Last month of volunteering
Helloooo back home,
Right now then is the midway point between the end of the work and the start of the end. On Friday we leave to travel for 7 weeks, and will have finished over 10 months of voluteering. It is a very daunting but exciting feeling. Here is a link to something PT sent us for a better idea of how coming back to the UK will feel for us... http://www.projecttrust.org.uk/pdfs/newsletters/39.pdf I'm looking forwards very much to coming home and seeing everyone, but I feel like I have changed a lot as a person and need to work out how I fit back into my life before coming to Peru. Obviously University will be new(!) but England is England. I will miss Peru so much, from being able to buy beef heart scewers from most street corners, Inca Kola, my babies in the aldea, the radio, reggaeton and cumbria music, the cake!!!, and I suppose also the freedom and independence I have had here, and now become veyr used to.
The last month, or anyway the time since the last blog post, has been crazy. We have had a flood in the apartment, some feast days for Saints Paul and Pablo, eaten delicious Oreo cake in Miraflores before heading to Lima's water fountains. There are 13, they light up and have music so it was a fun night! Tanya and I have also been busy researching and planning the coming 7 weeks, which has included buying a ticket for a 72 hour bus from Buenos Aires to Lima for the 6th August. I'm not looking forwards to that bit but at least we know we will definitely be back in Peru for our flight home in time. It cost an eight of the price of a flight, so hey...
Work has included doing lots of dance with Tanya, and helping Jeanette out with teaching music classes to about 20 of the older boys which are going well but she will have to carry on alone with them after we go! This Sunday we removed ALL of the books from our apartment in time for the next set of long term USA volunteers who come in August. [I really hope Ciudad looks after the next Project Trust volunteers and they aren't forgotten because the Americans are here 18 months, and have overlap between volunteers so can claim their stake now for the next lot. The PT volunteers are much younger and 12 months is still a very long time to volunteer for, but I do worry a bit about where they are going to sleep. Sleeping in the pabellons with the young is not a healthy lifestyle due to over stress and lack of sleep we have seen other shorter term volunteers here go through. Anyway...]
Today we took all of Nino Jesus (my pabellon) to a concrete play pitch for a couple of hours and they had a whale of a time, playing football and various other games. We have also played a staff volleyball match, which left my thumbs black and blue but was good fun! I love having the weekends off now, we get a full break. We had a sangria/facepack and films night last Friday, and then Saturday was spent trying to fly a kite at a seafront park in Miraflores. We had some success but only after a full hour of trying (and I backed into a very spikey palm bush tree thing). It's been a much more relaxed way of living and feel we have really got the most out of Lima.
I will be glad to leave the orphanage in some respects - not only am I finding it hard now to push orphanage food down my throat (menestra again? Please God, no), but also the religion into my ears. It's gets a bit much for me to handle some days. On the other hand, I have learnt so much, made lots of great friends, become very attached to the boys I work with and grown in lots of ways so tomorrow (our last full day of work) will be a very sad one. The challenges here are very different to what we faced in Cusco. Here we have learnt more about working with people you might not normally get on with and the importance of teamwork and COMMUNICATION. I can't wait for travelling - Latin America has caught my heart. I am not done here.
I will try and get a blogspot out a week whilst we are travelling, but we shall see!
Lots of love, seven weeks left!
Rach xx
Right now then is the midway point between the end of the work and the start of the end. On Friday we leave to travel for 7 weeks, and will have finished over 10 months of voluteering. It is a very daunting but exciting feeling. Here is a link to something PT sent us for a better idea of how coming back to the UK will feel for us... http://www.projecttrust.org.uk/pdfs/newsletters/39.pdf I'm looking forwards very much to coming home and seeing everyone, but I feel like I have changed a lot as a person and need to work out how I fit back into my life before coming to Peru. Obviously University will be new(!) but England is England. I will miss Peru so much, from being able to buy beef heart scewers from most street corners, Inca Kola, my babies in the aldea, the radio, reggaeton and cumbria music, the cake!!!, and I suppose also the freedom and independence I have had here, and now become veyr used to.
The last month, or anyway the time since the last blog post, has been crazy. We have had a flood in the apartment, some feast days for Saints Paul and Pablo, eaten delicious Oreo cake in Miraflores before heading to Lima's water fountains. There are 13, they light up and have music so it was a fun night! Tanya and I have also been busy researching and planning the coming 7 weeks, which has included buying a ticket for a 72 hour bus from Buenos Aires to Lima for the 6th August. I'm not looking forwards to that bit but at least we know we will definitely be back in Peru for our flight home in time. It cost an eight of the price of a flight, so hey...
Work has included doing lots of dance with Tanya, and helping Jeanette out with teaching music classes to about 20 of the older boys which are going well but she will have to carry on alone with them after we go! This Sunday we removed ALL of the books from our apartment in time for the next set of long term USA volunteers who come in August. [I really hope Ciudad looks after the next Project Trust volunteers and they aren't forgotten because the Americans are here 18 months, and have overlap between volunteers so can claim their stake now for the next lot. The PT volunteers are much younger and 12 months is still a very long time to volunteer for, but I do worry a bit about where they are going to sleep. Sleeping in the pabellons with the young is not a healthy lifestyle due to over stress and lack of sleep we have seen other shorter term volunteers here go through. Anyway...]
Today we took all of Nino Jesus (my pabellon) to a concrete play pitch for a couple of hours and they had a whale of a time, playing football and various other games. We have also played a staff volleyball match, which left my thumbs black and blue but was good fun! I love having the weekends off now, we get a full break. We had a sangria/facepack and films night last Friday, and then Saturday was spent trying to fly a kite at a seafront park in Miraflores. We had some success but only after a full hour of trying (and I backed into a very spikey palm bush tree thing). It's been a much more relaxed way of living and feel we have really got the most out of Lima.
I will be glad to leave the orphanage in some respects - not only am I finding it hard now to push orphanage food down my throat (menestra again? Please God, no), but also the religion into my ears. It's gets a bit much for me to handle some days. On the other hand, I have learnt so much, made lots of great friends, become very attached to the boys I work with and grown in lots of ways so tomorrow (our last full day of work) will be a very sad one. The challenges here are very different to what we faced in Cusco. Here we have learnt more about working with people you might not normally get on with and the importance of teamwork and COMMUNICATION. I can't wait for travelling - Latin America has caught my heart. I am not done here.
I will try and get a blogspot out a week whilst we are travelling, but we shall see!
Lots of love, seven weeks left!
Rach xx
posted by Rachel at
20:50
2 Comments:
Hi Rach. Great post. Hope things go well and you can wrap up an amazing year with some good travel. Can't wait to talk to you about it face-to-face. We're all missing you. Take care! Love Dad XXX
Rach, I'm watching you. Watch me http://kareninnorthamerica.blogspot.com/
So eloquently put as usual. Miss you loads XXX
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