Buenos todos!
Sorry this is quite late... I am still alive and well!
To catch up:
Monica was a lovely bubbly 30 year old peruvian and the perfect guide to the city. We spent The best part of the day eating our way through the centre- she wanted me to try EVERYTHING so empanadas, chorizo, picorrones(fried squash donuts in syrup), cow heart and more were forced down my groggy self, washed down with plenty of Inca Cola, the national pop ( yellow Irn Bru + sugar), while experiencing the fine sights of the capital. It's a prettier city than I had expected, with loads of colonial mansions about and a few well-kept parks and plazas, and loads of policemen- I got a packed minibus home a little too late without a map, and found 3 helpful ones on my way home.
I've been in Trujillo, a city about 9 hours north of Lima (a 9 hour bus ride cost about a tenner, including food, ultra comfy duvet-chairs and newspapers- far nicer than a 9hr AA flight) for just over a week now, and am loving life here. I'm living in the bustly centre, a few minutes' walk from the main square and market, in a flat with 8 other lovely volunteers. When I first arrived I was greeted by an English woman, a Scotswoman and an Irish woman, apparently I was the first to make a joke! These were Ilana, Julie and Veronica, who is the funniest, sauciest, most impressive 66 year old I've ever met. Later that night Zac and Taylor, from Pennsylvania and Chicago, turned up, and in the morning I met Felicia, a Canadian volunteer who has returned 4 years after her gap year here, Ollala from Spain, and Garion, a fellow Brit.
Felt right at home here pretty quickly, it's a great mix of people!
So- this past week I have been finding my feet teaching the kids in the tiny classroom up in the poorest part of the city, Alto Trujillo, which is a 40 minute bone shaking drive away on a custer bus. It's a very run down area, but is very colourful at the moment with huge murals supporting the candidates for Peru's presidential election in April.
Up till march is the Peruvian summer holidays, which are being used to teach the 5-6 year olds the basics they need to join the main school- these aren't kids who have missed any schooling, but a lot of them have missed out on a stimulating home life so benefit hugely from learning basic literacy skills beforehand. A lot of them still won't get into school this year, and some not at all, which means that without the lessons at Bruce they'd grow up totally illiterate, as many of their parents are.
That's in the mornings- in the afternoons and saturdays we take shifts on running a library for all the kids in the area, where they can draw and read and play, or make us draw and read and play- I reckon I could be a Disney illustrator after working here a while!
There are also what I thought were Pregnant Teens' meetings on Tuesdays which has apparently changed considerably since the website started! They are now a group of mainly mother-aged women who mostly already have children and just want to learn to sew etc- there one pregnant one who's due tomorrow, and came today!!
Sorry if that's a bit long winded...
What else.. Spanish is going good! A few funny lost in translation moments- today I was for some reason given 3 meals at lunch, which I didn't complain about!
Loads of awesome people; for Zac's birthday last Thursday we went to a microbrewery with a load of peole Felicia met over Coachsurfing from about 20 different countries. Spent a chilled weekend at huanchaco beach in a mega cheap hostel, really cool crowd, live music and the biggest hamberguesas I've ever seen!
Ok that's me pretty much updated- hope you're all well and please please all stay in touch with fbook skype etc! Love, P