Never before have I had this many split ends in my hair.

Take note of book quantities...

Living area

Living area

Blue sky

Outside yard area with herbs and a washing line

So, we are well and truly over half way through now, with just under 5 months left of our time here. I still have days when I long to come home but the new project is going really well! Here are some details, then:

We are working 6 days a week in the Cuidad de Los Ninos childrens home, which houses over 300 orphaned or abused children from the ages of 3 to 18. After that they can stay on to eventually become a tutor or carer. The whole place is a little bubble inside the San Juan district of Lima, which is in the South West of the city, an hours bus ride from Miraflores (where we were staying whilst looking for a project!). We have flowers and paths but as soon as you step outside it's dust and rubble!

A typical day would be getting up at 5.45 and making our way over to the dining halls. I work with the youngest house, called Nino Jesus which has it's own separate eating area and houses and is home to twenty nine 3 to 6 year olds. Tanya works with Sonrisa Franciscana, a house of 38 (I think) 7 to 10 year olds. It's big! After breakfast (which starts at 6.30) we wash up and head to the houses, "casas" or "pavilions" as they call them, to help with folding clothes, cleaning, scrubbing, mopping or sweeping. The whole place is VERY clean as we do this every day. We then go to church with the Hermanas for an hour in the morning.

The boys sleep in open plan dorms, and we in Nino Jesus have a TV and homework area, plus a grilled-off outside play area with all sorts of toys and go-karts. We get a break between 10 and 1, then it's back to the dining room to prepare for lunch and the return of the kids. Lunch is not bad! We get rice and lentils and meat most days, plus a soup (often Tanya's favourite, chicken foot). Dinner is then a much smaller version of lunch, minus the soup.

After lunch it's homework and play time, always a bit stressful but fun. The volunteers run off at 6 to prepare for dinner at 6.30 and after that it's straight to the church again for a sing and dance style worship with everyone, which is pretty good fun. I have found the church going heavy but more or less bearable - from nothing to twice a day will definitely take some getting used to. There is even a small convent on site with about 6 nuns, and the monks apartments are right next to ours. At the weekends we just have one longer service on Sunday evening. With our free time, Tanya and I can wander round San Juan, with caution, to the market and the "Trigo de Oro" - Flour of Gold - bakery which is amazing! Cakes, croissants and alfajores (Peruvian shortbread sweets with fudge in the middle) galore. The market is cheap and we have Tanya's smoothie-blender-thing back up and running.

After evening church, which finishes at 7ish, I take all the kids laundry (here they wear things once or twice, and shower EVERY day. We couldn't believe it coming from Cusco where it's once a week) to the  lavanderia and have to count it and note it up. We get back to the apartment at about 8, sometimes later. Tanya has been there till 10 once, helping stragglers to finish their homework for the next day.

We are off to Ecuador on a visa run in 6 days and are really looking forwards to meeting up with some of the other girls.

Rach xxxxx