BootsnAll Travel Network



Welcome aboard people

I'm almost back on the road! Hello. This is the blog I (occasionally) wrote during my travels in 2007 and 2008. Now I'm off to India for the summer, working for UNICEF in New Dehi, so I thought I may as well start writing again. I'll try to be more consistent this time...

Fun Fridays

July 10th, 2007

It seems every Friday is a fun Friday here! Well the two I can remember have been anyway. Last Friday was our trip to the countryside. After the initial disappointment of finding out campo means countryside and not camping, the day turned out to be just super. This Friday, July 6th, we went along on a school tour with the scolita, the school we work in. I finally found out the name of that school is St. Bernadette’s School, with no signs up it took me ages to figure that out.

We headed into the centre of Lima after dangerously filling the school bus once again. Pedro was at the helm and I got the co-pilot seat. I did offer it to a few of the teachers who had to stand but they said they had keep hold of the kids.

We started our tour at the Museo de la Inquisitión y del Congresso. From that name and the tiny bit of the guide speaches I could understand, I gathered that it was about the Congress and the Inquisition. There was what looked like a courtroom with fake people at the top deciding something. I had to be nudged at one stage when the guide must have asked where their visitors are from. Once Consuelo, one of the teachers, got my attention she kept repeating, “Which country, which country??” I eventually figured out what was going on and informed them that I am from Ireland. Yet again the person I told this to thought I was from Orlando, must be the way I say Irlanda.

We carried on into the museum and we saw some things I didn’t think these kiddies would be seeing. It was like a torture museum. There was a guy being beheaded who had massive cuts on his back, a guy on a table; it looked like he was being stretched, and another who seemed to be in an electric chair – if they had electricity back then!

After leaving the museum of doom we headed to one of the squares that calls itself the cultural centre of Lima. It looks like the place all the pigeons of South America congregate. I might put a video up here to show you just how many there were. They’re so incredibly loud when they all take off together; made me yelp more than once. After some Japanese guy was finished taking photos of our students we headed into the Catacombs. I’m still not too sure what that place was.
It seemed like a church. But down in a cellar part of it were hundreds and hundreds of bones. Real ones. Just the thing you want to show our young students! Nothing like a few nightmares to get the imagination going. It was like a shop the way they were alll neatly arranged according to type of bone. One part even had a design made out of skulls and straight bones together. I broke the rules for a second by taking a sneaky photo. Could have gotten thrown out for that so hope you appreciate it when I get it up. I saw some Americans taking photos too, so if anyone caught me my plan was to blame them.

We had a really great day with the kids in Lima and I was once again reminded why working in a country kicks the metaphorical butt of visiting a country. It was one of the only places we’d been in the last month with other tourists and it saddened me a bit to think that that’s the only side of Lima some of them will see. I got lots of strange looks from people. Guess they were wondering how a gringa ended up walking along hand in hand with a Peruvian kid!

I’m writing this on my 25th night in Peru. I can’t believe how much I have fallen for this place in such a small time. I think I’ve been writing too many good things lately, here’s some things that have gone wrong for me lately:
Last Sunday we were invited to breakfast by Ana, a woman who works in our house. I didn’t understand that she was inviting us to her place, I thought she was saying something about dinner. So I slept in that day and woke up to find a letter from Michael saying he’d gone with Ana’s son, who she’d sent to pick us up and would see me later. Myself and Ana have now put that incident behind us…

A little later on that day I had a (little) conversation with Maria, another woman who works here, while we both washing some clothes. She was telling me about her family and I asked her how old her grandchildren were. She very sheepishly told me her age. I had to quickly jump in and apologise and tried to explain that I was not asking her her age. I said I had to go clean my room and her answer was something like ‘Yes, ok I will do it now’. I don’t know how I had accidentally told her to clean my room but I made a point of doing it myself that day. I must get her some chocolates before I leave.
My latest ‘screw-up’ came about due to a moisturiser mix-up. My skin has been incredibly dry in this desert place so I headed off for a stroll in search of a pharmacy. The pharmacist was a lovely man who asked about Ireland and my work here and what I thought of his country. I was so busy trying to get my words right that I didn’t read the tub before I bought it. It was white (and Ponds!) and I knew they did moisturiser. The cream stung a bit and made my face really shiny and wet looking. I got some odd looks from people when we went for our daily cheek kissing. But my skin was in bad shape so I lathered it on for two days ignoring the looks. It was only on the evening of the third day that I bothered to read the tub, and then it was only because Michael told me to. It said ‘Crema de Limpieza – remueve maquillaje y impurezas’. I knew from cleaning the Casa Del Niños twice a day that liempieza means ‘cleaning’ and [I made out] removes impurities from the rest. For two days I’d been smothering myself in a cream that you are only supposed to put on your face for two minutes or so before you wash it off!
I was saved public humiliation by the fact that Wednesday was the only sunny day we’ve had in weeks, so people think it’s sun burn that has me looking like I do! All day people have been telling me I need sun block, not moisturiser, which I finally bought. But I’m still layering on the moisturiser. Michael even suggested I go to the medical clinic to sort my face out, that’s how good I look!
On Saturday I got threatened with legal action for ‘stealing’ a child’s jumper. I was playing chase for an hour and a half. Well not constantly. Every now and then the five of us would collapse in a heap and half heartedly slap the person next to us and say the Spanish version of ‘You’re it’. Sounds like Jipatti. Afterwards, one of the guys I thought was now my buddy, took a nap under the skipping rope that was being used by a gang of girls. The only way to remove him was by lifting him. Long story (slightly) shorter he wiggled out of the jumper to get away from me, I put it on and jokingly wouldn’t give it back. Next thing I hear the words ‘Mama’ and ‘Policia’ and he quickly got his jumper back. Two minutes later we were making a jigsaw together.
I’ve been ‘screwing up’ in the school a bit when I’m supposed to be helping kids with their spelling! I’ve learnt my lesson that I cannot spell Spanish words and should have the words written in front of me when testing kids. Also they couldn’t understand why I wasn’t able to help them with their Peruvian history homework. Guess I’ll have to start studying before I can handle that. I’m sticking to maths and English for now.
Not much else to report around here. Kevin has finally shed the name ‘New Boy’ and is being called his actual name. Last week he was a little wild, had a bit of trouble settling into our way of life. For days I never saw him without his Spiderman toy. He’s been with us 11 days now and already he seems to be settling in. Haven’t seen Spiderman in days, hope he wasn’t taken away or anything. I think I saw 7 year old Liselith trying to set him up with 6 year old Cielo the other day. There was a lot of pointing and eyebrow raising. But Kevin looked disgusted and Cielo quickly skipped down the stairs and away from them. I’m not sure how old he is but judging by his bedtime he must be over 7. Cielo probably went to write about it in her journal. Discovered that all those times during playtime when she goes missing, she’s in the library. How cool is that?

I have already written too much, so I’ll go now.

Chau!

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Day Trip Photos

July 8th, 2007

As I couldn’t add the photos to my story here they are separately. These are of the 30 something of us venturing off to the desert for a picnic.

First up we have Cielo and Jaqueline getting all excited on the bus.
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My oasis in the oasis. Was jumping around the place when I realised this little building has hot showers.
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Us all singing happy birthday to Pedro. Liselith is looking as cool as always on his left.
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The river. This was our ‘swimming pool’ for the day.
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The Inca Juice. This is ‘new boy’ Kevin trying the juice.
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The games! My team was the one on the left, there they are trying to put a three figure number together. They failed miserably.
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Our Camp. This is the place we set up camp for the day to cook our steaks.
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Inside the camp. And lastly (I think) this is inside those trees in the last photo. This is our gang making the food.
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Our gang making the food

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Happy St.Peter and Paul`s Day!

July 5th, 2007

I had big plans for this post to have pictures in it, and make a little picture story out of it. Turns out thàt`s beyond my capabilities so I`ll have to post the pictures up later the old fashioned way. I`m more than a little disappointed about this.

At least I think today (June 29th) was St. Peter and Paul`s Day. Either way it was a public holiday and we took the opportunity to go on a day trip. Not quite sure where we went but it was a very enjoyable day out.

We started packing up the school bus around 8.30. I wasn’t sure who was going and who was just helping out but in the end everyone piled in In the 23 seater mini bus we had Elsa, her husband Pedro and their three children, Fanny the social worker, her husband and their three children, the three women who work in the kitchen Ana, Maria and Carmen, two of whom brought a child, the two nurses Pamela and Yaneth and Yaneth’s two children, the guy who works in the garden and his son, the eight children in the home, Betty the child protection officer, Janice (not her real name) the psychologist, Michael and myself. As well as our troup we had a bicycle, a barbeque and enough food for all of us. Along the way we stopped to pick up a birthday cake for Pedro. It was really hard to sit and look at it for so long, no one does cake like the Peruvians.
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Questions Answered

July 2nd, 2007

I`m having trouble with the next blog (and now this one argh!). I`m trying to do a picture story type thing but can`t get the pictures to work properly. So for now I thought I`d answer a few questions I`ve been getting on this and in emails. Thanks to everyone whos commented on the blog. I get embarrassingly excited when I see I`ve a new comment!

So how`s Peru really going?

Peru is great. We`ve been working non stop (well 6 days a week) but it`s fun and rewarding. I think I have to give it more time before I really make up my mind about the place. The people are incredibly friendly. I don`t hesitate to walk around alone and whip out big notes in crowds (but I`m safe about it mom). We`ve been invited to a lot of dinners/get togethers and in work they`ve made us feel like one of the gang already.

Where to next?
I`ll be in Peru until September. After that I plan on seeing around 6 other countries in South America, working in two of them before heading to Australia. My ticket for Aus is for February 1st at the moment but that could easily get put back a bit.

How`s the Spanish going?
It`s ok! We`re able to understand people a lot better now and have enough Spanish for the essentials. I can ask the kids how their day was and organise a game in Spanish. Between random words and gestures I get the message across.

How the hell are you affording this?
I have savings but it`s a lot cheaper than people think. My ticket to Australia cost E1,000. My 8 months or so in South America is like a long stop-over. I intend offering my services (that sounds dodgy!) for a room and some food as much as I can. I have (almost definite) plans to get free room and food in Ecuador and Bolivia. In Ecuador I`ll also get Spanish lessons thrown in. At the moment, I`m living on less than 20 Euro a week, and I´m living it up! I could spend a lot less if I only used the internet at home or at work, and stopped running off for a sneaky chicken and chips. We also get groceries every Sunday that we could live without. I spend about E7 on those. I splashed out on a 1 euro haircut and a fancy dinner today. No such thing as ¨How short would you like it?¨ here. She just lunged at me with the scissors. I now have a long afro type thing. The fancy dinner was a quarter of a chicken, homemade style fries, salad, cola and a choclate gateaux. Came to about 3euro.

Are you nervous about travelling alone?

Nope! Doesn`t look like I`m going to get a chance to anyway! I`ve got loads of emails from people saying they`ll be in South America during the next few months so looks like I`ll have lots of company.

Are you going to keep blogging?
I hope so. Laptop might be going home in August and it will be harder if it does. The internet cafes are so noisy here it´s really hard to write anything. But I´ll keep trying anyway.

I know I`ve been asked other ones, and I had other ones answered until the computer froze yesterday and I hadn´t saved all of it. If anyone wants to get in touch the email is cybersusst at hotmail.com

Also, two of my friends have now started blogging! Maria and Leanne headed off to Africa on Saturday to teach computer stuff to people there. Maria’s a film maker and Leanne`s a full- time musician. So hopefully between them they’ll be able make a musical or something! Maria’s blog is http://candirughost.blogspot.com and Leanne’s is http://drowneydrowns.blogspot.com

Have fun!

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A Week in Review

July 1st, 2007

FYI: Photos updated in last post. Now on with the story…
Who said volunteering doesn’t pay?! On Wednesday I got my first pay check in the form of a toothbrush, mouthwash, dental floss, deodorant and two bars of soap. Before you start, everyone got them. I think they were meant for the theatre festival participants who didn’t show up. One plane never arrived and the New Zealanders got sick. I thought they were a strange gift at first but it’s practical, and I was about to go looking for floss so I’m happy.
I know I said I wouldn’t blog the whole time until I start travelling and having more to write than ‘I went to work today’ so I hope it’s okay if I just quickly (yeah right) sum up the week in one entry. The week, besides Friday, because that day was so crazy, it’s going to get it’s very own.
As well as hygiene products I also get more food here than three of me could eat. We have a ‘think chicken’ motto; pretend everything is chicken! The rib cage of Tuesday’s animal was too small to possibly be chicken but I still repeated our motto while I ripped off a bit of meat. You have to be careful in a country where guinea pigs are a speciality. Wednesday lunchtime I had one of my ‘what am I doing here’ moments. I was optimistic entering the kitchen because the last time we’d had lunch in the home it had been mashed potato. I hope my stunned expression wasn’t too obvious! One half of the plate was white, the other was green and on top was some red stuff. The white stuff was clearly rice, the green turned out to be mushy peas but the red is still a mystery. It seemed to be onion and frankfurters in a red sauce. I asked Jacqueline who was sitting across from me what it was but all I got was a mouthful of Spanish back at me. She didn’t stick to my few words as she now usually does. I tried again to ask her what the hell the meat was but I wasn’t too successful.
“Is it a pig”
“Huh?”
“Like….oink oink??”
“Que?”
“Pigs don’t oink in Peru?”
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Lima Photos Part 2

June 29th, 2007

This is going to be the most random selection of photographs, I`ll just throw up as many as I can before my time on this thing runs out and I get tapped on the shoulder. I`ll have more up soon on my smugmug.

My matador outfit! I´ve been trying to get this up for ages. This is before I acquired snot-of-child on my sleeve.
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This is the cake cart. I haven´t managed to find it again since. Damn good cakes. There you can see Elsa buying them for us.
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These are the Brazilian dancers we met in the Brazilian Embassy. Seems they like posing as much as I do.
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This is a very bad photo of the multicoloured bus we thought we were going to have a wild night on!
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This is the woodwork class in Casa Del Niños. You can see the houses they made the other day.
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An internet place we found. there was nothing under the sign so the net cafe must be up there some where. I was too busy marching in my matador outfit to find out.
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The Nutty Professor, The Matador and a freaked out Cielo. What a team.
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Cakes. Dont think they need anymore of an introduction. You have no idea how hard it is walking past shop after shop with cakes like these.
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The coolest house in the world, the Boat House. Apologies, the only photo of it I have has me in it. This house is in the middle of grey half made building and has a mini desert next to it. It´s incredibly out of place but that makes it all the better.
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In other news: results are in. I have a degree!!

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Lost in Space

June 28th, 2007

I’ve discovered that being one of the last two people still on a bus when it is driving into it’s little bus house for the night and still looking out for your stop is stupid and crazily optimistic. That’s the predicatment myself and Michael found ourselves in in the dead of night (or it may have been 9pm). I’ll tell you about that soon. But first:

12 hours earlier
Monday was our first day of work in the special needs school down the road (dammit I’m back to not remembering names here). I’ll have the name of the school for tomorrow. This establishment is one of three set up by the Irish priest, Fr. Tony, who’s been here for 12 years. His other two are Casa Hogar, in which I live, and Casa Del Ninos. It’s a primary school but a good few of the students are older than primary school age. For one reason or another they fell behind in school and failed a year. Some of them repeatedly fail and end up hating school so much they refuse to go. It’s not their fault they fail really, with only 4 hours of school a day there’s not much chance for any special attention from the teacher. This school gives the student a chance to work on their weaknesses, be it maths or spelling, and then the plan is to get them back into mainstream school.
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Festival Internationales de Teatro

June 25th, 2007

It’s theatre season here in Lima, Peru. The ‘Festival Internationales de Teatro’ is underway and I finally know what’s going on! The drama thing I’ve being talking about is a festival with drama groups from different parts of South America and New Zealand performing all over North Lima. One of their stops on the tour is Casa Del Ninos. Which for us means 5 days of performances we don’t understand!
The first of many went on stage in the Casa on Thursday. It was one of the Argentinean entrants called something along the lines of ‘Bruke con problema’. It was about a witch with a problem. The witch must have been good because at one stage I had 4 little girls clinging to me in fear. She held the kids’ attention for almost an hour and even I was entertained with her monologue (with a cameo from Kermit the Frog). She got some of the children up at one stage and I think it was a pulling faces competition, and I also think Cielo, one of the ones I live with, won. She danced around her cauldron and pulled a phone out of it at one stage. To finish she performed what could have been an Argentinean dance with two pieces of cloth. I think Mike got photos; I’ll get them off him when I get a chance.
On Tuesday Michael and I were strolling through the town and passed a cart with different types of brown food. He jokingly said, “Would you ever eat one of those?” And we both had a little laugh at about the mere thought of it. Two days later, we were standing at one of these carts with the nice lady we work for, Elsa, buying us lots of little treats. Even in Ireland I’m not an adventurous eater. Up until I reached 21 my mom had to liquidize spaghetti bolognese so I wouldn’t see that there were vegetables in there!
First I was handed a brown greasy ball with some pink sauce dripping off it. While I was still examining that, I was given an orange square. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with either of them but Michael seemed to be enjoying his. We strolled on down the road and I nibbled at the grease ball. It was actually quite good. I ate most of it. It was doughy and soft. I was more interested in the orange square. I didn’t want to think how they had got the colour so bright. Everyone else had finished theirs when I was still contemplating what to do. I could have slipped it in my pocket and Elsa probably wouldn’t have noticed. But I decided to go for it. I took a bit off and threw it in, like I would do to a tablet. It was like a shortcake. And a damn tasty one at that. I was still a bit ‘weirded-out’ that it came from a cart. I’ve had it beaten into me from a young age that chip vans are bad, and this was like a very mini one. But I may just start frequenting that cart (Update: it is now three days later and I am desperately looking for another cart. I need more cake!).

While I was making some headway on the shortcake we got a taxi into the centre of Lima. We were on our way to the Brazilian Embassy to see one of their entrants in the festival. With us were Elsa, the cake buyer and Betty, the Child Protection Officer who said we can go with her to her next child protection meeting in the city. I have to perfect my Spanish before then. It took us an hour to get to the embassy, but I don’t think we’re an hour outside of Lima. I just think the embassy is very far into the centre. The centre of Lima is all flashy signs and neon lights. You’d never think you were in a developing country. Not a hint of the poverty we saw where we were in the Miraflores area. We arrived almost an hour late, but still got 20 minutes of the performance. As good as it was 20 minutes is enough of anything I don’t understand. The singing and dancing was fun and Michael thinks he maybe got what was going on. Someone got married twice apparently. Afterwards there was a cheese and wine reception, but I swiftly swapped my wine for an Inca Cola after tasting it. Judging by Betty’s reaction the actor guy we met must be a pretty big deal here. I sort of went with the flow and got photos with the people everyone else was getting photos with. I acted as starstruck as I felt I should. I still don’t like that when I talk to people in Spanish they laugh say ‘Where are you from’. I must work on my accent. We met two TV stars and lots of actors from theatre groups. I was sitting next to an elderly Peruvian woman for a bit of it. We made small talk and I attempted to say Peru is very beautiful. Pretty sure I ended up telling her she is very beautiful! Had to throw in a swift ‘No speako Espanol!’
We were particularly joyful that evening after our encounter with the New Zealand group. It was the first time in a week we’d had an easy conversation. They were just as happy to see us. They’re doing a physical drama, with acrobatics and stuff, but no talking. They were due to perform in the Casa on Saturday but had to cancel when half of their crew fell ill. These guys travel all over the world doing their thing, and every time they find a festival like this to perform at they get an all expenses paid couple of weeks there. I’m in the wrong job here!
We heard of a beach party and thought we were on for a crazy night when we got on a multi coloured bus to an “Irelanda, Irelanda” chant.
All the actors looked like they were heading off partying into the wee hours of the morning. But someone mentioned that the bus was just taking them home and after confirming this with the driver we got off the bus again to a “Belfast, Belfast” chant. It seems to be the only place in Ireland anyone’s heard of.
Over the weekend we saw more theatrical thrillers. Some seemed aimed at the under 5s but I still clapped along so as not to offend the locals. Saturday night seemed to be the climax of the festival for the Casa Del. Three shows were put on in what I think is the town square. It’s a basketball court during the day but after we whipped out our brooms and set up the lights and speakers it was a very cosy outdoor auditorium. It seemed the entire village was out to see the performances, they didn’t have much choice really. Like it or not they were going to hear us so they might as well have come out and watched too. The massive stone seating area was packed almost to capacity. Up first was an hour long mime by three female clowns. Every now and then they’d run into the crowd and the terrified children would run up to the back to the last row of seats. That was about the height of the entertainment. The second act was a Venezuelan musician and his two belly dancers. It takes guts to get up in front of a gang of teenage guys in the middle of winter and belly dance. Total respect to those ladies. Lastly was the Brazilian act we’d seen in the embassy a couple of nights previous. It was better the second time, had a slightly better idea what was going on.
Michael didn’t make it to the show so for the hour we had to wait for the performers to arrive (No one seems to know where this place is) I was surrounded by kids from the Casa asking me what various words meant in English. I didn’t have my dictionary with me and just as I was planning my escape I met Kelly, a woman who works with me but who I’d previously not had a chance to speak to. I almost cried when I realized she studies English! Kelly and I will now be best friends, I can just sense it. I also met the sister of another woman I work with who also studies English. We’ve arranged to meet up soon and teach each other our respective languages. They explained to me how in Peru a lot of people have to have full time jobs and study at night because education is so expensive, and a lot of them have to have two jobs. Yikes.
The most entertaining person I met throughout the entire festival was the aptly named toddler Flabia, Kelly’s niece. Flabia knows all the colours, family words (mother, father etc.) and some random words in English. Not bad for a two year old! I´d have taken her as my personal translater had her mother not been keeping such a keen eye on her! Flabia was highly entertaining all evening and even fetched us some food at one stage. She sat on the cold stone steps for four hours watching the shows and at the end proved how amazing polite these children are when she said goodbye. At this stage it was 10pm and we’d been there since 5.30. She was crying because she was cold and hungry. Her mother told her to go say goodbye to me. She toddled up and in between sobs gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was expecting a grumpy wave. I should have got a photo of her but there’s just no non-creepy way to photograph kids you don’t really know. Hopefully we’ll meet again.
It was a great night and the first time I really felt like I could someday feel at home here. Up to then I wasn’t sure if I’d even return, which is no reflection on the people who couldn’t be nicer if I paid them. But we live in what I think is a shanty town with not much chance to get out. But now after getting to know some of the people I don’t want to get out and go back to the rich side of Lima. The rich poor contrast is crazy here and for now I’m happy in 3 de Mayo.

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Lima Photos

June 24th, 2007

I have finally found a computer that doesn`t have a panic attack when I try to upload a photo.

This is one of a typical street where we are. It`s one of Michael`s photos, I`ve never actually been on the street. But you can see the half-built buildings and dusty road. About 9 out of every ten buildings are still being built.

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This is our pad. It`s not the best photo but you get the picture. The big green door is out to the roof top place where the laundry is done and where I like to sit in the evenings.

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Liselith vegging on the couch, listening to the now banned ipod (it was causing too many arguments).
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Some of the little people we live with:

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Some sort of fruit Michael and I refused to eat:
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Matador photos coming soon…..

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Wednesday

June 23rd, 2007

You know, I don’t think there’s a better way to spend a Wednesday afternoon than marching around a place named after the 3rd of May in a Matador outfit. I’m still not sure whether we were opening the festival or promoting it. We were handing out flyers (got a kid to hand out mine) but it was also the first day of the festival so it could have been either, or both. Michael was the Nutty Professor, and he sure looked nutty in his oversized glasses. His pocket dictionary finished off the professor look but that wasn’t part of the costume, we just never leave home without them. I decided to be a Spanish bullfighter for the day. The children hadn’t a clue what I was, and and they weren’t getting any wiser from my bull impersonations. It was like a very mini St. Patrick’s Day parade. We had stilt-walkers, people with massive fake heads, a witch, a fairy and some others I couldn’t quite make out. People from the town came out to see what all the noise was about but I’m not sure they could see our flamboyant procession due to the Dust Sphere we created. Breathing was a bit of a chore as was the heavy costume in the winter heat. The weather has gone a bit crazy here since the whole global warming thing but that’s for another night. One child almost had a nasty accident off the side of a cliff when she cleaned her nose on my outfit, but I just smiled and blew my whistle like a good matador.
After the parade I tried to make small talk with some girls about it. I wanted to ask them if they had been marching with us. I used my hands to make what I thought was the universal sign for walking. But they just looked at me completely puzzled as to why my fingers had just taken off across the table.
On the whole, people are extremely understanding in Casa Del. On our first day the boss, Ruth, had shown us all 5 floors and explained what happens where and how we should handle various situations with the kids, what kind of things the get up to, etc. I thought after that we should arrange for her to get some sort of acting award. We hadn’t a clue what she was saying yet had gotten so much information from her. She had acted out the whole thing. My favourite mime was the ‘Teenagers kissing the corner one’.
I got my wish of being placed in the library on Wednesday. I’m not too sure how these Homework Clubs work but I’m pretty sure the student isn’t supposed to be chatting up some young one while the helper draws random objects from the solar system. He was shocked when I suggested he do his own Pluto. I should probably have told him that Pluto isn’t even a planet anymore. At least he got some drawing practice. One woman sat next to me with the ‘Encyclopaedia de Peru’ and went through it page by page with me for almost an hour. It was only when I spoke at the end that she fully understood my level of Spanish. Still the pictures were cool and the big words are almost the same as English so I did get some of it.
I tried to help some older kids with their extremely advanced looking maths but was called over to the English table just as I’d pulled my thinking face for as long as I was going to get away with it. I sighed and explained how the Señor would have to help them. English isn’t a big thing here, most people have no use for it. Everyone seems to know the colours in English, but that’s it. I went through the names of the animals with some people. We then had a conversation where I had to answer in Spanish and they had to answer in English. There was lots of acting and giggling but we got a lot of information out of each other.
The English homework they have is strange, and hard for me to help them with. The only way the teenagers seem to learn the language is by translating it from English to Spanish. So I mimed what the English meant and they wrote what they perceived me to be doing. Luckily I always have my dictionary close by.

In a random act of Peruvian kindness, Abel, a guy I work with came up to me and measured my wrist. I was a little perplexed but let him work away regardless. He returned an hour later with a friendship-type bracelet. Michael appeared some time later with a matching one. Even after all the measuring, the bracelets didn’t really fit either of us but after we swapped they were just right. I’ll never take it off!
The people have been so good to us here that I have decided to meet them half way and change my name. Absolutely no one can say Claire. I’ve lost count of the amount of times some kid has asked me my name, said ‘What?’ a few times, and then sort of said ‘ok’. They then whisper something to Michael to which the answer is always “Claire, CLAIRE”. For the first few days I was ‘Clink’, then ‘Ka’. I had settled on Claro for a while but was uncomfortable with that also being the word for ‘of course’. Today some kid said ‘Cara’ and I think I like that one best, it being the Irish for friend. So from now on I may be introducing myself as that.
The good people of 3 de Mayo finally seem to believe myself and Michael that we are not a married couple. Well, I think they thought it. Everything I say on this blog is a ‘guesstimate’ because we’re never entirely sure what’s going on. I made a shocking discovery last night as to how these rumours may have started. Every time we do something strenuous like cleaning the Casa (we do that twice a day) I like to turn to the person next to me and say “Soy casado”, just to show off my bit of Spanish. I’m almost certain that was what someone said to me one day whilst acting tired. So I presumed that’s what it meant. But someone felt the need to find out whether my parents are still married and asked if they are ‘casado’. When I came round my shocked daze I scrambled for my dictionary hoping she had just asked whether my parents are tired but doubted she would point at her wedding ring while asking that. When I reached the C section of my book I discovered that I had indeed been telling everyone for days that I’m married. I’d said it after cleaning, before bed and some random times when I’d run out of other Spanish words. It was almost as bad as the time I told my co-worker Betty that I drove a cooker. I’d been warned that if you get one letter wrong in a Spanish word it could mean something totally different. Cansado is tired and casado is married. I should probably be putting ‘a’ at the end because I’m female but that’s a bit beyond my current capabilities.

Tomorrow I will have to set the record straight and reassure the people of this town that I am infact single.

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