing in my last blog but there is now more...my Mum and Dad are coming to visit!! So the day Hannah and I get back from travelling up North, I will be meeting my parents and heading down South to firstly Arequipa, Lake Titicaca and then Cusco to do Machu Picchu and the Cusco 120m bungee jump! I'm so excited to see them and we are counting down the days!
It's been 16 days since I last purposefully cracked my knuckles! Not so great when I see the boys copying me and cracking so it had to stop.
El Aniversario
This was a couple of Sundays ago and was Ciudad's 56th anniversary. There were stands set up all down the main street of ciudad with each house selling one type of food, then Ciudad selling all the products that they make here like shoes, bread, cakes etc. At 12pm there was Mass which was absolutely packed, i've never seen a church so full. Then we had lunch where i chose Pachamanca which is basically pork and potatoes all cooked underground which was really nice apart from that everyone else that ate it was ill for a few days after. Not so sure why I wasn't ill too. Then at 3pm there was a show where each house did a dance. Nino Jesus did such a cute dance where they all wore suits and sunglasses. My house, Sonrisa, did a traditional dance so were all wearing traditional outfits and dancing to flutey music. but obviously the highlight of the event was the volunteers dance. There are 9 of us here so we ended up starting off with Glee's Don't Stop Believing, then the three boys learnt the dance to Beyonce's Single Ladies (which was hilarious) then for the finale, we did a rendition of Titanic's My Heart Will Go On seen as the boys here seem to love that song. Slightly embarassing but over all it was just funny and people seemed to enjoy it.
 |
| My boys ready to go on. |
Halloween
Due to it being Halloween on Monday the boys had Monday and Tuesday off school (why don't we get that in England?) which meant that instead of coming back from their salida on Sunday like they normally do, they came back at 3pm on Tuesday so we got Sat-Tue off. Lauren, Hannah's friend from home who is working in Arequipa, decided that she would come up for the weekend so we all went to stay in Pariwana, a hostal in Miraflores half an hour away from here. Far enough away that we can be ourselves without the religious eyes judging us for wanting to have a drink and just sit around getting a tan. It seems to have become our home away from home when we just need to escape. We spent Saturday looking around the Mercado Indio which has all the touristy style clothes and bags etc. I ended up getting an alpaca wool jumper, some reggae style Peruvian trousers and an alpaca wool hat. So when I wear them all together I'm a 'Twat in a Hat' according to Hannah. I actually miss the insults that get thrown between friends in England and just general English banter. No-one here really gets that when we call each other 'oy dickhead' that it's a term of affection. Atleast Hannah makes up for it with her own range. I have to admire her for that. It was so good staying in Pariwana again. Everyone that stays there is a traveller so everyone has good stories, advice and is there to actually have a good time, which we made sure we did. There were 6 Irish people and two Aussie guys that we spent most of the time with and they were all hilarious. One of the Australian's actually looked like Jesus so the two lives that we seem to lead here may have crossed over a little bit. We decided to all dress up for halloween as there was a party at the hostal. The Irish went as Greeks and as we hadn't really thought about it until 7pm that night we just ended up borrowing red paint from the guys, facepaint from the Irish and cutting up our own clothes and covering them in 'blood'. Gutted I didn't win the first prize of a free night and bottle of vodka after all that effort. Turned out to be a really good night though and lets just say, after not drinking much for 10 weeks, nights out are a lot cheaper.
 |
| Us with Joel and Jesus. |
Religion
"Evie, you need to fold the clothes neater because they're the clothes of Jesus Christ."
This is the one line that was said to me last week and I haven't been able to get it out of my head as I was just that stunned at how deep their beliefs seem to go. I have to admit, I think i'm going slightly crazy with being surrounded by religion 24hrs a day, feeling like we're being pitied because we don't believe in God. We pray around 12x a day, and prayer here isn't a quick one. It means holding your hands out whilst saying the whole of the Lords prayer (Our Father, who art in Heaven...), doing the 'Hail Mary' and then lots of others. I did a sneaky timing of it on my watch one morning at breakfast and prayer took 4.27 minutes. Morning prayer is the longest one and at other prayer times it probably lasts about 2 minutes but we do it before and after every meal, a quick one before we leave the house for meals, when we get back to the house after the meal and before bed. This is on top of going to church 5 days a week (since opting out of going to church in the morning with the hermanas too) and having to hear things like 'Did you sacrifice yourself and have your hands and feet nailed to a cross? Exactly, no.' and when the boys are naughty, 'Do you want to get into Heaven?'. I'm even tempted to try out the 'What would Jesus do?' seen as though using religion seems to be the best way to get them to do things, sort of like blackmail. It also doesn't help living in an apartment attached to the back of the church as even though we don't go to church in the morning, we can still hear it from our room, and it means that we also get to hear them practicing the church songs everyday which seems to always be during our free time or at night.
The Boys
I feel like little by little I am making more of an impact on the boys here. For one I taught them all how by putting a bit of thick grass between their thumbs and blowing, it makes a noise like a duck. A skill which they can keep with them forever. I also taught them how to pretend to cut their thumb in half so that it looks like the two halves are separate. They love it! Another thing I thought i'd teach them was to play 'Bulldogs Charge'. Maybe not my best idea as I can now remember why it got banned in my primary school. They seem to have adapted the rules from just tagging someone, to having to swing them by their necks to the ground. No accidents yet but it's nothing worse than how they play or fight anyway, this time it just has rules. I love how here the boys are free to play with big metal poles, pieces of wire, huge wooden sticks etc and no-one says a thing. Health and safety is riduculous in England so it's nice to see the boys playing with whatever they find, and if someone gets hurt, so what. They're boys and are going to get hurt anyway. That's how they learn what to do and what not to do. One of the boys, Jean Pierre, last week asked me when i'm staying until (for about the 5th time), then when I said July he asked me whether I planned on coming back to visit once I'd left because he wants me to. This is one of the boys who hardly talked to me in the first 6 weeks or so and now he's saying things like this, always asking me about my home life and wanting me to help him with homework. I am definately noticing changes in the boys towards me which is nice. There were 3 boys in my house at the start that i'll be honest, I really didn't like. Then there was one boy who I thought was the cutest boy in the whole house. Now, 10 weeks in, I don't find him the slightest bit cute as he is such a troublemaker, yet out of the three boys I really didn't like at the start, two of them I am probably closer to than most of them. And the boys who I didn't think were cute at all to start with, now i've gotten to know them, they're absolutely the most gorgeous boys and just want to squeeze their faces whenever I see them. I've had my doubts and obviously still have my doubts about this project but I do understand what Samina was on about by saying it would be a waste to change projects now when i've gotten so far with the boys here.
 |
| Alex and Jean Pierre |
Travels
51 days until Christmas Day and our travels begin! In Pariwana we met lots of people who had worked in the Loki hostal in Mancora where we're staying for New Year and it sounds absolutely amazing. Apparently people only go there to relax, surf and party! Plus all of us girls are meeting there so I literally cannot wait! I mentioned everything else that we're doing in my last blog but there is now more...my Mum and Dad are coming to visit!! So the day Hannah and I get back from travelling up North, I will be meeting my parents and heading down South to firstly Arequipa, Lake Titicaca and then Cusco to do Machu Picchu and the Cusco 120m bungee jump! I'm so excited to see them and we are counting down the days!
It's been 16 days since I last purposefully cracked my knuckles! Not so great when I see the boys copying me and cracking so it had to stop.
Friday, 28 October 2011
This needs documenting.
I haven't got much to say so I wouldn't exactly call this a blog post. I just have a few things that I felt needed documenting.
- I haven't purposefully cracked my fingers in 8 whole days! For those of you who know me (or have met me even just once), you'll know how often I crack them and this is the longest i've gone in 8 years without cracking! Hannah says I crack in my sleep but that doesn't count and just comes with shouting at her in my sleep.
- This is currently my 9th week here and I have already finished 3 full sized books! (It normally takes me 3 months to read just one book).
- I can pretty much recite the whole of the Lord's Prayer in Spanish, even though I only know half of it in English.
Obviously a changed woman!
- I haven't purposefully cracked my fingers in 8 whole days! For those of you who know me (or have met me even just once), you'll know how often I crack them and this is the longest i've gone in 8 years without cracking! Hannah says I crack in my sleep but that doesn't count and just comes with shouting at her in my sleep.
- This is currently my 9th week here and I have already finished 3 full sized books! (It normally takes me 3 months to read just one book).
- I can pretty much recite the whole of the Lord's Prayer in Spanish, even though I only know half of it in English.
Obviously a changed woman!
Monday, 17 October 2011
7 weeks in.
Officially now the longest time i've ever been away from home. I can't believe how fast it's going!
Just a quick note to anyone planning on sending me a letter/parcel (much appreciated), please write Evelyn, NOT Evie. Just incase it doesn't get all the way to me and I have to pick it up from the post office, the name needs to match my passport name.
Things i have started to miss:
- Carpets. They don't seem to exist here and i'm sick of slipping around on our floors or having to wear shoes inside.
- Greenery. Grass, fields, countryside, castle hill etc. It's all dust and crap lying on streets here.
- A proper English brew. The powdered milk kind just doesn't cut it.
- My duvet. Or any duvet in general. I get cold when i sleep and having 4 blankets just takes the p*ss.
- Hugs. Big bear hugs, not just the little quick hugs when we give la paz (the peace) in church.
- Clothes. 29.5kg of clothes is no-where near enough. I often daydream about the clothes i left at home.
- Itunes. I miss being able to update the songs on my ipod and put CD's on it whenever i like.
- X Factor. Especially seen as though Ashford has been in the live shows this year! We're managing to get our weekly fixes via youtube though.
- Simply knowing that i'm not going to Snowbombing festival next year. It depresses me everytime I think about it and I don't even want to know how i'm going to be feeling the week that it's on!
- Tap Water. Buying bottled water seems like a waste of money so i've been going for boiling tap water and drinking it yellow. Clean, but tasty not so much.
- Dishwashers. I don't so much mind washing up 30 plates, bowls, spoons and cups every lunchtime but that, mixed with cleaning the house every day has left my hands so, so dry.
Life in Familia Sonrisa Franciscana
Life in Sonrisa hasn't really changed too much since my last post. I have gotten more into a routine being here though and i know the majority of my jobs now rather than waiting to be told what to do. My main jobs include: cleaning the classroom, outdoor areas and zapateria, hurrying the boys up and handing out the fruit before school, setting up for lunch and washing up after, helping Gerrado, Moises, Ivan and Elias with their homework (or if they've finished or don't have any, then helping whoever needs it), counting up and taking the day's load of clothes to the on-site lavanderia, getting the boys in and out of the shower as fast as possible (quickest time - 8 minutes 56 seconds for 14 boys, they seem to go faster knowing i'm timing it on my watch and they always want to beat yesterday's time), and just general looking after and playing with them. I'm loving spending time with the boys even more now. My Spanish is slowly improving so i feel as though i'm gaining a bit more authority with them and can just sit and chat to some. It's the little things that i'm noticing that make me feel like i'm getting to know them better. There's one boy called Alex who is an absolute favourite. Normally when i leave for the night i say good night to a few of the boys and that's about it. But, the last few days he has taken to seeking me out for a hug and to say "hasta manana hermana". It sounds like nothing as all he is saying is "see you tomorrow sister", but none of the boys have done that before and it's so nice having that from him. The only bad thing is that he's 9 and the oldest boy in the house, which means that he's moving to San Antonio in February. He's reassured me that he'll still come and say hi to me everyday though which is good.
I was quite looking forward to last week as the boys were off school due to the teachers being on a religious retreat in Tanca, on the borders of Chile. They seem to have had quite a few days off since i've been here from the teachers being on retreats or from the boys having chicken pox. But it generally means that the hermanas are more relaxed as they don't have a strict routine of get the boys to school, back in time for lunch, homework etc. So normally a week off for them would've meant more work for me, but also more time to play with the boys and just generally get to know them better. However, on Monday, Hannah and I went to Lince to pick up a package i received from home and decided to have Ceviche (raw fish marinated in Lime and Chile which was really nice compared to the first time i tried it!) from a little cafe on the street. Definately a bad move and i won't go into details but this was 4 days ago and both mine and Hannah's stomachs haven't been right since. Therefore meaning i've been off work the last 3 days and missed a magic show, extra playing time, more chicken foot soup (not a bad thing) etc. I did manage to watch the Peru vs. Chile match with them on Monday night though which was fun. Lots of cheering when Peru scored, even though they lost 4-2 in the end.
Staff wise in our house, things are a little strange. Laura (the other volunteer) and I work with 3 hermanas in Sonrisa who, as nice as they are when they talk to us, don't talk to us very much, even to the point that on my first day, the only time they spoke to me was when Hugo sat me next to one of them at breakfast. It would be fine, but the hermanas in Hannah's house are always asking her how she is and even whilst we've been ill these last few days, they both came round to the apartment the other night to check on her. I was just hoping that there would be at least one woman that i'd be working with that I could see as a sort of a mother figure here for hugs and reassurances etc, but so far it looks like Hannah's going to have to be my mother figure for the year!
Travelling / Time Off
As i mentioned in my last blog, we finally managed to have our meeting with Hugo about time off. It was actually a really nice chat where he'd asked how everything was going in general and how we were getting on, and also organised for us all to have Pepsi and biscuits. I'm definately glad he's the director here as firstly he can speak fluent English so it's easy to talk to him about any problems we're having and he's just in general a really nice guy and sort of a father figure here. He also said that he would talk to the hermanas of our houses because Hannah and I were the only volunteers that were still expected to work weekends when everyone else had it off. So now, our free time has gone from half days on Saturday and Sunday to a full day Saturday and until 5.40pm on Sundays which is great. We spent our first full Saturday off having a BBQ with all 9 of the volunteers - Hannah and me from PT, Laura and Christoff from the Red Cross in Germany, Tania, Jeanette, Laura, Michael and Ryan from Cap Corps in America. It was the first time we'd all been able to sit down together and just relax which was nice. At the meeting, we also discussed holiday time which will be 3 weeks over Christmas (25th Dec - 15th Jan), a week or two in May for a Visa run and around a month before we come home at the end of the year. The boys don't actually come back to Ciudad until mid-February but we're going to come back to help the staff with organising the new boys that will come and then staff orientation which is a couple of weeks from the start of February.
Since finding out our general times for travelling, Hannah and I have been organising where we want to go and visit, so our schedule so far looks like this: Christmas day - leave Ciudad and head to Miraflores in Lima to spend the rest of Christmas Day and night with Shannon and Kirsty (2 PT volunteers in Pucallpa, Peru). Boxing day we travel up to Trujillo for a couple of days, then on up to Chiclayo for a couple of days and then hopefully arrive in Mancora in the North to spend New Year with i think all of the PT girls in Peru. I really can't wait to start travelling and to see all of the other girls again. Especially in Mancora as it is supposed to be a touristy beach town which is exactly what we're all looking for for New Year! After Mancora we're looking at heading up into Ecuador for around 5 days, then travelling back down through the jungle to be back in Lima for the 15th of January. As for our visa run and end of year travelling we obviously haven't given much thought to that yet as it's so far away!
Other general things that have happened:
- I got my first bite. I thought it was a mosquito bite but we're still not sure as it stung quite a lot and didn't itch, then it swelled up (which my mosquito bites never do) and when it was healing it started peeling. All very interesting, i know.
- We've managed to make our apartment look a bit more homely since we arrived. We spent one day moving all of the furniture around, changing shelves with some that weren't being used downstairs and we swapped one of our desks for the table from Christoff's room. We put up a couple of posters too, one of Peru and one of South America to help with planning our travelling. We could still do with a few other things to make it look like home but we're getting there. A carpet would be the best thing we could get!
- About 3 weekends ago i met up with my friend Charlotte in Barranco for the afternoon. We went to Malaysia together for a month in 2009 with World Challenge, but she lives in London so we hardly ever see each other in the UK, so it was such a coincidence we were within 20 minutes of each other in Peru!
- We finally used the raffle prize that i mentioned about in my last blog. Hannah, Laura, Christoff and I went to Chorrillos to El Hornero restaurant. I expected something nice but not what we got. It was the poshest restaurant i've seen in Peru! Our raffle prize was a mixed grill, chips, salad and sangria for two people. I've never seen so much food! It could have definately fed all four of us. The mixed grill consisted of; two big fat medium rare steaks, chicken breast, pork fillet, black pudding sausage, cumberland sausage, two beef hear skewers and beef kidney. It was the most amazing meal i've ever had in my life and the best bit was the beef heart! Never thought i'd say it but i can't wait to eat beef heart again. Plus the Sangria was the best i'd ever had. And it was all free!
As much as we're both loving working with the boys in our houses, there have been more days recently where we've been feeling quite down about the fact that our project is now in Lima rather than Arequipa, in a much smaller, rural project where we were first going to be. It does feel here as though we are working in a well resourced and well funded boarding school, in a job that could easily be in England. It is quite down heartening when for the last 10 years or so i've always known what kind of project i want to do in my gap year, i.e. a really rural, back to basics type project where there is tradition and culture and it would be a novelty for them to have volunteers to come and help. Whereas here, we're in the capital of the country, in a huge city, in a huge project that has volunteers come and go all year round. We have constant internet access from our bedroom which we didn't want as it means we're not 'cut off' from the outside world which we'd wanted. Neither of us brought a laptop for this exact reason but unfortunately Laura brought one, so it's all too tempting when we're bored to just see what's going on back home. It shows how well developed and resourced the project is by one of the jobs that i did last week - inviting 3000 people to Ciudad's 'Aniversario' event from their facebook page. To me it doesn't even feel like we're in Peru, apart from the language. Obviously we're trying to just enjoy what we've been given, but it is difficult knowing that we spent a year raising 5 grand for a project where we don't experience any Peruvian culture and that we could probably be doing in England. But, looking on the bright side - i'm working with some great boys, I get to travel Peru, and even better - it's just an excuse to have another gap year!
Here's just a few more photos from Ciudad.
Just a quick note to anyone planning on sending me a letter/parcel (much appreciated), please write Evelyn, NOT Evie. Just incase it doesn't get all the way to me and I have to pick it up from the post office, the name needs to match my passport name.
Things i have started to miss:
- Carpets. They don't seem to exist here and i'm sick of slipping around on our floors or having to wear shoes inside.
- Greenery. Grass, fields, countryside, castle hill etc. It's all dust and crap lying on streets here.
- A proper English brew. The powdered milk kind just doesn't cut it.
- My duvet. Or any duvet in general. I get cold when i sleep and having 4 blankets just takes the p*ss.
- Hugs. Big bear hugs, not just the little quick hugs when we give la paz (the peace) in church.
- Clothes. 29.5kg of clothes is no-where near enough. I often daydream about the clothes i left at home.
- Itunes. I miss being able to update the songs on my ipod and put CD's on it whenever i like.
- X Factor. Especially seen as though Ashford has been in the live shows this year! We're managing to get our weekly fixes via youtube though.
- Simply knowing that i'm not going to Snowbombing festival next year. It depresses me everytime I think about it and I don't even want to know how i'm going to be feeling the week that it's on!
- Tap Water. Buying bottled water seems like a waste of money so i've been going for boiling tap water and drinking it yellow. Clean, but tasty not so much.
- Dishwashers. I don't so much mind washing up 30 plates, bowls, spoons and cups every lunchtime but that, mixed with cleaning the house every day has left my hands so, so dry.
Life in Familia Sonrisa Franciscana
Life in Sonrisa hasn't really changed too much since my last post. I have gotten more into a routine being here though and i know the majority of my jobs now rather than waiting to be told what to do. My main jobs include: cleaning the classroom, outdoor areas and zapateria, hurrying the boys up and handing out the fruit before school, setting up for lunch and washing up after, helping Gerrado, Moises, Ivan and Elias with their homework (or if they've finished or don't have any, then helping whoever needs it), counting up and taking the day's load of clothes to the on-site lavanderia, getting the boys in and out of the shower as fast as possible (quickest time - 8 minutes 56 seconds for 14 boys, they seem to go faster knowing i'm timing it on my watch and they always want to beat yesterday's time), and just general looking after and playing with them. I'm loving spending time with the boys even more now. My Spanish is slowly improving so i feel as though i'm gaining a bit more authority with them and can just sit and chat to some. It's the little things that i'm noticing that make me feel like i'm getting to know them better. There's one boy called Alex who is an absolute favourite. Normally when i leave for the night i say good night to a few of the boys and that's about it. But, the last few days he has taken to seeking me out for a hug and to say "hasta manana hermana". It sounds like nothing as all he is saying is "see you tomorrow sister", but none of the boys have done that before and it's so nice having that from him. The only bad thing is that he's 9 and the oldest boy in the house, which means that he's moving to San Antonio in February. He's reassured me that he'll still come and say hi to me everyday though which is good.
I was quite looking forward to last week as the boys were off school due to the teachers being on a religious retreat in Tanca, on the borders of Chile. They seem to have had quite a few days off since i've been here from the teachers being on retreats or from the boys having chicken pox. But it generally means that the hermanas are more relaxed as they don't have a strict routine of get the boys to school, back in time for lunch, homework etc. So normally a week off for them would've meant more work for me, but also more time to play with the boys and just generally get to know them better. However, on Monday, Hannah and I went to Lince to pick up a package i received from home and decided to have Ceviche (raw fish marinated in Lime and Chile which was really nice compared to the first time i tried it!) from a little cafe on the street. Definately a bad move and i won't go into details but this was 4 days ago and both mine and Hannah's stomachs haven't been right since. Therefore meaning i've been off work the last 3 days and missed a magic show, extra playing time, more chicken foot soup (not a bad thing) etc. I did manage to watch the Peru vs. Chile match with them on Monday night though which was fun. Lots of cheering when Peru scored, even though they lost 4-2 in the end.
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| Jean Pierre, Andrew, Elias and Brayham |
Staff wise in our house, things are a little strange. Laura (the other volunteer) and I work with 3 hermanas in Sonrisa who, as nice as they are when they talk to us, don't talk to us very much, even to the point that on my first day, the only time they spoke to me was when Hugo sat me next to one of them at breakfast. It would be fine, but the hermanas in Hannah's house are always asking her how she is and even whilst we've been ill these last few days, they both came round to the apartment the other night to check on her. I was just hoping that there would be at least one woman that i'd be working with that I could see as a sort of a mother figure here for hugs and reassurances etc, but so far it looks like Hannah's going to have to be my mother figure for the year!
Travelling / Time Off
As i mentioned in my last blog, we finally managed to have our meeting with Hugo about time off. It was actually a really nice chat where he'd asked how everything was going in general and how we were getting on, and also organised for us all to have Pepsi and biscuits. I'm definately glad he's the director here as firstly he can speak fluent English so it's easy to talk to him about any problems we're having and he's just in general a really nice guy and sort of a father figure here. He also said that he would talk to the hermanas of our houses because Hannah and I were the only volunteers that were still expected to work weekends when everyone else had it off. So now, our free time has gone from half days on Saturday and Sunday to a full day Saturday and until 5.40pm on Sundays which is great. We spent our first full Saturday off having a BBQ with all 9 of the volunteers - Hannah and me from PT, Laura and Christoff from the Red Cross in Germany, Tania, Jeanette, Laura, Michael and Ryan from Cap Corps in America. It was the first time we'd all been able to sit down together and just relax which was nice. At the meeting, we also discussed holiday time which will be 3 weeks over Christmas (25th Dec - 15th Jan), a week or two in May for a Visa run and around a month before we come home at the end of the year. The boys don't actually come back to Ciudad until mid-February but we're going to come back to help the staff with organising the new boys that will come and then staff orientation which is a couple of weeks from the start of February.
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| Jeanette and Hannah Barbequeing Fajitas |
Other general things that have happened:
- I got my first bite. I thought it was a mosquito bite but we're still not sure as it stung quite a lot and didn't itch, then it swelled up (which my mosquito bites never do) and when it was healing it started peeling. All very interesting, i know.
- We've managed to make our apartment look a bit more homely since we arrived. We spent one day moving all of the furniture around, changing shelves with some that weren't being used downstairs and we swapped one of our desks for the table from Christoff's room. We put up a couple of posters too, one of Peru and one of South America to help with planning our travelling. We could still do with a few other things to make it look like home but we're getting there. A carpet would be the best thing we could get!
- About 3 weekends ago i met up with my friend Charlotte in Barranco for the afternoon. We went to Malaysia together for a month in 2009 with World Challenge, but she lives in London so we hardly ever see each other in the UK, so it was such a coincidence we were within 20 minutes of each other in Peru!
- We finally used the raffle prize that i mentioned about in my last blog. Hannah, Laura, Christoff and I went to Chorrillos to El Hornero restaurant. I expected something nice but not what we got. It was the poshest restaurant i've seen in Peru! Our raffle prize was a mixed grill, chips, salad and sangria for two people. I've never seen so much food! It could have definately fed all four of us. The mixed grill consisted of; two big fat medium rare steaks, chicken breast, pork fillet, black pudding sausage, cumberland sausage, two beef hear skewers and beef kidney. It was the most amazing meal i've ever had in my life and the best bit was the beef heart! Never thought i'd say it but i can't wait to eat beef heart again. Plus the Sangria was the best i'd ever had. And it was all free!
As much as we're both loving working with the boys in our houses, there have been more days recently where we've been feeling quite down about the fact that our project is now in Lima rather than Arequipa, in a much smaller, rural project where we were first going to be. It does feel here as though we are working in a well resourced and well funded boarding school, in a job that could easily be in England. It is quite down heartening when for the last 10 years or so i've always known what kind of project i want to do in my gap year, i.e. a really rural, back to basics type project where there is tradition and culture and it would be a novelty for them to have volunteers to come and help. Whereas here, we're in the capital of the country, in a huge city, in a huge project that has volunteers come and go all year round. We have constant internet access from our bedroom which we didn't want as it means we're not 'cut off' from the outside world which we'd wanted. Neither of us brought a laptop for this exact reason but unfortunately Laura brought one, so it's all too tempting when we're bored to just see what's going on back home. It shows how well developed and resourced the project is by one of the jobs that i did last week - inviting 3000 people to Ciudad's 'Aniversario' event from their facebook page. To me it doesn't even feel like we're in Peru, apart from the language. Obviously we're trying to just enjoy what we've been given, but it is difficult knowing that we spent a year raising 5 grand for a project where we don't experience any Peruvian culture and that we could probably be doing in England. But, looking on the bright side - i'm working with some great boys, I get to travel Peru, and even better - it's just an excuse to have another gap year!
Here's just a few more photos from Ciudad.
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| With Andrew, Luis and Elias |
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| Watching the Peru vs. Chile match. |
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| Maribel and the boys |
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| Races up and down the street in Ciudad. |
Sunday, 25 September 2011
A Few Photos of Ciudad
Just thought i'd put up a few pictures of the boys and around Ciudad de los Ninos for those people who can't see my facebook photos.
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| Lima and the grey fog that covers it. |
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| Our Room |
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| The Living Room of our room. |
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| The main street down Ciudad. |
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| The boys at Alabanza |
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| La Capilla |
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| All the Sonrisa boys on the Slovenian volunteers last day. |
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| Sonrisa House |
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| Sonrisa from the other side. |
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| The boys ready for a trip to the zoo. |
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| After the trip to the zoo. |
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
A Very Busy Two Weeks!
There's been so much that has happened in the last two weeks that i have a feeling this is going to be a very long blog so grab a cuppa and make sure you're sitting comfortably.
They've been busy because of a few things: the Ciudad de los Ninos annual Olympics, the 'Xi Te de la Esperanza' which is Ciudad's biggest fundraising event of the year, none of the boys have been to school from last Tuesday until this Monday (i still don't understand the reason why), since then there has been boys still not going to school as there is some form of chicken pox going around, and finally this weekend Hannah and I had our first experience of travelling in Pisco\Ica\Huacachina.
But first, a few interesting facts from the more mundane things we've done:
-We found half of a s/1000 note on the floor on the way to the market! Shame we didn't find the other half as it would've meant 500 soles each, around 125 pounds!
- In the market they sell 'dvds' two for s/5 so we went a bit mad when we first found it and bought: Mean Girls 2, Harry Potter Pt. 2, Bad Teacher, 127 hours, Friends with Benefits, The boy in the Striped Pyjamas, My Sister's Keeper, 21, X-Men, I am Legend, Toy Story 3 and Bridesmaids. And about 90% of them are perfect quality!
- I decided to count how many times here we do the cross sign over our chests and in one day we did it 26 times. We also go to church twice a day but i've opted out of the optional one in the morning as it was getting a bit too much.
- We've gotten to know one of the local fruit sellers as we go so much and she calls us her 'princesas' and always gives us free plantanillas (mini bananas).
- Yesterday we went on a trip with Sonrisa and San Antonio. I was told we were going to a park. 45 minutes later i was thinking this better be a really good park going so far to it and it turned out we were going to a zoo which was great!
The Olympics
The olympics were spread over the weekend and had events like sprints, marathons, long jump and a football tournament. Everyone was split up into four teams - Green (wooo), Blue (booo Hannah's team), Yellow and Red. I wasn't really sure what was going on over the weekend and no-one really told me much about it. All i knew is that Hannah had been going to markets in her breaks with the tutoras from her house, Nino Jesus, and buying supplies like blue paint, smurf outfits etc. So i was assuming that either the Green team was really unprepared or they just didn't need my help organising everything. Turns out it was the latter and when i got there to help set up on Saturday morning they had balloons, whistles, all the boys were smothering themselves head to toe in green paint and some silly person had bought really loud green horns for the boys so i couldn't hear myself think all weekend. To start it all off, all the teams marched their way to the main street down ciudad blowing horns, cheering for their teams and generally just being part of a team and making as much noise as possible. Music was playing really loudly too so the whole thing had a kind of carnival feel to it and even all of the hermanas and hermanos were more relaxed than usual which was nice to see. Even after two weeks of freezing cold weather the sun decided to show it's face for the whole weekend which was so nice. Apart from the fact that no-one had been expecting it so i hadn't worn suncream and therefore burnt my face really badly that it's only just finished peeling (bearing in mind this was two weeks ago!). And i had green stripes of paint on my face so i've just had two white lines on each cheek where i didn't burn since then. Hannah was alright though seen as she was 'Smurfette' and was covered head to toe in either blue clothing or blue paint so didn't burn at all! In the end the blue team won and the green team came last but it was still an amazing weekend.
Xi Te de la Esperanza
This is Ciudad's biggest fundraising event of the year, which meant that all of the volunteers got to go along to help out for the day. This was held in 'The Westin' hotel in San Isidro, one of the districts of Lima about 20 minutes from San Juan. The hotel is the tallest building in the whole of Peru with only 32 floors! San Isidro is like the opposite of San Juan. It's full of business people having lunch and walking around with a purpose to one of the many huge banks or business around. You can see it especially inside the hotel as it's the poshest hotel i've ever seen, literally amazing! The banquet room that we had the event inside was massive. There were fancy tables and chairs to fit 1300 guests with a stage area.
To set up we had to put about 10 leaflets in every persons place so you can imagine how long that took. Some people also helped to set out the raffle prizes and i can say i've never wanted to enter a raffle so badly! The top prizes were things like a bike, microwaves, and flight tickets from Lima to anywhere in South America for 2 people!! I did enter in the end and even asked Hermano Hugo to rig it for us so we could win the flights which we didn't win but we did win a meal out for two in a fancy restaurant in Chorrillos with a mixed grill, chips, salad and sangria so i guess that'll do. When people started arriving we stood on the door to welcome them all in and it was a great chance for people watching. It is so obvious the people in Peru who have money and those who don't. For example about 40% of the women that came had obviously had some form of botched botox or face work done and there was even a woman there who had had some form of Michael Jackson work done to her face as it was like paper white and a little scary. The entertainment for the night was some semi-famous Peruvian band, a must have been very famous older Peruvian singer as when he came on all the women were screaming and there was a rush to the front, Nino Jesus did such a cute dance and also the San Jose boys did a really funny and entertaining dance.
They also had two famous people presenting who were apparently a famous news reader and a woman out of one of the Peruvian soaps. The whole event went really well and Hugo said that he thinks they will have made around 25,000 dollars from it, which only just covers a month's costs in Ciudad! We left at around 10pm and Hugo took us all out for McDonalds, after taking us all for Chifa for lunch (Chinese/Peruvian food) so that was really nice of him.
Pisco/Ica/Huacachina
We found out on thursday last week that the boys would be going on their salida (every fortnight they go home for the weekend) but leaving on Friday at 3pm rather than Saturday which is when they normally leave. This got Hannah thinking so when i got back from work Thursday she told me we were off to Ica and that she'd already settled it with Hugo and Samina back at Project Trust. I wasn't going to complain! So we had a couple of hours to plan it and then Friday at 4pm we got the bus down to Pisco for the night. We stayed in a little hostal called the Hostal de los Inkas which was quite nice (minus the rock hard pillows) and run by a really nice couple who even walked us to where we could get a cheap and safe taxi the next day. There wasn't too much to see in Pisco so we decided to go straight to Huacachina in the morning to go sandboarding! It was definately the right decision as we got to Huacachina at around lunchtime and i can't even explain how amazing it is. It's an oasis in the middle of the desert - a little town surrounding a lake and the whole place is smaller than Ciudad de los Ninos!
We went straight to our hostel to dump our things and get some lunch and i think we chose well hostel wise as this is where all of the other tourists seemed to be staying and it was the first time we'd seen any English people since arriving. We were in a room for 8 people but luckily there was only us two and two Brazilian girls. We booked straight onto a sandboarding tour at 4pm that afternoon and spent the rest of the time until then wandering around the lake and looking at all the little tourists stands. We also rented a peddle boat for 20 minutes and soaked up the sun from the first blue sky that we've seen since arriving! Even when it was hot on the olympics the sky was still covered with the grey fog that never disappears in Lima. For the sandboard tour there was me, Hannah, the two Brazilian girls Ivia and Bruna, two Londoners Katie and David, Ock from Korea and another girl from Toronto, then our instructor who was a bit of a mad man driving around the dunes. It was two hours long and we spent it driving around all of the sand dunes and stopping off at the biggest drops to go sandboarding which was amazing. There were about 6 sandboarding places, then we also stopped at another oasis in the dunes and at the top of one to watch the sunset.
The whole trip was so worth the s/40 that we paid.We got back at around 6.30pm and happy hour started at 7pm so as we were all staying in the same hostel we showered and all met up again at 7pm for happy hour! This meant for me two pisco sours (not as good as everyone makes out) and two cuba libres (rum and coke), and for Hannah four pisco sours. Happy hour finished at 8 though so we all paid and went to find another place where happy hour was still going on. By this time we'd also managed to pick up Adam and Ali, a couple from California who had just started travelling and wanted to get chatting to people. This was lucky for us as Adam paid for the first round and we got the second round free! It was a really good night and good to chat to other people that were travelling and find out where they were all going and where they'd been. On the Sunday we went with Katie and David, the Londoners, into Ica to the bodega 'El Catador' which is where they make pisco. It was a good find from the lonely planet as it was a free tour around the place and then free pisco tasting after and they weren't even stingy with the amount they gave. We had lunch there which was really nice and then we went to get the bus back to Lima and the others went back for another night in Huacahina.
I'm definately tempted to go back to Huacachina again just to see it all again. It's really given us the travel bug though so we've already started thinking about where we want to go next. There's a little place called Chincha about 3 hours south that we're thinking of doing one weekend as apparently it's really chilled out, has an afro-peruvian culture and everyone has dreadlocks so that sounds good. We've been trying to organise a meeting with Hugo for the last couple of weeks to sort out our holiday time so that we can start planning and booking things but with the whole manana manana attitude here it keeps getting put back. Like we were supposed to have it last Monday, then it got moved to Tuesday which was yesterday and now it's been moved to next Monday. But atleast this time we've settled on a time so it's a bit more formal and hopefully it'll happen!
I think i've written about most of the interesting things that have happened. Apart from that one of the hermanas, Elsa, in my house has been ill since i arrived so i never met her until yesterday, which also turned out to be her birthday. It's strange having her around now as i'm a bit unsure what i'm supposed to do as i did a lot of her jobs whilst she was away so i think i'll be doing other things now but we'll see over time.
Anyway this has taken over 2 hours so i'm going to watch a film until my break finishes. I hope everyone's well and that freshers week is kicking off nicely! Remember you can all send me letters etc and maybe even shove a few tetley teabags in there too if you'd like, we're running low!
Adios amigos,
Evie x
They've been busy because of a few things: the Ciudad de los Ninos annual Olympics, the 'Xi Te de la Esperanza' which is Ciudad's biggest fundraising event of the year, none of the boys have been to school from last Tuesday until this Monday (i still don't understand the reason why), since then there has been boys still not going to school as there is some form of chicken pox going around, and finally this weekend Hannah and I had our first experience of travelling in Pisco\Ica\Huacachina.
But first, a few interesting facts from the more mundane things we've done:
-We found half of a s/1000 note on the floor on the way to the market! Shame we didn't find the other half as it would've meant 500 soles each, around 125 pounds!
- In the market they sell 'dvds' two for s/5 so we went a bit mad when we first found it and bought: Mean Girls 2, Harry Potter Pt. 2, Bad Teacher, 127 hours, Friends with Benefits, The boy in the Striped Pyjamas, My Sister's Keeper, 21, X-Men, I am Legend, Toy Story 3 and Bridesmaids. And about 90% of them are perfect quality!
- I decided to count how many times here we do the cross sign over our chests and in one day we did it 26 times. We also go to church twice a day but i've opted out of the optional one in the morning as it was getting a bit too much.
- We've gotten to know one of the local fruit sellers as we go so much and she calls us her 'princesas' and always gives us free plantanillas (mini bananas).
- Yesterday we went on a trip with Sonrisa and San Antonio. I was told we were going to a park. 45 minutes later i was thinking this better be a really good park going so far to it and it turned out we were going to a zoo which was great!
The Olympics
The olympics were spread over the weekend and had events like sprints, marathons, long jump and a football tournament. Everyone was split up into four teams - Green (wooo), Blue (booo Hannah's team), Yellow and Red. I wasn't really sure what was going on over the weekend and no-one really told me much about it. All i knew is that Hannah had been going to markets in her breaks with the tutoras from her house, Nino Jesus, and buying supplies like blue paint, smurf outfits etc. So i was assuming that either the Green team was really unprepared or they just didn't need my help organising everything. Turns out it was the latter and when i got there to help set up on Saturday morning they had balloons, whistles, all the boys were smothering themselves head to toe in green paint and some silly person had bought really loud green horns for the boys so i couldn't hear myself think all weekend. To start it all off, all the teams marched their way to the main street down ciudad blowing horns, cheering for their teams and generally just being part of a team and making as much noise as possible. Music was playing really loudly too so the whole thing had a kind of carnival feel to it and even all of the hermanas and hermanos were more relaxed than usual which was nice to see. Even after two weeks of freezing cold weather the sun decided to show it's face for the whole weekend which was so nice. Apart from the fact that no-one had been expecting it so i hadn't worn suncream and therefore burnt my face really badly that it's only just finished peeling (bearing in mind this was two weeks ago!). And i had green stripes of paint on my face so i've just had two white lines on each cheek where i didn't burn since then. Hannah was alright though seen as she was 'Smurfette' and was covered head to toe in either blue clothing or blue paint so didn't burn at all! In the end the blue team won and the green team came last but it was still an amazing weekend.Xi Te de la Esperanza
This is Ciudad's biggest fundraising event of the year, which meant that all of the volunteers got to go along to help out for the day. This was held in 'The Westin' hotel in San Isidro, one of the districts of Lima about 20 minutes from San Juan. The hotel is the tallest building in the whole of Peru with only 32 floors! San Isidro is like the opposite of San Juan. It's full of business people having lunch and walking around with a purpose to one of the many huge banks or business around. You can see it especially inside the hotel as it's the poshest hotel i've ever seen, literally amazing! The banquet room that we had the event inside was massive. There were fancy tables and chairs to fit 1300 guests with a stage area.
To set up we had to put about 10 leaflets in every persons place so you can imagine how long that took. Some people also helped to set out the raffle prizes and i can say i've never wanted to enter a raffle so badly! The top prizes were things like a bike, microwaves, and flight tickets from Lima to anywhere in South America for 2 people!! I did enter in the end and even asked Hermano Hugo to rig it for us so we could win the flights which we didn't win but we did win a meal out for two in a fancy restaurant in Chorrillos with a mixed grill, chips, salad and sangria so i guess that'll do. When people started arriving we stood on the door to welcome them all in and it was a great chance for people watching. It is so obvious the people in Peru who have money and those who don't. For example about 40% of the women that came had obviously had some form of botched botox or face work done and there was even a woman there who had had some form of Michael Jackson work done to her face as it was like paper white and a little scary. The entertainment for the night was some semi-famous Peruvian band, a must have been very famous older Peruvian singer as when he came on all the women were screaming and there was a rush to the front, Nino Jesus did such a cute dance and also the San Jose boys did a really funny and entertaining dance.
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| The San Jose Boys |
Pisco/Ica/Huacachina
We found out on thursday last week that the boys would be going on their salida (every fortnight they go home for the weekend) but leaving on Friday at 3pm rather than Saturday which is when they normally leave. This got Hannah thinking so when i got back from work Thursday she told me we were off to Ica and that she'd already settled it with Hugo and Samina back at Project Trust. I wasn't going to complain! So we had a couple of hours to plan it and then Friday at 4pm we got the bus down to Pisco for the night. We stayed in a little hostal called the Hostal de los Inkas which was quite nice (minus the rock hard pillows) and run by a really nice couple who even walked us to where we could get a cheap and safe taxi the next day. There wasn't too much to see in Pisco so we decided to go straight to Huacachina in the morning to go sandboarding! It was definately the right decision as we got to Huacachina at around lunchtime and i can't even explain how amazing it is. It's an oasis in the middle of the desert - a little town surrounding a lake and the whole place is smaller than Ciudad de los Ninos!
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| This picture still doesn't do it justice. |
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| Me on the dunes. |
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| Hannah and Me on the dunes. |
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| Pisco Tasting in El Catador |
I think i've written about most of the interesting things that have happened. Apart from that one of the hermanas, Elsa, in my house has been ill since i arrived so i never met her until yesterday, which also turned out to be her birthday. It's strange having her around now as i'm a bit unsure what i'm supposed to do as i did a lot of her jobs whilst she was away so i think i'll be doing other things now but we'll see over time.
Anyway this has taken over 2 hours so i'm going to watch a film until my break finishes. I hope everyone's well and that freshers week is kicking off nicely! Remember you can all send me letters etc and maybe even shove a few tetley teabags in there too if you'd like, we're running low!
Adios amigos,
Evie x
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Week One & Mine and Moffy's Birthday!
Hola todos!
Firstly, here is my address for all those people who fancy sending me lovely letters or parcels! (Wink Wink)
Evelyn Oldfield (Please write Evelyn NOT Evie, it needs to match the name on my passport!)
Av. Pedro Miotta 180
San Juan de Miraflores
Lima, Peru
But, don´t write Ciudad de los Ninos anywhere on it or it won´t get here!
So, I don´t really know where to start this as i have to much to say so i think i´ll start with arriving in Lima. We had a bit of a panic in Miami airport. There are 12 of us girls and we´d all managed to get from London to Miami without any problems until it came to going through customs. Hannah, my partner, is an American resident so she had to go through a different part to the rest of us and because we all left our phones at home there was no way of contacting her. Typically, there ended up being a problem with her going through as she hadn´t lived in America for 6 months so ended up being sat in an immigration room for ages whilst we all waited for her to come through the exit gate. It got to about an hour before boarding and we´d rung Project Trust to see what they thought we should do and they said we all just needed to go through and hope she´d make her way there. Luckily it got to about 20 minutes before flying and we saw Hannah running towards the departure gate, shoes in hand after being searched. So luckily we all managed to get the same plane and arrived in Lima Friday night around 10pm, 4am UK time so we were all shattered. We spent Saturday sorting out our documents with the British Chamber and getting our Peru sim cards then just chilled out on the balcony of the hostel for happy hour for the rest of the night. Sunday morning at 6am Hannah and I got our taxi to Ciudad de los Ninos to see our new home for the year!
We arrived at Ciudad at 6.30am and breakfast was at 7am with the boys. It was quite full on as we were immediately told which houses we´re working with (Me - Sonrisa Fransiscana ages 7-9, Hannah - Nino Jesus ages 3-6) and then were sent to sit with them through breakfast and spend our first two hours with them. The rest of the day was spent with Hermano Hugo, the main monk of Ciudad, giving us a grand tour of the place (it´s HUGE), and then just unpacking and settling in.
The layout of Ciudad is that there are 9 different houses, each with about 25-30 boys in and all of different age groups. There´s lots of other bits too so i get why it´s called a ciudad (city). E.g. a barbershop, pig and chicken farm (or not chickens anymore as they just killed 400 of them to feed everyone!), shoe workshop, church, ampitheatre, dining hall, tuckshop, school, lavanderia (just a woman handwashing everyone´s clothes), office, and the volunteers apartments where we stay, attached to the back of the church. We also found out that next Saturday there´s going to be a German girl coming to stay for a year too, and as we´re in a room with 6 beds (3 bunkbeds) she´ll be staying with us, and working in Sonrisa with me, so i just hope she´s nice!
Anyway, people have been asking what i do so from only a week i think i´ve got the daily routine down so it´s something like this -
5.15 - wake up to be at Sonrisa for 6am
6am - wake the boys up and throw soapy water all over the floors to speed them up and for cleaning later
6.30am - breakfast with everyone in the comedor (two bread rolls and some form of hot drink)
7am - back to Sonrisa for the hour of cleaning. This included brushing soapy water around all the floors (there are no carpets anywhere) then brushing it out of the house, then following it round with a trapo (wooden stick with a rag on the end to soak up the water), then wiping surfaces and sweeping water into the gutters outside. It´s like a spring clean every morning!
8am - Church
9 til 9.30am - English classes with a couple of the hermanas. We´ve only done one so far but i think this is going to become regular as they´re so keen to learn English!
9.30am til 1.15pm - break which we usually spend sleeping or watching a film or going to the little market a 10 minute walk away.
1.15pm - set up for lunch at 1.45 then do all the washing up and drying after. Lunch is normally soup, then rice, lentils or beans with some form of meat or veg or sauce. I don´t normally know what it is but i think that´s best as i found out we ate liver the other day!
2.30 til 5.30ish - I´m not sure of what exactly happens this time but it´s normally a couple of hours of homework and the rest spent playing football or some form of getting rid of the kids energy so they don´t fight quite so much. I´ve already been accidently punched a couple of times breaking up fights!
6pm ish - Tea (a smaller version of the same meal we had for lunch)
7pm - Church again but this time with all the kids and it´s more like just singing and dancing so it´s quite fun really.
8pm - Depending on what jobs there are left to do i´m normally back at the apartment for this time and in bed and asleep by 8.30 or 9ish. I´ve not gone to bed later than 9.30pm yet.
It´s definately hard work and i´ve never worked this hard in my life but it´s definately more fun than sitting behind a desk!! Yesterday was a proud moment as i managed to learn the last of the 24 boys names in my house! It definately helps knowing their name when i need them to do something like get out of the shower cos they´ve been in there for ages! The boys here are so respectful though! It doesn´t matter who i walk past in Ciudad, whether it´s a little boy or one of the 18yr olds or monks, every one of them says "Hermana, buenas dias" (Sister, good morning). We definately wouldn´t get that in England! It´s also strange being called sister. Although i always knew i had nun like qualities! The language barrier is quite difficult as they speak so fast so it´s hard to know what i should be doing at times but the two hermanas (sisters) that i work with are nice so on the rare occassions they talk to me, they try to explain more than once. With the kids it´s not so bad as i can just say si or no or just nod and they´re happy with that response! It did help though that when i arrived there were already 3 Slovenian volunteers working in Sonrisa who could explain everthing to me that i needed to do, seen as the hermanas didn't really tell me much. Although they left yesterday so we´ll see if i can get along without them until the German volunteer comes next week! It´s also really useful having Tania, an American Cap Corps volunteer, here as she has been here for two years and therefore knows the best places to go, what buses to take and just general tips etc. She took us into the market the other day which is a 10 minute walk from Ciudad and introduced us to a couple of the market stall owners that she has gotten to know, then yesterday she took us by bus to Tottus which is a huge shopping market in the middle of a really rural and run down town
Mine and Hannah's 19th Birthday - today!
As today is both mine and Hannah´s 19th birthday we decided to go somewhere new so we took a bus from San Juan to Barranco and have been for lunch to a quite posh looking place (thought we'd treat ourselves) to try Ceviche. It´s raw fish with lime and chilli. I´d heard lots of good things about it from everyone that´d tried it but to be honest i wasn´t too keen. Probably just for the fact that i don´t like spicy food and even though he said it was sin picante (without spice) my mouth was burning! After we'd had lunch and my mouth had settled down we went to an internet cafe to write this blog, and then onto a wooden rooftop bar which looked really nice and chilled out for a couple of drinks. I was planning on trying my first Pisco Sour but the one that we ordered turned out to be some form of pisco sour cocktail - nice but not the real thing. We ended up coming home at about 9pm as i'd been up at 6am for work and were both shattered. It has been a really lovely birthday for both of us though. The only thing that wasn't great is that i worked for 4 hours with all the kids in the morning and as i've only been here a week i didn't want to go around telling them that it was my birthday, and even though one hermana knew, she didn't say anything so it was like no-one knew. And the only 'Happy Birthdays' i got all day were from Hannah and 2 other volunteers. I had expected that but it was still a little disappointing and a shame that my birthday isn't later on when i know the boys and hermanas better. Still, it was a great day spent with Hannah.
This has taken a lot longer than i thought it would but i´ll try and keep it updated every few weeks if i can. I hope everything is well back home and that everyone is excited and ready for going to university!
Hasta pronto!
Evie x
Firstly, here is my address for all those people who fancy sending me lovely letters or parcels! (Wink Wink)
Evelyn Oldfield (Please write Evelyn NOT Evie, it needs to match the name on my passport!)
Av. Pedro Miotta 180
San Juan de Miraflores
Lima, Peru
But, don´t write Ciudad de los Ninos anywhere on it or it won´t get here!
So, I don´t really know where to start this as i have to much to say so i think i´ll start with arriving in Lima. We had a bit of a panic in Miami airport. There are 12 of us girls and we´d all managed to get from London to Miami without any problems until it came to going through customs. Hannah, my partner, is an American resident so she had to go through a different part to the rest of us and because we all left our phones at home there was no way of contacting her. Typically, there ended up being a problem with her going through as she hadn´t lived in America for 6 months so ended up being sat in an immigration room for ages whilst we all waited for her to come through the exit gate. It got to about an hour before boarding and we´d rung Project Trust to see what they thought we should do and they said we all just needed to go through and hope she´d make her way there. Luckily it got to about 20 minutes before flying and we saw Hannah running towards the departure gate, shoes in hand after being searched. So luckily we all managed to get the same plane and arrived in Lima Friday night around 10pm, 4am UK time so we were all shattered. We spent Saturday sorting out our documents with the British Chamber and getting our Peru sim cards then just chilled out on the balcony of the hostel for happy hour for the rest of the night. Sunday morning at 6am Hannah and I got our taxi to Ciudad de los Ninos to see our new home for the year!
We arrived at Ciudad at 6.30am and breakfast was at 7am with the boys. It was quite full on as we were immediately told which houses we´re working with (Me - Sonrisa Fransiscana ages 7-9, Hannah - Nino Jesus ages 3-6) and then were sent to sit with them through breakfast and spend our first two hours with them. The rest of the day was spent with Hermano Hugo, the main monk of Ciudad, giving us a grand tour of the place (it´s HUGE), and then just unpacking and settling in.
The layout of Ciudad is that there are 9 different houses, each with about 25-30 boys in and all of different age groups. There´s lots of other bits too so i get why it´s called a ciudad (city). E.g. a barbershop, pig and chicken farm (or not chickens anymore as they just killed 400 of them to feed everyone!), shoe workshop, church, ampitheatre, dining hall, tuckshop, school, lavanderia (just a woman handwashing everyone´s clothes), office, and the volunteers apartments where we stay, attached to the back of the church. We also found out that next Saturday there´s going to be a German girl coming to stay for a year too, and as we´re in a room with 6 beds (3 bunkbeds) she´ll be staying with us, and working in Sonrisa with me, so i just hope she´s nice!
Anyway, people have been asking what i do so from only a week i think i´ve got the daily routine down so it´s something like this -
5.15 - wake up to be at Sonrisa for 6am
6am - wake the boys up and throw soapy water all over the floors to speed them up and for cleaning later
6.30am - breakfast with everyone in the comedor (two bread rolls and some form of hot drink)
7am - back to Sonrisa for the hour of cleaning. This included brushing soapy water around all the floors (there are no carpets anywhere) then brushing it out of the house, then following it round with a trapo (wooden stick with a rag on the end to soak up the water), then wiping surfaces and sweeping water into the gutters outside. It´s like a spring clean every morning!
8am - Church
9 til 9.30am - English classes with a couple of the hermanas. We´ve only done one so far but i think this is going to become regular as they´re so keen to learn English!
9.30am til 1.15pm - break which we usually spend sleeping or watching a film or going to the little market a 10 minute walk away.
1.15pm - set up for lunch at 1.45 then do all the washing up and drying after. Lunch is normally soup, then rice, lentils or beans with some form of meat or veg or sauce. I don´t normally know what it is but i think that´s best as i found out we ate liver the other day!
2.30 til 5.30ish - I´m not sure of what exactly happens this time but it´s normally a couple of hours of homework and the rest spent playing football or some form of getting rid of the kids energy so they don´t fight quite so much. I´ve already been accidently punched a couple of times breaking up fights!
6pm ish - Tea (a smaller version of the same meal we had for lunch)
7pm - Church again but this time with all the kids and it´s more like just singing and dancing so it´s quite fun really.
8pm - Depending on what jobs there are left to do i´m normally back at the apartment for this time and in bed and asleep by 8.30 or 9ish. I´ve not gone to bed later than 9.30pm yet.
It´s definately hard work and i´ve never worked this hard in my life but it´s definately more fun than sitting behind a desk!! Yesterday was a proud moment as i managed to learn the last of the 24 boys names in my house! It definately helps knowing their name when i need them to do something like get out of the shower cos they´ve been in there for ages! The boys here are so respectful though! It doesn´t matter who i walk past in Ciudad, whether it´s a little boy or one of the 18yr olds or monks, every one of them says "Hermana, buenas dias" (Sister, good morning). We definately wouldn´t get that in England! It´s also strange being called sister. Although i always knew i had nun like qualities! The language barrier is quite difficult as they speak so fast so it´s hard to know what i should be doing at times but the two hermanas (sisters) that i work with are nice so on the rare occassions they talk to me, they try to explain more than once. With the kids it´s not so bad as i can just say si or no or just nod and they´re happy with that response! It did help though that when i arrived there were already 3 Slovenian volunteers working in Sonrisa who could explain everthing to me that i needed to do, seen as the hermanas didn't really tell me much. Although they left yesterday so we´ll see if i can get along without them until the German volunteer comes next week! It´s also really useful having Tania, an American Cap Corps volunteer, here as she has been here for two years and therefore knows the best places to go, what buses to take and just general tips etc. She took us into the market the other day which is a 10 minute walk from Ciudad and introduced us to a couple of the market stall owners that she has gotten to know, then yesterday she took us by bus to Tottus which is a huge shopping market in the middle of a really rural and run down town
Mine and Hannah's 19th Birthday - today!
As today is both mine and Hannah´s 19th birthday we decided to go somewhere new so we took a bus from San Juan to Barranco and have been for lunch to a quite posh looking place (thought we'd treat ourselves) to try Ceviche. It´s raw fish with lime and chilli. I´d heard lots of good things about it from everyone that´d tried it but to be honest i wasn´t too keen. Probably just for the fact that i don´t like spicy food and even though he said it was sin picante (without spice) my mouth was burning! After we'd had lunch and my mouth had settled down we went to an internet cafe to write this blog, and then onto a wooden rooftop bar which looked really nice and chilled out for a couple of drinks. I was planning on trying my first Pisco Sour but the one that we ordered turned out to be some form of pisco sour cocktail - nice but not the real thing. We ended up coming home at about 9pm as i'd been up at 6am for work and were both shattered. It has been a really lovely birthday for both of us though. The only thing that wasn't great is that i worked for 4 hours with all the kids in the morning and as i've only been here a week i didn't want to go around telling them that it was my birthday, and even though one hermana knew, she didn't say anything so it was like no-one knew. And the only 'Happy Birthdays' i got all day were from Hannah and 2 other volunteers. I had expected that but it was still a little disappointing and a shame that my birthday isn't later on when i know the boys and hermanas better. Still, it was a great day spent with Hannah.
 |
| Birthday Ceviche |
This has taken a lot longer than i thought it would but i´ll try and keep it updated every few weeks if i can. I hope everything is well back home and that everyone is excited and ready for going to university!
Hasta pronto!
Evie x
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