Hola! So apologies I haven’t written in ages, but the internet here isn’t readily available. There IS an internet café across the road but every single day its filled up with guys playing stupid world of warcraft games ALL DAY! I promise you all that that is not in any way an exaggeration. Its pretty bad really as some of them must be at least 30 years old…eugh. Anyway as it’s been so long there is a heap to write about! I’ll start from the beginning…
The aldea is a large complex surrounded by huge, red (soon to be luminous yellow) walls. Inside the walls the aldea is a very pretty place. There are flowers everywhere, huge towering trees with strange black pods hanging from the branches and a brightly coloured play park. The staff in the aldea work extremely hard to keep the place smart and colourful which isn’t easy in the middle of the desert and with kids everywhere who just want to destroy everything! There are around 10 buildings, most of which are used as casas for living in. The kids are split into houses depending on age and sex and in a few cases, disability. Each casa has around 9 kids in each and a Mama Tia who is the head of the house. There is also a primary school, a nursery, an auditorium and a set of offices for the admin team to keep the aldea running smoothly. My casa is in the bibliotheca and I share this with Louise (obviously) a Tia called Paquita and a little girl called Jessie. The house is very basic but we’re just greatful to have our own space as otherwise I think I would definitely go crazy. The Aldea has several security guards who we’ve become pretty good friends with as their always game for a laugh. There is always at least 2 of them on at any one time (day and night) and they keep things running smoothly with the outside world. They screen who is coming in and going out of the doors and keep the kids within the aldea in check, especially the older boys who can be quite a handful. The people who work here aren’t just staff. They are a family to the kids and each other, hence why the ladies are called Tia’s (Aunt) and the Men called Tio’s (Uncle). I love being part of this huge family as I know people are always watching out for me and wanting what’s best for me even when I’m so far away from my own family in Scotland.
The aldea is in an area of town called los Algarrobos, which I’ve been told means something along the lines of ‘The Ghetto’. It’s a pretty terrifying place to be especially at night and we’ve actually been told not to go out for a walk even during the day as it’s just so unsafe. We sometimes drive past in a mototaxi in the evenings when it’s dark and see gangs of men strutting about on the streets in a way that suggests their deliberately looking for a fight. We’re told every single day how dangerous it is and we don’t take this advice lightly. There has been more than one night where we’ve fallen asleep to the sound of gunfire in the district. Thankfully the aldea is so safe we always sleep well knowing that we’ll be totally fine. It’s no wonder there is a lot of violence here as the area is incredibly run down and poor. It often reminds me of images of the slums in India simply because it is so dirty. The place looks like is being used as a landfill site. Every time we drive through the neighbourhood there is a foul smell which I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s a mixture of sewage and things rotting. We once spotted a goats head kicking about at the side of the road. There are stray dogs everywhere but the locals don’t seem to mind them mooching about in their homes and businesses which to someone who comes from a health and safety obsessed country, is pretty gross. The houses don’t do any justice to the way the place looks either. Most of them are just shacks that have been put up with corrugated iron for roofs and heavy iron front doors. Although the people here don’t have a lot of money, they know how to enjoy a party. Almost every single night there is music blaring from one place or another and on the odd occasion there have been fireworks. People here always seem to find a reason to celebrate. No matter how small the occasion might be it’s always celebrated well into the early hours of the morning.
I’m really enjoying it here although it hasn’t been without its challenges. On our fifth day here some of the older boys attempted to break into mine and Louise’s rooms whilst classes were on. They totally mashed up our padlocks and the only reason they didn’t manage to finish the job was because we caught them in the act and stopped them. It was pretty frustrating for us as we were still settling in and this made both of us feel a little uneasy about leaving our casa and any of our belongings. The situation was made worse by the fact that during the time the boys tried to break into our rooms there was a teacher present in the class but he just decided to leave them to it and not say a word. I think I was angrier at him than I was at the boys who were responsible. The boys were given an earful from the Directora and later apologised to us. Out of the blue one day, after the incident had pretty much been forgotten, we came back to our house to find all the tables and other classroom stuff being moved. The director had decided to make the Biblioteca our house only and not a classroom anymore! We definitely feel safer about leaving things in our rooms now.
At the end of week one I was feeling pretty down. I’d had a funny stomach and it had hit me that this was going to be my life for a year. Although I was and still am totally loving it, realising that I couldn’t see my family or speak to them whenever, hop on facebook when I had free time and generally take things like my safety and freedom for granted made me feel a little strange, so I turned to my bible. I opened at the place where the bookmark was and the first thing at the top of the page said;
“Don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is gods place for you” 1 Cor 7:17
I hadn’t put the bookmark there, as I’ve never used the bookmark before so I realised I was being told something that I needed to listen to. After that I decided to take on whatever is thrown at me and make the most of the opportunity I have been given. This is God’s place for me right now.
Anyway, most of our days for the first month have been spent in casa 5 with the toddlers. We do general helping out there which starts with going in at 7am, getting the babies up, cleaned (poopy nappies and all) and dressed, getting them fed, then playing with them till lunch. I know the playing bit sounds fun but it’s completely exhausting especially as we’re running around in 30 degree heat and attempting to communicate with a group of 2 year olds that only speak Spanish. I love it though and because of it I’ve lost a bit of weight which is an added bonus, especially considering all our meals are centred around rice and potatoes! At lunch we feed the kids again then head to our house for a siesta whilst the kids have their nap. We then head back to feed them dinner and play with them again till bed. We had an interesting trip one day with two of the kids, David and Paulo, when we took them to the Los Algarrobos “Hospital”. Basically it’s a dirty, run down shack of a building where stray dogs wander in and out whilst loads of people crowd in the tiny waiting rooms clutching their own sterilised needles waiting in the “queue” to be seen by the one doctor. The upside though was we were sitting in a waiting room packed full of beautiful Peruvian babies!
We also discovered in our first month how they kill and prepare their ducks (and presumably other animals) for eating. It was a pretty gross and smelly experience and I don’t fancy going into any detail as it wasn’t fun for either me or the duck. However the end meal was yum!
As I said before we share our little library house with a Tia called Paquita and a little girl called Jessie. Jessie is about 2 years old (although they don’t really know for sure) and is in need of one to one care all day everyday, hence why she lives with a Tia in a library and not with the other kids. She was born with a cleft lip and pallet although the lip has since been fixed and, if my Spanish translation is correct, a muscle degeneration disease. She is also mentally disabled but is genuinely one of the cleverest 2 year olds I’ve ever met. She is the most gorgeous little girl ever. Before Paquita turned up Jessie was a sad, thin little creature who was force fed pureed food and left to lie on her back all day and whimper as she didn’t have the strength to do much else. Nowadays Jessie eats better than any of the other kids in casa 5. She’s put on weight, and can actually say a few words now, one of which is “Hello”! The best thing though is now Jessie is learning to walk. She is incredibly strong and loves nothing more than shuffling back and forwards with someone holding her hand. She loves attention and knows that she’s cute and always plays up to this! It’s now a rare occasion when she cries or gets upset. Whenever I’m having a rubbish day I know I can always rely on Jessie to cheer me up just with her infectious laugh and constant smiles. There’s been plenty of evenings where I’ve just sat playing with her for ages as I love being around her! Paquita has been so good with her. She’s very patient with Jessie but also very firm as she knows Jessie is intelligent. She spends a huge amount of time and effort on Jessie and her hard work really shows. I completely adore Jessie and although I’ve only been here two months I know I’m going to find it so hard leaving her at the end.
We get invited to quite a few fiestas here which is nice but the best one we’ve been too was in the aldea. It was for the 15th birthday of one of the girls here. We were told that 15th birthdays in Latin America are a huge deal but we weren’t quite prepared for the crazy evening ahead of us. The hall was decorated all fancy with pink ribbons, pink roses, glitter and pink balloons EVERYWHERE! She had 5 huge cakes that looked like wedding cakes and were also presented like wedding cakes on a huge tiered stand. All the girls were wearing prom style dresses and the boys were wearing full suits and ties. I felt a little underdressed in a playsuit. Liliana (the girl who’s birthday it was) had 2 dresses, one for her entrance which resembled something you might see in My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and one for the party. Anyway we were standing outside in the cool waiting for when Liliana would make her entrance when a combi came into the aldea and out hopped 15 or so guys from the Peruvian army. They weren’t guests; they were there for Liliana’s entrance! Apparently the Peruvian army rock up to everyone’s 15th party and make an arch with their hats or swords for the birthday girl! Not gonna lie, I was a little bit jealous that that didn’t happen at my 15th or even 18th birthday party! Anyway Liliana got inside we all stood whilst people made speeches, took photos and made toasts. Liliana then danced with everyone of importance in her life. The director, her head Tia, the psychologist her teachers her friends and all the army guys etc. Took flipping ages but it was nice. Anyway after that the crazy fiesta started. It was just a night filled with Salsa, reggaeton, congas, whistles, dancing, and banter! Honestly the best party I’ve ever been to and not a drop of alcohol in sight! At one point there was a circle with dance offs going one. Must say I was proud of our aldea boys as their dancing was as good if not better than the older army lads dancing (they stayed for the party too). The cake was cut at the end of the night and it was totally worth the wait! Toffee cake is now my favourite!
About 2 weeks ago we got our timetables and started teaching our classes which is quite exciting. I teach English whilst Lou helps out and Lou teaches dance whilst I help out with that. Most of the kids have taken to the classes although there are still the odd one or two that either don’t want to do it or just cant. A couple of the kids here still can’t read or write at the age of 14 as before they came to the aldea they either didn’t have an education or they lived on the street. It’s pretty hard teaching someone to read English who can’t even read Spanish properly yet. It’s crazy to think there are so many people in the world who can’t read or write yet nearly everyone is the UK has at least a basic education by the time they are 14 and can at least read something simple. The dance class has been harder than English as the kids who don’t want to be there have to opportunity to muck about as they are actually doing something physical. It’s quite a good laugh though, recently one of the kids had seen (without us knowing) me and Louise mucking about in our spare time doing stupid dancing to Joe Cockers ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ and in the next class asked she us to reprise it for them all. She was asking in all seriousness… it was mortifying! Thankfully we got out of it quickly by pretending we didn’t understand what she was saying.
Anyway the times we aren’t taking classes we are with the toddlers and have started taking them to a local Rotary run play area where basically they play all morning 3 times a week in a brightly coloured soft play area/multi-sensory room. It gives the head Tia a bit of a break and provides the babies with an environment that the aldea can’t offer. All the Tia’s here work so hard and I have a huge amount of respect for them after only being here a month, they literally work 24 hours a day, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, breaking up fights etc. they don’t really have their own space or many of their own belongings in the aldea as they share literally everything with the kids. They don’t have an easy job.
Things aren’t always easy here for us. We’ve had a few problems with some of the kids and even some of the local adults, but we’re always very safe and take it seriously when we are told “Never trust anyone”. It’s hard for us to get any peace even when we’re out the aldea as wherever we go we are stared at and whistled at by locals. There are no Blonde haired bright eyed people in northern Peru and people that look like us don’t turn up in Piura often so whenever we go out we are hassled and photographed. Me and Lou often joke about how many photos are circulating on facebook of us without us knowing. A boy videoed us eating our entire meal one night. He just stood there about 3 metres away holding up his camera phone at us occasionally moving a little closer to get a different angle or closer view. Generally people are curious of us and especially older ladies worry a lot about us and tell us to watch out and be careful. Most people are lovely but as is the same with anywhere in the world there are the odd few creeps who just want to cause hassle. Thankfully me and Lou are pretty good at spotting the creeps fairly quick and we get out of any awkward situation before anything bad happens.
Right I’ll stop there as I don’t want to write too much more as I’ve already written heaps, but so much has happened and I wish I could write it all but it would take me days. Sorry that was another long post, guess it’s just because I haven’t updated all of September :S I’ll try to update more often if those guys ever get off the flipping computers!!
Anyway, thanks to all
Adios Amigos!
xxx
