Saturday, 26 July 2008
4 minutes..
Hey everyone! So sorry for the lack of updates, have so much to tell you!! Have been to and from different places and have ended up in Lima for the week as it´s national holiday and the children are of back home for the week! Will try and get an update in soon. Just to let you know we´re still alive and having a super time!!! Lots of lovexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Last minute!
I´m sitting in an internet booth type thing in the middle of a market in peru..this place is crazy! Our internet and phone lines got cut as we had an earthquake tremour at 5 in the morning on the monday!! Just thought i´d quickly post up!! Am of to chiclayo city, in the north of peru for the quinceañera which is on saturday..this time it´s the right date! Am really looking forward to it, i think a break is in need.although i´ve become really attached to everything here! We´ve had a great week. Two more volunteers arrived on the monday so it´s spiced things up. And Becky and me have wondered of on our own to explore different parts which has been so interesting. Arh! I wish i had more time to write in more depth as always, but of course there´s no time. I hope everyone is well!! Mucho amor de peruxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sunday, 13 July 2008
A change of plans..
Ok, so it turns out that we got the dates all mixed up and the quinceañera is next weekend!!!! Although, it was a pretty good job because Becky got ill again on thursday! I ended up in Las Laderas by myself, not knowing what to expect this time I was on my own. But it turned into a fantastic day. Manuel didn´t want me to be on my own, so I stayed in the soup kitchens and helped out there. But before getting started, we all sat down and had a cup of tea and bite to eat and the conversation slowly progressed into Peruvian politics!! I also met a girl called Sophia, a 24 year old from Quebec who´s lovely and speaks to me in Spanish, regardless of the fact that she know´s I can speak English...which is great as it keeps everyone involved! She was telling me about all the places she´s travelled to and that this was her third time in Peru..basically a very interesting girl! Anyway after half an hour, we got to work and I was kept incredibly busy for the rest of the morning. I met Yennie, a 26 year old Peruvian girl, who kept me under her wing for the rest of the morning and made me laugh loads..she filled me in on her ambitions and made me tell her all about england, english boys, english food, music..everything! Afterwards, I helped chop up more veg, peel, wash up, stir, serve..and got to know more of the ladies working there. It felt great working with the people I did, everyone was so open, friendly and easy going.. I felt comfortable and more confident speaking in spanish in no time. After that was over, we ate lunch which overran as we got lost in conversation once again! I came back to the refuge later then normal but felt as if I´d achieved a lot that morning.
Thursday got better and better as once I´d come back to the refuge, I got greeted by four more girls who´d just come for the day in the midst of all their travels. They were all our age and it was so interesting talking to them as they´d been travelling south america and were on their way to argentina and Brazil from then on..they kept filling us in on all their adventures. We had a football match with the kids again and then sat down and all chatted and it turned out Hazel, one of the girls, could sing really well and the kids went crazy when she started singing perdoname by la factoria lol!
Friday bought on a completely different feel as this time when we went to Las Laderas, it was Christine´s last day. So Rosita said she´d take us round Las Laderas to see the places where some of the kids had come from. It was such an emotional morning...just makes me feel sick to think about what we got told and what we saw. Las Laderas slums seem to go on for miles and miles back and back..it´s absolutely huge. And the ´houses´ are in such terrible condition, inside and out. We definitely weren´t expecting it. And it´s even harder as it´s a life which is impossible to comprehend unless you´ve lived that way. I can´t go into a lot of detail as I´ve got to head of now..gr!
Anyway I´ll hopefully get on again at some point this week. Hope everyone is okay, lots of love. Nikixxxxxxxx
Thursday got better and better as once I´d come back to the refuge, I got greeted by four more girls who´d just come for the day in the midst of all their travels. They were all our age and it was so interesting talking to them as they´d been travelling south america and were on their way to argentina and Brazil from then on..they kept filling us in on all their adventures. We had a football match with the kids again and then sat down and all chatted and it turned out Hazel, one of the girls, could sing really well and the kids went crazy when she started singing perdoname by la factoria lol!
Friday bought on a completely different feel as this time when we went to Las Laderas, it was Christine´s last day. So Rosita said she´d take us round Las Laderas to see the places where some of the kids had come from. It was such an emotional morning...just makes me feel sick to think about what we got told and what we saw. Las Laderas slums seem to go on for miles and miles back and back..it´s absolutely huge. And the ´houses´ are in such terrible condition, inside and out. We definitely weren´t expecting it. And it´s even harder as it´s a life which is impossible to comprehend unless you´ve lived that way. I can´t go into a lot of detail as I´ve got to head of now..gr!
Anyway I´ll hopefully get on again at some point this week. Hope everyone is okay, lots of love. Nikixxxxxxxx
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Some photos..!
We´ve just run in from dance class as we got extremely freaked out by the numerous bugs crawling around on the pitch...ewwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! so got a little time to post up some photos! We´ve had an alright day..there was a strike so we couldn´t go to work in las laderas as they said it´d be too dangerous (!)We ended up on the beach in the end as it was really hot day! Anyway, i´ll keep this short and i hope you enjoy the photos!
Bienvenidos!
Becky and me with Diana, Yerson, Rosemery and Preciosa
Me and Rosemery
Brayan refusing to smile!
Cynthia, Lisette and Ketty
Anderson, Anibal and Johan blowing bubbles..
In the garden with Joselyn and Cynthia!
Feliz Cumpleaños a Alex!
La playa!
xxxxxxxxxx
Bienvenidos!
Becky and me with Diana, Yerson, Rosemery and Preciosa
Me and Rosemery
Brayan refusing to smile!
Cynthia, Lisette and Ketty
Anderson, Anibal and Johan blowing bubbles..
In the garden with Joselyn and Cynthia!
Feliz Cumpleaños a Alex!
La playa!
xxxxxxxxxx
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Taking refuge...
Hola!
Well, it´s been practically a week since we´ve been in the refuge now, but naturally it feels like it´s been so much more! It´s taken us a while to get settled.. last tuesday when we came in, we didn´t know what to expect at all! We got greeted by a couple of the girls who came to collect our bags which was surprising but really sweet, and then we met so many children and adults a long the way to our room. Our room is really nice, big cupboards to store 6 weeks worth of stuff, and two small mattresses on the floor where we have to use our sleeping bags. it´s really basic, but spacious and cosy enough, considering it´s not supposed to be luxury! We´re staying in the supposed voluntry quarters although we later got told that the complex, once completed, will be used by the older girls. Our room has an en suite as well (except with no running water damnit!) It was a chilled out day, and we got a running tour of the place ~ it´s really small but nice and colourful. Next to the voluntry quarters there´s the comedor and kitchen and next to that the washing area ~ which is outside, with the boys toilets and showers and then another complex type thing with the girls and boys dorms and stairs up to the roof for hanging out washing. Beyond that there´s an amazing garden with so many flowers and a little bandstand and a football pitch too! We also got told that we were to use the boys toilets and showers ~ although if it was busy or too awful we could use the girls (this was odd but the rules seemed to have got bent as we´ve just gone and used the girls showers etc today cause it´s sooo much nicer!!)..another big difference is that we´re kinda not allowed to flush loo´s (with the exception of number twos lol!!! just imagine becky´s face..says it all!!) Also, at the time we arrived there was no running water...!!!!! We had to wait till thursday until it was possible ~ having to use the method of getting water out of this well in order to flush loos and wash hands lol!
We had a really lovely lunch..lunches here are the big meal of the day, and they tend to have a light dinner of soup or something. The food was amazing!!! Becky disagrees though..bt we had fish, rice and some sort of sweetcorn thing..and that day we were lucky enough to get a taste of Lucy´s (the ´mom´) homemade biscuits..mm! We were expecting it to be pretty easy to interract with the kids, especially aftr getting on with Milagros and Santi so well..But this was a whole different story! Becky and me sat at the dinner table asking questions only to find no response, or really scared faces..!! That night I just remember feeling absolutely lost as we were making so much effort (we played football with them and took part in their music lesson) but there was nothing else we could do to help ourselves or integrate better from what we were doing!
Luckily, it was a one day thing..and the next day we got greeted in the morning by kisses and hugs from the kids who seemed to have got used to us by then. That morning we spent in Las Laderas ~ one of the worstly hit shanty towns. It hit us both quite hard, and again we didn´t really know what to expect. We met Rosita, who used to live on the streets herself, but has now created the soup kitchens out there which feed over 300 in the slums ~ she´s an incredible person! We got introduced to everyone else working there, and also did a bit of chopping and peeling ~ although their speed of doing it put us to shame.. We also experienced a number of crazy Peruvian bus journeys up bumpy hills and stuffed full of people in order to get there! Lucy´s husband, Manuel, took us up and we got into a really interesting conversation with him about the differences in Peru and England and we found out so much about Peru ~ which I guess was of more interest simply because it´s something a guidebook could never tell you.
When we came back, we ended up chatting to the kids more and more and we seemed to have broken through whatever wall there was before and losened up a lot. We ended up having such a laugh, played more football, listened to high school musical track that they´re obsessed with and the boys began to rap regaetton..practically forgot where we were for a while! We got bought down to earth really heavily though that evening, when Christine, a policewoman from England who is staying there, told us about some of the pasts of the children who were there. We´d completely forgotten about all of this whilst talking to the kids ~ not that it´s in the front of our minds but just that these kids have come from places that are so incomprehensible unless you´ve lived that way before..if that makes sense. Becky and me ended up in tears when she was talking to us..it´d been a really crazy day and we knew it´d take a while to adjust to everything here..sometimes it can make you feel completely out of your depth!
Over the last couple of days we´ve had some absolutely crazy, funny, lovely, sad and happy times! We´ve been to and from Las Laderas, helping out in all sorts of random things..of timetable of what we were going out for..we´re not building anymore ~we´re painting instead ~ but there´s still some grueling work involved (luckily mornings only as Manuel insisted we don´t work until 4 as previously suggested). Although there is a routine back here at the refuge for the kids (and us..6.30am breakfast), it´s not stopped us from seeing what Peru really has to offer..and not in the tourist sense. Being with locals makes the biggest difference and we´ve been able to explore different sides of the village we´re in, in a really raw way! We went into Puente Puebla, to see the market and stroll the streets..and it´s just fantastic!!! Can´t even begin to explain how captivating this place can be! Maria Silva visited us on the Sunday just gone, and has invited us to go to the Quinceañera of Waggy´s sister this weekend ~ which we agreed to and I´m so excited!! it´s in a different city, and we´re there from thursday untill monday morning, so it´s like a mini~holiday. I´ll hopefully be able to fill you in on it the next time I write! Quinceañeras are a really big tradition here..it´s considered an entrance into adulthood ~ ish at the age of 15.. and is celebrated all night with in latino party mayhem..only problem is becky and me have absolutely nothing to wear!!! Anyway, it should be a great experience, and we´ve got a lot of time to explore somewhere new!
I have so much more to write and fill you in on..but hardly any time at all. The kids have one lesson until 8.30 and it´s 8.15 now..just wanted to get on before I didn´t get a chance to write properly for a while!! A couple of last bits and bobs...Becky and me were ill yesterday (as was prewarned) and were in bed all day.. I think it was a mixture of not having time to relax properly since coming, and the rough change, a long with some of the kids being ill.. Was funny how it hit us both at the same time! but we´re both fine now, up and energetic. We´re no longer sitting together at mealtimes..we´ve separated so we can get to know all the kids and not be seen as the same person. It´s been really great. I´m sitting with Brayan, who´s the oldest at 13 and he´s so silly..although it´s so difficult to understand what he´s saying half the time as his voice is breaking...which made me realise (call me stupid) that 50% of being fluent in a language is on the basis of understand what people are saying to you (it took him six attempts until i understood the joke he was trying to tell me)!!! And lastly...we´re coping well with cold showers (although they´ve luckily got a boiler system put in now, and we´ve got scrapes of hot water and even more if we plan it right) and even though we´re not in luxury, the weather has been really great, and we´re having an absolute laugh and enjoying every minute which is the main thing hey!?!
Anyway, I best wrap it up here!! I hope everyone´s okay! Will hopefully get another update in next week, after the quinceañera! Take care everyone!!!
Lots of love, niki xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well, it´s been practically a week since we´ve been in the refuge now, but naturally it feels like it´s been so much more! It´s taken us a while to get settled.. last tuesday when we came in, we didn´t know what to expect at all! We got greeted by a couple of the girls who came to collect our bags which was surprising but really sweet, and then we met so many children and adults a long the way to our room. Our room is really nice, big cupboards to store 6 weeks worth of stuff, and two small mattresses on the floor where we have to use our sleeping bags. it´s really basic, but spacious and cosy enough, considering it´s not supposed to be luxury! We´re staying in the supposed voluntry quarters although we later got told that the complex, once completed, will be used by the older girls. Our room has an en suite as well (except with no running water damnit!) It was a chilled out day, and we got a running tour of the place ~ it´s really small but nice and colourful. Next to the voluntry quarters there´s the comedor and kitchen and next to that the washing area ~ which is outside, with the boys toilets and showers and then another complex type thing with the girls and boys dorms and stairs up to the roof for hanging out washing. Beyond that there´s an amazing garden with so many flowers and a little bandstand and a football pitch too! We also got told that we were to use the boys toilets and showers ~ although if it was busy or too awful we could use the girls (this was odd but the rules seemed to have got bent as we´ve just gone and used the girls showers etc today cause it´s sooo much nicer!!)..another big difference is that we´re kinda not allowed to flush loo´s (with the exception of number twos lol!!! just imagine becky´s face..says it all!!) Also, at the time we arrived there was no running water...!!!!! We had to wait till thursday until it was possible ~ having to use the method of getting water out of this well in order to flush loos and wash hands lol!
We had a really lovely lunch..lunches here are the big meal of the day, and they tend to have a light dinner of soup or something. The food was amazing!!! Becky disagrees though..bt we had fish, rice and some sort of sweetcorn thing..and that day we were lucky enough to get a taste of Lucy´s (the ´mom´) homemade biscuits..mm! We were expecting it to be pretty easy to interract with the kids, especially aftr getting on with Milagros and Santi so well..But this was a whole different story! Becky and me sat at the dinner table asking questions only to find no response, or really scared faces..!! That night I just remember feeling absolutely lost as we were making so much effort (we played football with them and took part in their music lesson) but there was nothing else we could do to help ourselves or integrate better from what we were doing!
Luckily, it was a one day thing..and the next day we got greeted in the morning by kisses and hugs from the kids who seemed to have got used to us by then. That morning we spent in Las Laderas ~ one of the worstly hit shanty towns. It hit us both quite hard, and again we didn´t really know what to expect. We met Rosita, who used to live on the streets herself, but has now created the soup kitchens out there which feed over 300 in the slums ~ she´s an incredible person! We got introduced to everyone else working there, and also did a bit of chopping and peeling ~ although their speed of doing it put us to shame.. We also experienced a number of crazy Peruvian bus journeys up bumpy hills and stuffed full of people in order to get there! Lucy´s husband, Manuel, took us up and we got into a really interesting conversation with him about the differences in Peru and England and we found out so much about Peru ~ which I guess was of more interest simply because it´s something a guidebook could never tell you.
When we came back, we ended up chatting to the kids more and more and we seemed to have broken through whatever wall there was before and losened up a lot. We ended up having such a laugh, played more football, listened to high school musical track that they´re obsessed with and the boys began to rap regaetton..practically forgot where we were for a while! We got bought down to earth really heavily though that evening, when Christine, a policewoman from England who is staying there, told us about some of the pasts of the children who were there. We´d completely forgotten about all of this whilst talking to the kids ~ not that it´s in the front of our minds but just that these kids have come from places that are so incomprehensible unless you´ve lived that way before..if that makes sense. Becky and me ended up in tears when she was talking to us..it´d been a really crazy day and we knew it´d take a while to adjust to everything here..sometimes it can make you feel completely out of your depth!
Over the last couple of days we´ve had some absolutely crazy, funny, lovely, sad and happy times! We´ve been to and from Las Laderas, helping out in all sorts of random things..of timetable of what we were going out for..we´re not building anymore ~we´re painting instead ~ but there´s still some grueling work involved (luckily mornings only as Manuel insisted we don´t work until 4 as previously suggested). Although there is a routine back here at the refuge for the kids (and us..6.30am breakfast), it´s not stopped us from seeing what Peru really has to offer..and not in the tourist sense. Being with locals makes the biggest difference and we´ve been able to explore different sides of the village we´re in, in a really raw way! We went into Puente Puebla, to see the market and stroll the streets..and it´s just fantastic!!! Can´t even begin to explain how captivating this place can be! Maria Silva visited us on the Sunday just gone, and has invited us to go to the Quinceañera of Waggy´s sister this weekend ~ which we agreed to and I´m so excited!! it´s in a different city, and we´re there from thursday untill monday morning, so it´s like a mini~holiday. I´ll hopefully be able to fill you in on it the next time I write! Quinceañeras are a really big tradition here..it´s considered an entrance into adulthood ~ ish at the age of 15.. and is celebrated all night with in latino party mayhem..only problem is becky and me have absolutely nothing to wear!!! Anyway, it should be a great experience, and we´ve got a lot of time to explore somewhere new!
I have so much more to write and fill you in on..but hardly any time at all. The kids have one lesson until 8.30 and it´s 8.15 now..just wanted to get on before I didn´t get a chance to write properly for a while!! A couple of last bits and bobs...Becky and me were ill yesterday (as was prewarned) and were in bed all day.. I think it was a mixture of not having time to relax properly since coming, and the rough change, a long with some of the kids being ill.. Was funny how it hit us both at the same time! but we´re both fine now, up and energetic. We´re no longer sitting together at mealtimes..we´ve separated so we can get to know all the kids and not be seen as the same person. It´s been really great. I´m sitting with Brayan, who´s the oldest at 13 and he´s so silly..although it´s so difficult to understand what he´s saying half the time as his voice is breaking...which made me realise (call me stupid) that 50% of being fluent in a language is on the basis of understand what people are saying to you (it took him six attempts until i understood the joke he was trying to tell me)!!! And lastly...we´re coping well with cold showers (although they´ve luckily got a boiler system put in now, and we´ve got scrapes of hot water and even more if we plan it right) and even though we´re not in luxury, the weather has been really great, and we´re having an absolute laugh and enjoying every minute which is the main thing hey!?!
Anyway, I best wrap it up here!! I hope everyone´s okay! Will hopefully get another update in next week, after the quinceañera! Take care everyone!!!
Lots of love, niki xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
bienvenidos a peru......por fin!!!!!!
Hola por fin!!!!
So sorry for the extremely late post! we´ve only just managed to get on the net for a good enough time to write and it´s a good job because the last couple of days since we arrived have been absolutely crazy and there is so much to tell....where to start!!
Hm...Heathrow airport at 8.30am, after a mad rush and a really emotional goodbye, becky and me were finally on our own and on our way to Peru..well Miami! Although, we still got stopped at customs cause Becky forgot to take her deodrant etc out before we got through in typical becky style lol! We were short of time so as soon as we got in, we grabbed some water and got on our lovely planes without many problems. The plane was AMAZING!!!!!! but the novelty of having films etc in front of our seat wore of quickly and so we ended up changing the language settings a hundred times instead!!! The annoying thing was, the plane was an hour late setting of which left us practically no time in Miami for a decent change over....to cut a long story short there was lots of worrying, stress, and panic, in nikibecky fashion, and we nearly missed our flight...although looking back it seems so funny!
Thinking everything was to go smoothly from then on, we relaxed and slept..only to find that luck didnt follow us that far...Becky´s luggage didnt arrive..! Miraculously, we got things sorted and after more stress, we were exhausted and jetlagged, ready to go meet Maria Silva. We went out in arrivals, only to be met by a sea of people, all waiting for someone or other and then finally we saw Maria Silva, holding up a big poster....ah bienvendos
Maria Silva introduced us to Vilmer, the dad of the family who she lives with..he´s peruvian. She went of with Becky to deal with the final luggage business and i went back with Vilmer to the car, and got pushed straight into spanish speaking..which was great! Maria Silva is German, but has lived in England and can speak perfect english and also perfect Spanish now (as she lives in peru, but also had her high school education in spain!) We arrived to her casita, and got introduced to the rest of the family, watching some loca telenovela on the tv. they were all so friendly, and being greeted with a kiss on the cheek and a little hug is so lovely and ice'breaking..she told us to make ourselves at home which we found easy to do. Then Vilmers nephew came in, called Wagner (hm some funny names here..we ended up callin him waggy!) and was too shy to give us un besito which he got stick for!..later we found out he loves to salsa dance and listens to regaetton..good coincidence!! We stayed up a couple more hours talking to everyone, watching silly soaps and finally our jetlag got the better of us and we crashed!! (we never managed to get a shower either as although they were lucky enough to have a hot water boiler..it was scolding!!!!!)
The next day, we woke up after a good nights sleep..but still pretty all over the place. we were hoping to get becky´s luggage today (turns out it was due to the short changeover time, they couldn´t get all the luggage on the plane..but it was in lima finally). the family were chilling out in front of the tv again, so we joined them after a breakfast of fresh bread mm! Four films later, we were still hoping to get the luggage so later on we could go to the refuge. However..the luggage never arrived at our door and after many phone calls and deliberations..we decided to stay another night!! In some ways, it was really frustrating, but the lack of luggage ended up working to our advantage as we had a lovely evening. We couldn´t go into Lima as it was too late, so Wagner gave me a salsa class (!) and we played with Vilmer´s two children, Milagros who is 3 and Santiago who is 2...tan dulces! Was a really fun evening and i feel like we built a lot of bonds with the family that night. Managed to get on the internet that night also, just to check mail etc but we kind of ended up introducing Wagmar to facebook (ahem..becky) and he spent about 3 hours looking at every single one of Beckys photos to her surprise and dismay lol!!! Jugadora is the only word that could spring to his mind!!!
The next day..monday.. was probably the best day. Maria Silva let us spend the morning in the infant school, that she help set up next door to her house and in the afternoon we spent it at the primary school up the road. I think the only way to describe this day is eye opening, as cheesy as it may sound. It was so interesting to participate in the classes and help out, see the differences between the schools over here to those in England, and the way the kids behaved..so many little things! After lunch, we had our first peruvian bus experience with Wagner...! my god, the buses are crazy over here and so bumpy, we had to hold on to each other for our lives lol! but it was good fun..and they played regaetton in them too! I know so many people and guide books who say Lima isn´t the best capital in the world, neither the most attractive...but maybe it was because we went with a local who knew the place well, that made a difference, or i don´t know..something else..but I really liked it! OK there´s no denying it´s not attractive, but it seems to have such a good ambience to it..! After wondering the city streets and squabbling in spanish over sim cards, he took us to the centro comercial and we went for a big exploration. It was the most simplest thing, with solely shops and other things to see, but we ended up having such a laugh and a great time nonetheless! And the churros were delicious!!!
Once we had returned home, Becky´s suitcases had arrived!!!!!!!!!!! Although, I think we were kind of disappointed at that point as we didn´t want to leave! We could have gone that night, but their hospitality and generosity was overwhelming and we didnt want to just leave so suddenly. Although we got an early night that night, we made the most of the next morning until Karina picked us up for the refuge........infact Wagmar´s cousin, Beto (who was nineteen, had grey eyes and was quite hot..although becky is currently disagreeing as she preferred waggy LOL!) came and spoke to us...turns out he´s also a salsa dancer (probably like the majority of peru lol) and a regaetton singer...nice! our confidence in spanish had really picked up by then. Karina finally came, and I surprisingly felt really sad to say bye to Maria Silva and Vilmer´s family but we were feeling ready to finally go to the refuge..the whole point of the trip..and a new adventure in itself.
I´ve spent about an hour writing this all up and the kid´s have nearly finished their homework so I´m running out of time, but I will get on as soon as possible to tell you all about this verrrry different life style! Everything´s fine here nonetheless and I hope you are all well. Am missing you all so much so take care and lots and lots of love.......mucho amor!
p.s we have finally showered!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
So sorry for the extremely late post! we´ve only just managed to get on the net for a good enough time to write and it´s a good job because the last couple of days since we arrived have been absolutely crazy and there is so much to tell....where to start!!
Hm...Heathrow airport at 8.30am, after a mad rush and a really emotional goodbye, becky and me were finally on our own and on our way to Peru..well Miami! Although, we still got stopped at customs cause Becky forgot to take her deodrant etc out before we got through in typical becky style lol! We were short of time so as soon as we got in, we grabbed some water and got on our lovely planes without many problems. The plane was AMAZING!!!!!! but the novelty of having films etc in front of our seat wore of quickly and so we ended up changing the language settings a hundred times instead!!! The annoying thing was, the plane was an hour late setting of which left us practically no time in Miami for a decent change over....to cut a long story short there was lots of worrying, stress, and panic, in nikibecky fashion, and we nearly missed our flight...although looking back it seems so funny!
Thinking everything was to go smoothly from then on, we relaxed and slept..only to find that luck didnt follow us that far...Becky´s luggage didnt arrive..! Miraculously, we got things sorted and after more stress, we were exhausted and jetlagged, ready to go meet Maria Silva. We went out in arrivals, only to be met by a sea of people, all waiting for someone or other and then finally we saw Maria Silva, holding up a big poster....ah bienvendos
Maria Silva introduced us to Vilmer, the dad of the family who she lives with..he´s peruvian. She went of with Becky to deal with the final luggage business and i went back with Vilmer to the car, and got pushed straight into spanish speaking..which was great! Maria Silva is German, but has lived in England and can speak perfect english and also perfect Spanish now (as she lives in peru, but also had her high school education in spain!) We arrived to her casita, and got introduced to the rest of the family, watching some loca telenovela on the tv. they were all so friendly, and being greeted with a kiss on the cheek and a little hug is so lovely and ice'breaking..she told us to make ourselves at home which we found easy to do. Then Vilmers nephew came in, called Wagner (hm some funny names here..we ended up callin him waggy!) and was too shy to give us un besito which he got stick for!..later we found out he loves to salsa dance and listens to regaetton..good coincidence!! We stayed up a couple more hours talking to everyone, watching silly soaps and finally our jetlag got the better of us and we crashed!! (we never managed to get a shower either as although they were lucky enough to have a hot water boiler..it was scolding!!!!!)
The next day, we woke up after a good nights sleep..but still pretty all over the place. we were hoping to get becky´s luggage today (turns out it was due to the short changeover time, they couldn´t get all the luggage on the plane..but it was in lima finally). the family were chilling out in front of the tv again, so we joined them after a breakfast of fresh bread mm! Four films later, we were still hoping to get the luggage so later on we could go to the refuge. However..the luggage never arrived at our door and after many phone calls and deliberations..we decided to stay another night!! In some ways, it was really frustrating, but the lack of luggage ended up working to our advantage as we had a lovely evening. We couldn´t go into Lima as it was too late, so Wagner gave me a salsa class (!) and we played with Vilmer´s two children, Milagros who is 3 and Santiago who is 2...tan dulces! Was a really fun evening and i feel like we built a lot of bonds with the family that night. Managed to get on the internet that night also, just to check mail etc but we kind of ended up introducing Wagmar to facebook (ahem..becky) and he spent about 3 hours looking at every single one of Beckys photos to her surprise and dismay lol!!! Jugadora is the only word that could spring to his mind!!!
The next day..monday.. was probably the best day. Maria Silva let us spend the morning in the infant school, that she help set up next door to her house and in the afternoon we spent it at the primary school up the road. I think the only way to describe this day is eye opening, as cheesy as it may sound. It was so interesting to participate in the classes and help out, see the differences between the schools over here to those in England, and the way the kids behaved..so many little things! After lunch, we had our first peruvian bus experience with Wagner...! my god, the buses are crazy over here and so bumpy, we had to hold on to each other for our lives lol! but it was good fun..and they played regaetton in them too! I know so many people and guide books who say Lima isn´t the best capital in the world, neither the most attractive...but maybe it was because we went with a local who knew the place well, that made a difference, or i don´t know..something else..but I really liked it! OK there´s no denying it´s not attractive, but it seems to have such a good ambience to it..! After wondering the city streets and squabbling in spanish over sim cards, he took us to the centro comercial and we went for a big exploration. It was the most simplest thing, with solely shops and other things to see, but we ended up having such a laugh and a great time nonetheless! And the churros were delicious!!!
Once we had returned home, Becky´s suitcases had arrived!!!!!!!!!!! Although, I think we were kind of disappointed at that point as we didn´t want to leave! We could have gone that night, but their hospitality and generosity was overwhelming and we didnt want to just leave so suddenly. Although we got an early night that night, we made the most of the next morning until Karina picked us up for the refuge........infact Wagmar´s cousin, Beto (who was nineteen, had grey eyes and was quite hot..although becky is currently disagreeing as she preferred waggy LOL!) came and spoke to us...turns out he´s also a salsa dancer (probably like the majority of peru lol) and a regaetton singer...nice! our confidence in spanish had really picked up by then. Karina finally came, and I surprisingly felt really sad to say bye to Maria Silva and Vilmer´s family but we were feeling ready to finally go to the refuge..the whole point of the trip..and a new adventure in itself.
I´ve spent about an hour writing this all up and the kid´s have nearly finished their homework so I´m running out of time, but I will get on as soon as possible to tell you all about this verrrry different life style! Everything´s fine here nonetheless and I hope you are all well. Am missing you all so much so take care and lots and lots of love.......mucho amor!
p.s we have finally showered!
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Still in England!!
Hola!
I have two days to go and all of the last minute packing to sort out! Just thought I'd quickly set up a blog before I forget amidst the rush of the last minute and now I'm trying it out! I guess my nerves are starting to rise slightly..packing has made me realise the reality of the big trip which we've been planning from practically the start of the year. But you have to face the fear :) and I'm looking forward to putting that into practice...!
I'm not sure how often we'll be able to get on the net but I want to maintain this blog so I'll definitely make sure I do for long enough to write!
Anyway, everything is practically all set for when I arrive there..all there is left to do is to suitcase it all up and enjoy the last of my home comforts and get some sleep!
Buenas noches :)
nikixxxxxxxxxxxx
I have two days to go and all of the last minute packing to sort out! Just thought I'd quickly set up a blog before I forget amidst the rush of the last minute and now I'm trying it out! I guess my nerves are starting to rise slightly..packing has made me realise the reality of the big trip which we've been planning from practically the start of the year. But you have to face the fear :) and I'm looking forward to putting that into practice...!
I'm not sure how often we'll be able to get on the net but I want to maintain this blog so I'll definitely make sure I do for long enough to write!
Anyway, everything is practically all set for when I arrive there..all there is left to do is to suitcase it all up and enjoy the last of my home comforts and get some sleep!
Buenas noches :)
nikixxxxxxxxxxxx
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