So as you may well guess, we sadly had to say goodbye to 2 of the kids last week. Pancho and Meche were two of the kids in casa 5 with the toddlers. Last Friday whilst we were out taking the kids to swimming lessons their parents came and decided they wanted to take them home. Within half an hour of them turning up Pancho and Meche were gone. It’s sad that we didn’t actually get to say goodbye as they were 2 of the kids I was most fond of and it’s scary at how fast it moved. There was no pre-warning and, as far as we can tell, very little paper work. From what we understand they were in the aldea for mostly financial reasons which is a relief as at least we know they won’t be taken to a dangerous or violent home. Hopefully they will be given a good chance at a normal family life and their parents can finally provide for them. The Aldea’s social worker has scheduled monthly visits to check up on them and make sure they are being cared for properly and if not then there’s a chance the two of them could be back. Who knows, maybe they’ll come back to the aldea at some point.
Other than that things have been chilled in the Aldea. We’ve been taking the kids to swimming twice a week which is a lot of fun. Partially because we get to spend two mornings a week getting out of the 40 degree sun and into some cold water but also because the kids make it fun. They love the water (although the odd one or two are still pretty afraid of it) and it’s one of the only things that we’ve seen them be really excited to learn. We can’t help but laugh at some of the techniques they come up with but their having fun and can mostly keep their heads above water which is all that really matters I guess. One boy called Carlos was so afraid of going in the water without help that he put armbands on his arms AND legs. Needless to say the minute he got in the pool he regretted that. He flapped about a while and didn’t get very far. However it gave me and Louise a good laugh. The swimming pools really pretty cool. Its’ in a complex called Chilalo where there’s a restaurant, football pitches, bar, concert venue and a mini zoo. There’s quite a few monkeys, turtles and other animals and it’s quite cool getting up close to them, and the kids love them!
The weather in Piura has been pretty nuts recently. Its summer, so the heat is ridiculous. Every day is above 35 degrees and we’ve found the only way we can cope is by taking cold showers 3 or 4 times a day. Funny how I used to complain about only having cold water whereas now even the mention of a hot bath makes me feel a little bit ill. I’ve taken to cuddling a bottle of cold water on occasion in the nights to cool me down. It also rains every single night now! Pretty insane rain as well. It starts at about 7ish and goes on well into the early hours of the morning. The clouds start to get thick and dark at about 5 which then makes everything clammy. One day we left the house around this time and everything outside had been turned yellow by the air. A mixture of the sun being low, the clouds being thick and the general sandy dust of Piura had put a yellow haze over everything. It was like walking about in a sepia photograph.
There’s not really much other news right now so ill finish up there, however, watch this space for future news!
xxx
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