Monday 10th - Wenesday 19th May

Monday 10th - Tuesday 11th May

Was ill for both these days but went to the doctors. He poked my stomach loads and said that when he squeezed at the side it was "crunching" - gross. Have got loads of pills to take!

When i was waiting for Jess to take me to the clinic Rafael let me help him make sausages using the special machine...was probably the highlight of my two days!

On tuesday afternoon, we went to find this "greenhouse project" where we would be building a greenhouse in a school for educational purposes. We wondered round the area for a while, couldn´t find it so just ended up coming back.

Wednesday 12th April:

We had the morning off kindergarten due to teacher strikes, so had a big lie in then went and sat in the main square. There was a massive protest going on but it was one of the lamest things i´ve ever seen. They were all so unenthusiastic with their chants and banners, even the police guarding them were on their phones!
Had our usual class at Chinchero in the afternoon.
Went to cooking class and made "tallarin verde con Ocopa" It was this green pasta, with potato (of course) and a tonne of sauce.

Thurday 13th April:

There´s this new older boy at the kindergarten called Marco, he doesn´t go in any of the classes because the teacher said he´s "special" but we just think he´s got ADHD or something. They don´t teach him tho so he just wonders round aimlessly. He got really angry today and one of the teachers ended up fighting with him!
He started following us into the year 5 class but he just wants a bit of attention, so we chatted to him and gave him some work and he was much better, he´s really bright, but they just don´t have enough staff to support him.
Found an internet cafe and rang home for Dad´s birthday. I was hoping to burst into song singing "happy birthday" in spanish, but some peruvian guy answered the phone, so when i really did get through i was like...hello? It was really good to talk to everyone! I was gutted i was missing the birthday celebrations, and the cake! All cake out here is so rubbish and dry, nothing rises because of the altitutude so i guess they use loads of extra flour or something to try and make it rise.
We went shopping and i bought a few souvenirs and they we had salsa.
We really weren´t feeling it tonight and we had a different teacher called Raymi instead of Carlos who wasn´t as good.

Friday 14th May:

Had kindergarten this morning, we had the younger ones, colouring and decorating fish with balls of tissue paper and shiny paper (we´re doing animals at the moment) And the older ones drew and coloured their favourite pet. It was good fun today because they were all really well behaved. Was feeling much better today for the first time too.
After lunch we went and bought cake and loads of sweets to take to Chinchero because it´s Domenica´s birthday tomorrow. We saw jess and she told us this posh cake shop so we got a big chocolate cake. We bought some newspapers and wrapped up layers and layers of sweets for a game of pass the parcel. We were doing it in the taxi and every so often offered our driver a sweet. He never said no and when we got out we gave him a lolly.

We got to Chinchero before all the kids, so hid all the goodies and did a short grammar lesson with them, we sent them out for break and played volleyball with them, then when they came back in we had all the cake and the sweets out. We sang ´happy birthday´ and Leonor and Roxanna (2 of the kids mums) came in. It´s tradition to make the birthday person take a bite of their cake and then shove their face in it...which they did to Domenica. We played pass the parcel with forfeits and things, it was really fun! and the kids were so happy with all their sweets!
When we got home we booked paragliding for tomorrow!

Saturday 15th May - Domenica´s Birthday!

We got up at the usual time for paragliding! Me and Laura saw Domenica on the computer so ran up and shouted Happy Birthday at her! She jumped out of her skin!
We walked over to where we booked paragliding and waited there for a while for our bus. Heather went on a horse riding thing cause she didnt fancy paragliding. We got picked up by a mini bus and driven to Chinchero, then went off the road on this really bumpy dried mud track that was right on the edge of the mountain. We got their and our instructor (the only one in Cusco) Gave us a tow minute speech saying..."the weather is good, please be patient for your turn". That was it, no instructions or anything! He said the lightest person would fly first. That was Domenica, we were stood talking and she was like "im just going to text my sister amd ñet her know what im about to do" when the instructor said "ready lady, lets go." And literally she was in the air the next minute! It was about an hour from when she left and when the mini bus got back, and by that time the instructor said it was too windy to carry on and we had to wait.

2 of the guys in our groups decided they werent gunna wait so we all drove back down to the town (along that horrible mud path) to drop them off, then back up again. On the way up the driver suddenly pulled off into a field towards all these people harvesting and bought a massive sack of potatos off them. Our instructor and the driver had a couple of mugs of chi cha each (the alcoholic version) then we went back up the hill to where the other paragliders had made a watia (the natural dirt stoves) They cooked a tonne of potatos which we ate (although mine and Domenica´s kept having worms in) and then we were like. OK, are we going to fly or not, cause we needed to get back in the evening for domenica´s birthday celebrations.
Suddenly it was back on and Laura was in the air. She vanished behind the mountain and next thing she was trekking up the side of the hill with her massive seat on - the mini bus hadnt found them so they had to walk up!
Then it was my go, it was soo much fun! the take off wasnt that smooth cause for some reason the guy attatched to me was facing backwards so when we started running he fell over! but once we were up it was so good!
He did loads of turns which are really fun, their like the chair ride at funfairs, i kept screaming and was saying "can we do another turn!" then we just floated around for ages, the view was amazing! He kept saying "how are you lady? hows the view lady?" then he told me to hold on to the ropes and did a massive downward spiral! It was soo fun! i was screaming my head off! and when we landed i was like "that was so amazing" and he was saying "thankyou lady" and we shook hands and had a hug! It was very emotional.
The landing wasnt massively smooth cause we hit this dried mud field which stopped the seat from sliding along so we rocked forward and my legs got bent back, but i was too caught up in the moment to care....They were sore the next day though!

We went out to Indigo´s, this really nice thai restaurant with Jevta, then met Jess n Rafael at Mccoys. Jess let slip that we had a surprise for Domenica so gave her a brownie that she´d piped happy birthday on to distract her.
Then we bought in a big cake they´d bought her and took in all her presents. Jess fully shoved her face in the cake this time! We got her some frac (her favourite biscuits) a jar of "fanny" tuna, a bunch of flowers, a big bar of dairy milk (we havent had chocolate since weve been here) and a really nice silver bracelet. There were some other girls we know there too, Angela, Ashley and Tamara and we all played sambuka jenga and other drinking games. we had a lock in at Mccoys and were dancing on the tables and everything, and ended up having a massive food fight with the left over cake.
We went to a club and on route found raymi - our salsa teacher and he came dancing with us. We danced in their for hours and taught him the macarena when it came on. then went for a mcdonalds =S It was such a fun night!

Sunday 16th May:
Woke up and could not get back to sleep so eventually got up and skyped home, found out that Laura and Katia (my sisters) are definitely coming to visit me out here which is very exciting!!
Went for breakfast at bout 3 in the afternoon then did some shopping where i bought more souvenirs! Was impressed at how un-hungover i was.

Monday 17th May:
Laura and Katia have booked their flights - Woo!!
Had kindergarten, have fallen in love with Cynthia, one of the five year olds!
Had Chinchero in the afternoon, we´re not teaching there for the next two weeks cause Fiona, the independent volunteer is going to be there instead. We dont know yet if were taking on another project or not so told them wednesday might be our last day. There reaction was horrible cause they were all like "nooo" so we all decided we want to go back. I love playing volleyball with them in the break, although the ball we used today was rock hard!
Had the pub quiz tonight with Jevta and Lisa on our team, we came joint 2nd from last...or 3rd depending how you look at it. There were no brownies left but because we all ordered one the chef made them for us specially. They took ages but were fresh out the oven and gooey and yummy.

Tuesday 18th May:
Fiona came to the kindergarten with us today cause one of her placements has fallen through, and when we arrived all the kids were practising marching. They were over the other side of the road with music blaring out the speakers from the kindergarten. We helped them march, then had lessons as usual.
In our break, big marco was playing on the roundabout, somehow his shoe got stuck and as it turned his leg got twisted round. We freed him, but he was really upset because the material loopholes on his trainers had all ripped off. Domenica had her penknife so i punched new holes in his shoes and rethreaded the laces for him, he didn´t thank me, but i was proud of my handywork!
All the year 5s seemed to be crying today, i have no idea why.
Was meant to have a spanish lesson this afternoon but cause i´d cancelled mine last week (due to illness) they hadnt booked me back in. Its annoying cause its like a 20 minute walk there, but i just came back slowly looking in the shops on the way.
After, we met Jess and went to speak to the Jungle lady and booked our week in the Ámazon! Im so excited! They have a tame monkey called Paulo who comes on the trek and lives in the lodge with you!
We had salsa tonight and werent that excited cause we knew we had Raymi again. I think Domenicá´s birthday night broke the ice though cause he was really talkative! We had such a fun lesson and learnt all these snazzy spins. He partnered us aswell which he hasnt done before, and stopped telling us which move would be next, which he normally does. It was so much fun, and he just kept talking to us for ages at the end. I was proud of how much i could actually understand , even though i couldn´t respond that well.

Wednesday 19th May:
The kindergarten were doing marching practise again when we arrived. We took in paper plates which we drew tiger faces on and got them to paint, we´re going to make them into masks.
It was Heather´s last day so she took in a montage of photos and marshmallows for all the kids. When we went to leave the teacher said "15 minutes please" and all the kids came and sat on their chairs outside and the teachers did a goodbye thing for heather. They gave her a cake that said "happy travel" on it and a card that all the kids had put a finger print in next to their names. Then they sang "Happy Birthday"...i think its the only english song they knew...

Went to Chincero where heather gave out more photos and sweets, the pictures were meant for the wall but they all wanted to take them home. Fiorella took us all to the side one by one and gave us a little present, i got a pair of earrings she had made! We had a bit of a lesson, then just messed around cause it was heathers last day, and our last for 2 weeks, which feels like ages!
Then one of the women came and told us the weaving centre was open, so we went over to Leonor´s house and saw all the stuff they had woven...and spent lots of money. But when we went to leave they gave us each a little gift, a small purse Leonor had woven and a little keyring Roxanna had made! It was really sweet, and we felt bad because we know how long they take to make, and how they need to sell them to make money! They said it was a thankyou for teaching their kids English.

Got back and booked out lake Titicaca trip for this weekend (Ahh!) then went to cooking class. I was excited cause it looked like a massive plate of veg with chicken. But all the veg had been drowned in Vinegar, i just couldnt eat it. I tried to eat as much as i could but my pile just seemed to be never ending. Then the others dumped their food on my plate when my back was turned and i just gave up.
We went back and ate some of the cake the kindergarten had given Heather.