Hola hola!
You will be pleased to know that I have safely arrived in sunny Lima. I apologise for the delayed blog post, it now being a week since I arrived, I have just been very busy and there is always someone to talk to.
My first experience of Lima was a late pick up from the airport so I had to fend off the taxi drivers who swarmed round me like flies to offer me a ride, but thankfully mine did eventually turn up! There are about 20 others living in the volunteer house in the San Miguel district in an outer neighbourhood of the Peruvian capital, Lima. There is a large mix of nationalities in the house, with the majority at the moment being Canadian (some of whom are french-canadian), a couple of Americans, a Swiss girl, 3 Ozzie's, a kiwi, 3 other Brits, and Pablo who is Brazil and speaks only Portuguese and broken Spanish with the odd English word thrown in - it is very entertaining trying to communicate with him, most of it is done through acting out and large arm gestures. I am in a room with 3 Canadians, 2 of whom came together with 3 others and have just completed teaching college and are doing this as there 2 week placement.
Most of the people in the house arrived at the same time as j did and so we are all learning together. Our first (long) weekend was spent settling in, getting to know each other and exploring Lima and its bars. My first night was one of the girls last night so I was dragged out to a bar in the trendy barranco district and eventually flopped into bed at 3am - 9am UK time, having landed at 5am the previous morning. On Friday we went down to the beach after lunch and spent the afternoon filling our bikinis with sand from the violent waves and incredibly strong undertow before going out for more drinks in barranco with a bit of added dancing and conversing (in Spanish) with the locals. I am one of the few people who can actually speak and understand Spanish here which is great for me because it means I am getting to use it all the time and can already feel myself improving...although getting used to the speed and accent of the Peruvian language is slightly harder!
Saturday was a more cultural day where we visited the sites of central Lima. There is the beautiful Plaza de Armas which is the central square that has a palace and large cathedral in it. We wandered around various Inca markets with beautiful, multicoloured, woven handicrafts that I found very hard to resist. We also visited the St Francisco Cathedral which is home to the catacombs of Lima where 25,000 people were buried under the church, beneath the saint in which they followed. What is pretty eery walking around and seeing the assorted arm, leg and pelvis bones scattered around and particularly when we reached the section with piles upon piles of skulls. In the middle of the Lima there is a large hill with the cross of St Cristobel on the top do we caught a bus up to find stunning views over the whole of Lima. It was particularly interesting to see the more slummy areas of Lima, piled on top of each other, from above. The taxi journey home was a brilliant experience too; we managed to squeeze 7 of us into a 4 seater taxi with 4 across the back, 1 lying across, and 2 in the front next to the driver...it was a squish but we managed!
On Sunday I visited the plaza of San Miguel where we found a super market and a nice restaurant for lunch. We also bought bus tickets to Huacachina (where i am now) where there are enormous sand dunes to board down! Monday was our first day with a routine although it still wasn't a proper 'working' day as er started by having orientation where we were told all the rules which we had already learned or broken over the weekend and explained about our daily life. After lunch we were allocated our orphanages and taken to them to be shown around. I have been places in an orphanage for special needs babies, aged 0 to 5 who are all very cute but pretty severely disabled. Other volunteers are at other homes including
a special needs one for kids 6-18, an adult special needs home and an able babies home.
We then returned back to the house and collapsed in an exhausted heap until a delicious Peruvian dinner (we get 3 amazing meals a day, all Peruvian apart from brekky) from which we were re-energised enough yo play card games and heads up late into the night!
I am having the best time so far and the other volunteers are all so lovely. It is really interesting to get to know people from other countries so well, even if it does mean I'm picking up a slight Canadian twang and a start referring to the bathroom, trash and pop and have my accent repeatedly taken the mick of!
Lots of love to all back home xxxx
You will be pleased to know that I have safely arrived in sunny Lima. I apologise for the delayed blog post, it now being a week since I arrived, I have just been very busy and there is always someone to talk to.
My first experience of Lima was a late pick up from the airport so I had to fend off the taxi drivers who swarmed round me like flies to offer me a ride, but thankfully mine did eventually turn up! There are about 20 others living in the volunteer house in the San Miguel district in an outer neighbourhood of the Peruvian capital, Lima. There is a large mix of nationalities in the house, with the majority at the moment being Canadian (some of whom are french-canadian), a couple of Americans, a Swiss girl, 3 Ozzie's, a kiwi, 3 other Brits, and Pablo who is Brazil and speaks only Portuguese and broken Spanish with the odd English word thrown in - it is very entertaining trying to communicate with him, most of it is done through acting out and large arm gestures. I am in a room with 3 Canadians, 2 of whom came together with 3 others and have just completed teaching college and are doing this as there 2 week placement.
Most of the people in the house arrived at the same time as j did and so we are all learning together. Our first (long) weekend was spent settling in, getting to know each other and exploring Lima and its bars. My first night was one of the girls last night so I was dragged out to a bar in the trendy barranco district and eventually flopped into bed at 3am - 9am UK time, having landed at 5am the previous morning. On Friday we went down to the beach after lunch and spent the afternoon filling our bikinis with sand from the violent waves and incredibly strong undertow before going out for more drinks in barranco with a bit of added dancing and conversing (in Spanish) with the locals. I am one of the few people who can actually speak and understand Spanish here which is great for me because it means I am getting to use it all the time and can already feel myself improving...although getting used to the speed and accent of the Peruvian language is slightly harder!
Saturday was a more cultural day where we visited the sites of central Lima. There is the beautiful Plaza de Armas which is the central square that has a palace and large cathedral in it. We wandered around various Inca markets with beautiful, multicoloured, woven handicrafts that I found very hard to resist. We also visited the St Francisco Cathedral which is home to the catacombs of Lima where 25,000 people were buried under the church, beneath the saint in which they followed. What is pretty eery walking around and seeing the assorted arm, leg and pelvis bones scattered around and particularly when we reached the section with piles upon piles of skulls. In the middle of the Lima there is a large hill with the cross of St Cristobel on the top do we caught a bus up to find stunning views over the whole of Lima. It was particularly interesting to see the more slummy areas of Lima, piled on top of each other, from above. The taxi journey home was a brilliant experience too; we managed to squeeze 7 of us into a 4 seater taxi with 4 across the back, 1 lying across, and 2 in the front next to the driver...it was a squish but we managed!
On Sunday I visited the plaza of San Miguel where we found a super market and a nice restaurant for lunch. We also bought bus tickets to Huacachina (where i am now) where there are enormous sand dunes to board down! Monday was our first day with a routine although it still wasn't a proper 'working' day as er started by having orientation where we were told all the rules which we had already learned or broken over the weekend and explained about our daily life. After lunch we were allocated our orphanages and taken to them to be shown around. I have been places in an orphanage for special needs babies, aged 0 to 5 who are all very cute but pretty severely disabled. Other volunteers are at other homes including
a special needs one for kids 6-18, an adult special needs home and an able babies home.
We then returned back to the house and collapsed in an exhausted heap until a delicious Peruvian dinner (we get 3 amazing meals a day, all Peruvian apart from brekky) from which we were re-energised enough yo play card games and heads up late into the night!
I am having the best time so far and the other volunteers are all so lovely. It is really interesting to get to know people from other countries so well, even if it does mean I'm picking up a slight Canadian twang and a start referring to the bathroom, trash and pop and have my accent repeatedly taken the mick of!
Lots of love to all back home xxxx
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