Working in Lima

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  Lima, Peru
Tuesday, April 7, 2009

  The last few days have been very interesting and I have learnt a lot about even my own limits. On Friday we went to work at the S.O.S village to help with the classes there. I was asked to help in the babies class where two other women looked after about 20 children all day. Just think about that for a second - that means there is one person to look after 10 needy, tiny, wingey, vulnerable children which is not a lot. I found the day stressful as I had children hanging off my ears, arms, legs etc. as others were climbing chairs and hanging out of the open windows or smacking each other in the face. The fact was there was too much else going on to point out or fuss about īminorīobstacles such as these. I came to realise this more and more as the day went on....also that the teachers there have the patience of saints. When it came to lunch time I felt like I was in a very noisy dream as there were children rushing and shouting everywhere smothering rice into their hair and faces. All in all the day was madness but it made me realise how much help is still needed to run these organisations. I thought this more than ever when I was changing a babies nappy and there was nothing to wipe it with. 
  After lunch, the director of the school asked me to teach her and two others English. It was an amusing experience as teaching English to adults is so different from teaching it to small people what with the questions about verb conjugations and tenses. I felt severely underqualified to do it and a bit of a fraud to be teaching them things that I werenīt sure were correct. Oh well they said they benefitted from it so I guess I canīt complain.

 The weekend was heavenly. We took the orphan boys from Hogar de Cristo to the beach. Zoe and I hadnīt giggled so much for ages...our cheeks were truly sore by the end of it. With these fearless little boys, we would take them by the hand, let the tide knock us over, swallow us in a bit and then spit us back out...over and over again. It was hilarious especially when it started to look like a mass game of human bowling. The boys loved it and that was the coolest part. I formed a particular attachment to a little fattie called Alonso who was eight and just gorgeous. If adoptment will be a consideration I know where to come back!!

 Sunday was a lazy day. We went into Lima and rummaged around the markets. Itīs unbelievable how cheap it is. I was so chuffed with a beautiful leather buckle bag I bought for the equivalent of a fiver - amazing. Annoyingly my card got eaten up by the ATM machine but fingers crossed that wonīt be a wholly major issue. As it was Palm Sunday, everyone was walking around with palm leaves. Like the good Catholic girl  that I am we visited the former Franciscan monastery which is now a museum and has its own catacombs full of the bones and skulls of former monks which was a bit gruesome. On the tour, the rubbed out faces in some of the paintings were pointed out which was apparently done as an act of defiance against the Spanish Inquisition. The effect of the paintings with no faces was actually quite eerie. It was quite nice to visit another monastery since Ampleforth though!

 On Monday we started our project at Hogar de Cristo. We decided to paint a wall in each of the boys huge dormitories which are usually very drab and depressing even for orphanage standards. So we took a trip to the DIY shop with Lidia and fetched our tools. The whole of Monday was spent painting the base coats but today (Wednesday) we finished our masterpiece and we are so proud of it. In the younger boys dorm, on the bright blue base we painted clouds, a huge sun shining, a football goal (they play a lot of football in their dorms so we reckoned this will be very useful) and its accompanying goalie. It makes the room look so much brighter and the response we got the boys was very happy so we couldnīt ask for more. The older boys room is almost finished and also has a football goal. They have requested graffiti stylie designs on the rest of the walls so weīll see how that goes.

  Zoe, me and two other of the girls here, Michaela and Kristina leave Lima tomorrow for the Semana Santa (Holy Week) break to Ica. It was my last day working for the orphanage programme today. I have enjoyed it so much and donīt feel like Iīve done nearly enough but I think even I stayed for 3 months I would think that too. I would love to come back again...next time Iīd like to bring the mother over with me too. I know sheīd love it. True Mama?!

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