Monday 3rd May - Saturday 8th May

Monday 3rd May;

Had a massive lie in after our very long weekend then went to Chincero in the afternoon where there was a little festival going on in the street. It was the festival of the cross which lasted sunday to monday. We taught the lesson but when we heard the music start we went out to have a look. The guys were wearing these really freaky masks and they grabbed Domenica and made her dance in the street with them, Nisett the younger girl we teach got really scared and started crying cause the people with the masks came in the garden and were trying to get Fiorella who was hidden in the outdoor toilet and throwing water at them out the window.

Tuesday 4th May;

In the kindergarten this morning, as soon as the year 5 teacher left the class they all came running over to us wanting to be picked up. They were rubbish for the whole lesson, really distracted, then at the end they all wanted to be picked up again, its so tiring, and theres a boy called sebastian who is a lot heavier than the rest of them, who also insisted on being picked up.

Had my first spanish lesson back at the school, i have a new teacher who is really scary and kept saying i should know the stuff already that she´s teaching me. she set me loads of homework!

Got back and got ready for salsa, we had a different teacher this week and instead of just dancing infront of the mirror he danced with us which was really fun. its so much more tiring than i expected but i love it! i want to do it every night!
Afterwards we went for a well deserved all you can eat indian buffet! ;)

Its mothers day this sunday in peru so we went and bought loads of card and made 60 mothers day cards for the kids to colour in at the kindergarten tomorrow. Domenica designed a "mother" shape which we drew on the front of every card, and then i did bubble writing saying "happy mother´s day" in all the year 3 and 4 cards, and laura did the writing in dot to dot for the year fives to join for themselves. it took ages!

Wednesday 5th May;

It was so worth doing the cards last night, all the kids were kept busy the whole lesson and we didnt have to sing at them once. The director of the school saw some of them at the end and looked well impressed!

Had Chincero in the afternoon, unfortunately only 3 of them turned up, but it was good cause we got to really help them individually. We always let them have a break and we were playing with them on the road. When we asked them what the game we were playing was called it translated as "kill people" it was really funny though and basically involved throwing a ball at each other.

Went to cooking class where we make Ricotta Rellena, which is basically the same as last week, but instead of stuffing potato with meat you stuff ricottas. I was unlucky and had two REALLY spicy ones, i thought my head was going to explode, but i just ate the inside.

Thursday 6th May;

We met jess in the morning then went and got a bus with a load of other volunteers to this village that was completely destroyed by the floods. All of their crops were ruined so this company called "mysmallhelp" are building a massive cuy farm for the villagers to start earning money again. It is a long term project, each family will be given 9 female guinie pigs and a male, and apparently they reproduce every 62 days. Each guiniepig would bring the family about 25 soles. and when they get the corn replanted it will be an additional income on top of that.

We were told we were going to build mud bricks for the surrouding wall, but a lot of work needed to be done before hand. We basically ended up digging a massive pile of dirt and seperating the dirt from the rocks, it sounds rubbish but was really good fun, but it was sooo hot! To say thankyou the villagers provided us with lunch, freshly caught trout from the lake which was probably the best fish ivé ever had!

That evening after dinner we met Jess and Rafeal for Mojitos, it was two for 15soles in happy hour and mixed with the altitude it gets you drunk very quickly. There was a band playing cheesy english music, we asked them to play salsa and just as we were leaving they started to play Gloria Gaynor "i will survive and we all went mental!" Went to a few places after this, we had a really good night.

Friday 7th May;

Went for a fry up in the morning, which made us all feel a lot better, although we were exhausted.

Went to Chincero in the afternoon, Nicola (the old POD volunteer) used to work there, so she turned up at the end to see the kids. After the lesson we stayed over night at Roxanna´s house. (where we teach the lessons) We had our first Coca tea, which doesnt really taste of much, and she made us a really nice beef caserole kind of thing, and then this really wierd gloopy drink for afters. We were given a mug of it and ate it with a spoon which took ages, it was made of maize and was like a purple colour and thick like medicine. It was nice though.

Saturday 8th May;

We went to bed quite early cause we were so tired then got up early to meet the kids who took us on a walk. We walked for about an hour then met Roxanna and Leonor who gave us a weaving lesson, it was soo hard! Even when i new what i was doing i kept making mistakes cause its really hard to count the threads. We stopped for a traditional Peruvian lunch. We made an oven out of blocks of dirt and burnt loads of dry wood in there, when it was ready we broke the wood down into ashes, chucked in a tonne of potatos and then collapsed the oven on top of it.

When we were waiting for the food this massive pile of potatos was bought out which you just peel with you fingers and eat like apples. We had fresh trout again with the potatos and salad. After, we had chi cha, which is a traditional peruvian drink made from fermented corn. The corn is chewed and spat into the drink when being made, so we were basically drinking alcoholic spit.

We went back to weaving and Roxanna´s mum, who is quite scary and always talks to us in Kechuan, came over with a bottle of clear liquid and a plastic cup. She gave it to Domenica and the other women told her to shot it, we all thought it was water. It wasnt. We think it was the alcohol that goes in to chi cha but it was really strong. We think Roxannas mum was drunk cause she had cup after cup of chi cha, then kept downing these shots.