Sunday 3 November 2013

Pickpockets, Halloween and Criolla dancing

On Tuesday 22nd October we got a bit of a shock when we were asked to look after pretty much all the kids that don't go to nursery (jardín) or school, because most of the tias were going off to some meeting or training in Trujillo. Jandi (11 months), Elvia (Jandi's mum), Fatima (2), Margarita (5), Esmeralda (6), Fiorella (11) and Cristopher (8) - the latter 4 because they're new and so don't go to school yet - were all in our house and we had no idea what to do with them or how to control half of them. Fatima kept crying and looking really unhappy and not talking at all, apparantly it's because Margarita can't talk and so she thinks it's okay for her to be silent too. (To explain, Margarita is 5 but can't speak or walk, we're not entirely sure why but we've been taking her to the hospital on Mondays to try and get an electroencephalography - they put wires on her head and it's supposed to see what happens when she sleeps I think - although both times we've been she's not been able to fall asleep so that's why she needs to keep going back.) Anyway we looked after all of them from 8 until 12 when the wee ones came back from jardín and most of the tias came back. However, the tia that was coming to look after casa 10 (where Fatima, Margarita, Esmeralda, Fiorella and Cristopher all are) was still not here and then Xiomara and Daniel from casa 10 also came back from school and had to wait in our house for like an hour before Tia Rosa eventually came back. Then we were asked to help feed Fatima and Margarita when we still hadn't eaten ourselves - it was heading for 2pm by this point and we were properly starving.

The day after that we were in the salon doing our dancing activity with some of the girls when Tia Gloria came in and demanded that everyone went to their casas immediately. So we did as we were told, went outside and started walking towards our casa and all the kids we saw were shouting"run to your casa, quickly, quickly!" We waited at the kitchen windo waiting to see what on earth was happening - which so far was nothing apart from one of the tios wandering round the casas, we presumed checking everyone was in their casas. Thankfully then we saw Leonel and so asked him what was happening, who told us there were pickpockets round the outside of the aldea. He motioned slitting his throat, said they'd been here before, which got us pretty scared from then on. We triple locked our front door and double locked ourselves into our bedroom with a food stash in case that was us in for the night. Stayed in our room for an hour or so probably making ourselves more scared than we should have been, until we saw José out of our bedroom window sweeping outside casa 5 and we deemed it safe to venture outside. Later someone told Amy that in fact there had been a crazy woman at the front gates and that's why everyone had been locked in their casa. We weren't really sure what to believe and still to this day have no idea what happened. 

That Thursday (24th) we also were incredibly stupid and got locked out of our house. Not only that, but we got locked out of our room too since we'd left the key in our room. Luckily we are able to get into the front door without a key by putting a sweeping brush through the gap at the top of the door, but there is no way into our room when the door is shut without our room key. It was after the Direccion (office/admin building for the aldea) had shut so we couldn't ask anyone apart from the tios at the front gate, who said that there was no master key for individual bedrooms, only the actual casas themselves. So we thought right, well we're scuppered. We'll have to break the glass at the top of our bedroom door to get in. However thankfully we decided to try and get in from our window since they don't shut very well and we were able to push one open and then open the other. That then presented another challenge because we didn't know where we'd left the key. It wasn't on our key hook we'd made - even if it had been, it's right next to the door and the window's right opposite from it and way too far to reach across even with the brush. Finally we saw it on Amy's chair by her bed which thankfully is right by the window and we were able (with difficulty lifting the chair up one handed through solid prison-like bars) to get the key and let ourselves in without breaking glass and shattering broken glass over my mosquito net. Event over. Now we always remember to ask each other who has the key before we leave the house!

So this week has been Halloween, and even though they don't celebrate Halloween here in Peru, we thought we'd do something fun with the kids. We divided the kids into different age groups and each day of this week (apart from Wednesday) we painted cauldrons (the bottom of plastic bottles, painted black by us) with ghosts and pumpkins and spiders with the younger ones and made cookies with them to take away in their cauldrons along with a few sweeties. We watched horror movies and made cookies with the older kids too. We felt pretty good we'd been able to do something good with the kids as it's really hard to come up with exciting things to do that keep the kids interested. 

On Wednesday we didn't do Halloween activities with the kids as it was the dia de la cancion criolla - National Day of Criolla singing. There was a competition where each casa presented a soloist and then a group act of criolla singing and dancing. It was really fun to see the kids dancing (some in traditional dress) to their country's traditional music. 

Hasta Luego, 

Heather

The boys' painted cauldrons

Gean Carlos and David with their Halloween cauldrons

Painting with Danery and Xiomara

Baking cookies with Fany, Dina and Blanca
The older boys' finished cauldrons

Maria Luisa and Angel in their traditional dress

Casa 10 dancing to Criolla music

Saturday 19 October 2013

Mirador, powercuts and carambola jugo

So POST came. Such a great moment. It only took about a month to get here and it takes about a week for us to send things home which is annoying but I guess it just makes post arriving even more exciting.

We went to the Mirador last weekend for the day, which is this sort of holiday resort in Quirihuac and just an hour's walk or 5 minute combi ride from the aldea! It was a lovely break and much needed. Ever since we spent s./200 soles in TGI's that ghastly night early on we're petrified of spending any money. It cost s./10 to get in (roughly £2-3) but what we didn't realise was that that also gave us a s./10 voucher for lunch! So pretty much got a 1/4 pollo a la brasa for free, and I would say that meal was pretty high up my favourite Peruvian meals so far. Also we got picarones which are like fried doughnuts served with honey syrup - so delicious especially when made fresh but I'm sure they don't do much for our expanding rice bellies.

There was a powercut on Tuesday evening, just after I'd finished dinner in casa 8. Most of the kids were already in their beds so it wasn't as much of a mayhem as I would have expected. Tia Carmen lit a single candle melted onto an upturned cup and it struck me that that one candle was all that was needed for a whole house of 11 children, when at home in Scotland we would have had candles in practically every room and torches and phones everywhere to light thing up. It was so much darker than at home as well, when the lights first went out I couldn't make out one thing in the darkness and I was struggling to make out who was who when there were so many kids about!

Sorry for the short post, it doesn't feel like much has been happening recently. I think it must be because we're realy getting more settled into the routine and things aren't so new any more. Each day goes by so quickly and before I know it, another week has been and gone. It's weird being in casas for the second time, that I've now been in all of them! I can't believe we've been here for almost 2 months now when at times it still feels like we've just got here.

Anyway I'll go for now, need to get home to make my own carambola jugo - my favrourite freshly made juice by the aldea tias.

Ciao,

Heather

Saturday 21 September 2013

Fridges, Matias, native foods and the craziness that is Peruvian traffic

So last Wednesday we'd been feeling a bit down since Monday and Tuesday's activities had been a bit crap. We were lying in our beds feeling sorry for ourselves when we hear a knock at the door. I get up to go see who it is and see two Tios standing outside with a massive fridge. They hardly explain anything, just bring the fridge inside, plug it in,  make sure it's working and leave. At this point me and Amy got so excited. It genuinely made our day, that might sound a little bit sad but when you've been having a crappy week with no-one coming to activities, it meant a lot! Now we enjoy cold refrigerated fruit, water and Fanta at our leisure. Talking of Fanta, Fanta seems to taste way, way better than it does at home. We're not sure if it actually is different or we'd just been craving it so much that's why it tastes so incredible.

On Thursday we had Matias in our house trying to get him to sit down and actually do one thing for an extended period of time when he started wailing "popo, popoooo". We had no idea what he was saying but we assumed he meant he wanted to go to the toilet, so we left him there. It was about this point that Amy and myself were almost in a breakdown from laughing so much! So he kept on wailing and wailing so we went in to check on him haha and saw him sitting on the side of the toilet. We were just exasperated by now and so told him "hace un popo, lava tus manos y luego ven por aqui" (do a poo, wash your hands, and then come here). What followed was possibly the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. It was the sight of his wee face scrunched up in concentration, obviously trying very hard to do what we'd asked him. We gave up and for some reason had to go pull his trousers up before he came out. After that we had to take a few minutes to compose ourselves in the kitchen before we could face him again.

I wanted to talk a bit about how different the Spanish is here to what I learnt at school. Here they say "carro" for car instead of coche. Instead, "Coche" means buggy/pushchair/trolley. Instead of aqui and alli (meaning "here" and "there") they pronounce it "aca" and "aya". They don't use "zumo" for juice, but "jugo". Also they always say "ahorita" instead of ahora so we take "ahorita" to mean the equivalent of "right now" instead of just "now". They use "chompa" for jumper which is pretty easy to remember! "Tengo sueño" (literally means I have dream) is their way of saying "I'm tired" instead of "estoy cansado/a".

Another strange thing about Peruvian language is that they use rico (rich) and feo (ugly) as an adjective for everything. Food, clothes, facial expressions, are all described as feo. It's just a bit strange hearing "este comida es feo" (this food is ugly).

The kids and tias also all find it impossible to say both of our names. My new names range from Heller to Jerry  (remembering that their J sounds like the end of "loch" so it actually isn't as far off as it looks written down). Amy is constantly called Eeeeemmeee or Ah-mee. A lot of the time we are just referred to as "la voluntaria" or I've even heard some saying "gringa" or "gringita" since they can't remember our names or who is who.

Traffic in Peru, or Trujillo, at least, is absolute madness. Speedbumps are vicious, unmarked and often, and jolt you abruptly forward in your seat every 30 seconds. It doesn't help that there is a constant lack of seatbelts here so you just have to learn to provide your own suspension. Also Peruvians don't seem to bear in mind that a 5 seater car is meant for 5 people. Most times I get in the aldea car to take someone to the hospital, I sit with them in the front passenger seat or am squashed in the back with 3 if not 4 or 5 other people. I think the most there's been in one standard 5-seater car is 10. I was told on my first day in Trujillo that the most people there are, the less you move about.

Aldea meals are actually not nearly as bad I was expecting. Breakfast is almost always a bowl of hot milk (although sometimes quinoa porridge instead) and two rolls. Lunch is the main meal - some sort of soup and a plate of rice with beans/meat/egg/protein of some sort and a vegetable. Dinner is the same as lunch, but minus the soup, and quite often stone cold. Since arriving here I've had this weird seaweed-type thing (but not the tasty crunchy type you get at the Chinese), gancha (some sort of popcorn kernels we think - sometimes this is soft and just like beans, other times roasted and salted so it's halfway to popcorn as it is in Western countries), whole fried fish (which was a bit of a surprise when I realised I was making my way towards the eye) and what I think might be straight chicken liver which I've been given multiple times in soup. I've also become used to having beans, egg, and avocado with everything which I didn't like before I came here. Olives I still haven't gotten round to liking yet, especially first thing in the morning with a bowl of milk.

I've also had chicha morada (yummy drink made from dark purple sweetcorn-lookalike boiled with water, lemon juice and sugar), yuca (potato-type thing) and lots of yummy fruits - granadilla, chirimoya, carambole, lúcuma, pepino dulce (sweet cucumber/melon type thing), orange-coloured bananas, bananas small enough to fit in your hand, and mini orange-type things I'm not sure the name of . Peruvian limes are also used in everything. Some of the fruits I mentioned are made into delicious jugo in the aldea and are served at lunchtime as a pudding.

If you go to http://www.limaeasy.com/peruvian-food-guide/typical-fruits it gives you a description of some of the fruits I've had.

The last thing about food I must mention is that today - wait for it - I had pasta. In the aldea. Like proper spaghetti. It doesn't sound like much but when you've had rice every day for the past month or so and then you get given a plate of spaghetti, it's pretty phenomenal!

Activities-wise, arty things have taken a back seat. With the older kids (13+), we now do dance/zumba with the girls Mon-Thu, and sports with the boys Mon-Fri. It's a shame we don't do anything with the younger kids at the moment but we're thinking of starting up arty/craft sessions again from 2 until 3 before our sports stint from 4 to 6. It's not as hardcore as it sounds haha, zumba is really good fun and the boys always want to do football which just means standing about trying to run away from the ball when it comes our way.


Ciao,

The general view from the back of a Combi

Chicha morada

My first aldea meal! (rice, beans, fried egg, onions)

Saturday 7 September 2013

First week of activities and Huanchaco

This week was our first week of scheduled activities so we were a bit scared about how it would go! Monday was group 1 with the youngest kids aged around 5-10. We weren't sure whether we'd have tantrums or what but thankfully the colouring in sheets went down a treat, which really we should have expected since they'd been asking for "dibujos, dibujos" pretty much every day since we'd arrived. Tuesday with group 2 (10-12) and Wednesday with group 3 (13-15) went surprisingly well with drawings for them too. Then Friday came, we still didn't have a clue what we were meant to do with kids our age so we brought paper and instructions to make paper planes along with games like checkers and bingo. None of the older kids came haha so that was a bit of a disapointment but some variously aged children did come instead so we played a couple of games of bingo.

On Tuesday I went to the hospital with Fabricio. Fabricio is this adorable little 3 year old boy in casa 5 but since he has brain problems he can't speak or walk. I wasn't really sure what I'd be doing but I just kind of helped with taking him places and picking him up since he's so heavy! Tia Marta also told me that he'll be going to a home in Cajamarca for children with special needs at some point in the near future. I'm so sad he's going, especially since this is only the start of our year and he's such a sweet boy. I saw him laugh and smile for the first time that day and it was so wonderful, the tias and children don't have time to spend time with him on his own to help him develop so the home in Cajamarca will be really beneficial for him.

On Friday we helped Tia Marta in the enfermeria making cotton wool swabs and gauze pads which was nice as we actually felt like we were being helpful. We had planned to leave for Huanchaco after lunch at around 2-3 but Amy had since been told that there was going to be a football game between all the casas at half 2, and we had to play too. Brilliant. So for once things actually happened on time, we all went up at half 2 and found that football had turned into volleyball. We then played multiple games where I either ran away from the ball or tried to hit it which always resulted in me almost breaking my hand because the ball was like a rock.

Afterwards we managed to escape to get a Combi from outside the aldea to town to get another Combi to Huanchaco. Our first holiday!! Thankfully Marta had given us detailed instructions on how to find where the Huanchaco bus leaves from so we (surprisingly) had no problems whatsoever getting our buses and arriving in Huanchaco which is this gorgeous (even if somewhat touristy) beach town which is where we are now. Today we treated ourselves to a lie in (haha, we got up at half 8) and hot showers which were SO GOOD. You never truly appreciate a hot shower until you have 2 weeks of cold showers beforehand. Yes, so unfortunately in the aldea we have no hot water since a while ago someone broke it from using it too much. Yippee for us. Although we have found that it's best to have the cold shower at the middle of the day when we think the sun must heat the water tank up a tiny bit, plus we've been up and doing things for a while, instead of it rudely jolting us awake at 6am.
Sorry, back to Huanchaco. Last night after my restaurant meal of chicken and rice which I really shouldn't have ordered since it was pretty much identical to what we eat in the aldea and our first taste of pisco sours (yummy), we headed back to our hostel and the restaurant below. We were then beckoned over by some young-ish Peruvian guys who sat with us while we ate our pancakes and they had their dinner, we all attempted a conversation in Espanglish whilst watching Peru play Uruguay in the world cup.

Today whilst looking for a nice place to have lunch we were heckled by about 5 different men trying to get us to go to their restaurants. After escaping them and avoiding any awkwardness by going to one of their restaurants we found a cheapish place where I had the most yummy thing ever. It was called "sudado de tollo con arroz y yuca" which was basically like fish and vegetables in this really delicious slightly spicy sauce, with rice and yuca which is kind of like potato (looked it up in the dictionary later and it just said yuca or cassava) but not as nice. Very weird. But oooh the fish. Too good. All seafood here is meant to be amazing since it's right on the coast so I should probably have some ceviche tomorrow.

Another thing I should mention is that I just went out to take a nice photo of Huanchaco at night, and this guy asked me in Spanish if I spoke English, I said yes and I found out he was from Germany at which point I got really excited because it meant I could actually practise my German on him! We proceeded to have a conversation in mixed English, Spanish and German. It was a complete nightmare. I was speaking German like a first year which is so embarrassing since I've only just finished advanced higher. I guess it just goes to show how much my Spanish has improved since I got here. I found myself wanting to speak Spanish more than even English as I wasn't sure how good his English was and I felt just as comfortable if not more comfortable speaking Spanish. I kept saying "pero" in the middle of a German sentence and then realising I should have said "oder". And I'm only less than 2 weeks in, goodness knows what I'm going to be like at the end of the year and trying to relearn German at uni!

Anyway that's enough for now, I recmembered to bring my camera cable this week so you can all enjoy some photos!!

Ciao

At Edinburgh airport ready for departure!

Our house
Torch Festival at at the school

Trujillo
Renzo and Matias

Angel and Mirabel

David, me and Angel

Amy with the kids drawing

Alex

David and Matias drawing

Saturday 31 August 2013

Arrival and the first week

Hola amigos! We have arrived in Peru!

So we have finally made it to Peru. After around 24 hours of travelling we got to Lima where we were met by Charlie and Jorge who took us to get mobiles and have lunch. The next day we got to Trujillo airport which is tiny - the baggage pickup place is only the size of my kitchen and dining room in Scotland combined. We were picked up by one of the tias who then proceeded to take us on a trip round the city where we kept on dropping off and picking up a couple of the girls and some guy for unexplained reasons, stopping halfway though to jumpstart someone´s car. We finally got going to the aldea which is right out of the city next to sugar cane plantations and in amongst huge mountains. At the aldea we were put in separate houses and ate lunch (rice and beans with fried egg - Mum, Dad, Lorna - you should be proud of me considering i dont like beans or egg but actually its the nicest thing ive eaten since ive been here). The days since then have been spent just playing with the kids until we get a bit more used to the routine and get to know the kids before we start activities on Monday.

On Thursday  we went to a festival at the kids´school where they had all made Chinese lanterns out of recycled rubbish and we went on a walk round the area round the school which was all just adorable. We were a bit confused at the start but got used to it...at the moment we´re learning to just go with the flow, ask questions if we want to know more but not to expect to understand the reply!

Yesterday we helped blow up balloons and cut out letters of the kids´names who have August birthdays for the monthly birthday party which is held on the last Friday of every month. We asked and were told that the fiesta was at 2 oclock. 2 o´clock came and went, we assumed it might be at 3 or maybe 4 instead but no, at 6 o´clock I was in casa 5 which is where I´ve been eating this week and all the boys seemed to be disappearing somwhere, eventually Juan Carlos said I was to go with him to the fiesta which was a relief and I was really looking forward to it. So we went to the salon (assembly room/library/communal area type thing) and after a bit of waiting some of the older girls did a dance to gangnam style, 4 kids did the egg and spoon race, and then musical chairs. I then got dragged up to have purple foam things put in my hair and then had to do a catwalk down the middle of all the kids which was hilarious. We were all given sweets and chocolate etc and there were 2 piñatas full of even more sweets which the kids got showered with since they were standing underneath them. It was all complete madness to me, kids running everywhere and making a racket but the tias didnt seem to mind and the kids were enjoying themselves.

Another thing I should mention is that it´s surprisingly cold. When we wake up at 6am it´s freezing but it normally warms up at around 10-11 and stays warm until 4pm-ish when it starts to get dark. Mind you, it is winter here so it should get warmer!

There are 10 casas in total but a few of them are empty. We live in casa 3 and the kids are always wanting to get in - they come and knock at our door and say they want to draw and paint but they´re not allowed in because they apparently always steal your things...I´m trying to be very careful with my camera because every time they see it they shout "camará, camará!" and want to have it.

I´m loving it here and I´m getting used to the language and South American dialect. I understand way more than I thought I would and I have no idea how the previous volunteers coped with no Spanish whatsoever. The aldea is so beautiful and the children and tias are all lovely. I´m struggling with names at the moment but so far I know names of all the boys in casa 5 plus a few others I´ve been playing with!

Thanks for reading, apologies for the lack of photos but I forgot the cable for my camera so next week hopefully!!

Ciao, Heather

Thursday 22 August 2013

Hectic pre-departure organisation

“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” - Susan Heller

So right now I am probably the most stressed I have ever been in my entire life. I have countless things to do and never seem have enough time to do them (slash I'm just really easily distracted and end up researching what sorts of fruit grow in Peru).

I have bought SO many things, probably too many in fact! I got my rucksack a few weeks ago and have been practicing with it and I actually love wearing it (everyone looks at me strangely when I say that), so at least that's a good sign! I have also bought clothes for hotter weather (which I obviously don't already have due to Scotland's predictive climate: cold, or even colder) even though when I get there it's winter and only like 13 degrees apparently. Yay. I have a pile of medication I am taking in case of any tropical diseases or conditions along with like 6 months' worth of antihistamines that the chemist looked a bit shocked at when I gave her the prescription slip.

Also since it's such a big part of my life right now I thought I'd mention our massive to-do list stuck up on the wall. I can't wait for the moment I can tear it down and it'll be gone forever. It is genuinely the bane of my life right now.

Yep, so to get more to the point, in less than 3 days I'll be in Madrid airport waiting for our connection flight to Lima. Tonight will be my 3rd last sleep in my own bed before I come back to Scotland next August. Tonight was my last homemade meal eaten at home with my family. I won't see any of my friends until this time next year. It's so strange to think that so much of my spare time this past year has been spent working towards this, and now it's here I can't quite believe it. It sometimes just hits me that I am actually going away and it's not just something in the distant future any more. It was truly horrible saying goodbye to my best friend Rachael and I'm dreading when I have to say goodbye to my parents and sister on Sunday.

Talking of goodbyes, I had my leaving party last Saturday which was really great fun and a lovely send off for me! I was so close to getting emotional but I stopped myself as that would no doubt have been embarrassing for all....

I'm currently sorting out photos to take with me and i have way, WAY too many. Like, I'm talking 200. How on earth will I ever find space for this?! My rucksack is already bursting at the seams and even though I'm so close to being finished (how did that even happen?!) I still have 2 books plus other stuff to try to pack in which is going to be an impossible task.

Anyway adios for now as I have many other more useful things I really should be doing right now. This will likely be my last post before I get to Peru (wow, scary) so see you there!!

Heather <3

Friday 19 July 2013

Training!

“I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." - Mark Twain 

Sooo I got back from training on 5th July! Basically training was 5 days on Coll with an amazing bunch of people going to countries all round the world, so there were the 12 of us going to Peru plus 18 Hondurans, 4 Cambodians, 4 Sri Lankans and the 2 Botswana boys! It was honestly the most fun I've had in a long time, we had hilarious chats and I met some incredible people who I'm sure I'll stay in contact with the rest of my life, including my partner Amy! I though that quote was so true and just so relevant to Training! Anyway Amy is lovely and we get on really well and there is genuinely too much excitement in me I don't think I'll be able to cope the next 5 weeks. Yes, 5 weeks. And I say THAT is soon, the Hondurans are going on 2 August. That's 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS. Crazy. 

So to get onto the things you guys reading this will actually (hopefully) be interested in, I'll start off by explaining my project in more detail. I am going to live in an orphanage just outside Trujillo called Aldea Infantil Victor Raúl. We'll be working with around 60 children (although there's space for 75 so it might increase by the time we get there), youngest aged 6 months and oldest 18. We'll just be helping generally in the aldea (orphanage), but during the day when the older kids are at school we'll be with the babies and toddlers, hopefully have some sort of clubs and activities for them and really just having fun, since most of the tias (house mothers) don't have time to spend time with the kids as they're busy doing other things. Talking vaguely of tias, Amy and I will be living in a house/apartment type thing to ourselves which is the same size as all the houses the kids live in (there are around 10 kids to a house with 1 tia and 1 baby in each). There are lots of spare bedrooms that the kids obviously don't take up so they're mostly used for storage, but there's a big living area with a table and things which we'll likely use for activities and such for the kids during the day and in the evening. 

The aldea is about 45 minutes by bus from the centre of Trujillo and is apparently really...I don't know, not necessarily rural, but in the countryside and right next to the huge mountains and it just seems so calm and peaceful! Although apparently the traffic there is horrific and it's unbelievably noisy from car horns and such...that's probably more in the actual city though. 

So to conclude I really can't explain quite how excited I am to leave! It's weird, it's such a mix of emotions, quite a lot of the time I am bouncing about and can't wait to jump on the plane and leave, but then there are, of course, down times, when I think about leaving everyone and not seeing them for a whole year. We waved goodbye to all the Project Trust staff off the ferry and I found THAT hard so imagine what I'm going to be like waving my family and friends away! I'll be a disaster, I can just tell. I'm turning into my Mum! 

Also thought I'd just mention the Peru girls! They're a lovely bunch, we all get on really well and it's strange to think that the next time I'll see most of them will be at Gatwick Airport! So as I said before there are 12 of us: 

Myself (Heather) and Amy to Trujillo
Cassie and Amelia to Piura
Caroline and Anna to Lima
Phoebe and Rae to Caraveli
Wendelien and Rachel to Pucallpa
Natasha and Meg to Iquitos

Left to right, top to bottom: Amelia, Cassie, Rachel, Phoebe, Meg, Natasha, Me, Amy, Anna, our Desk Officer Felicity, Caroline, Wendelien, Rae

I'll put up blog links along the side if and when I get them so you can find out what they're up to as well. 

Anyway I'll definitely post before I leave probably about buying boring things like buying mosquito nets etc! Also once I'm away I'm hoping to post every 2-3 weeks or so, I'm trying to keep it realistic but don't know quite how realistic that is...

Thanks for reading! 


Heather <3

Monday 27 May 2013

Thank you all!

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill

So I thought I'd better say a few (or rather, a LOT of) thank you's at this point.

There are countless people who have donated money so it would be impossible to name you all here!
  • So, first and foremost: my Mum and Dad. You have supported me in good days and bad, helped me research and write to trusts and generally just give me a kick up the backside when I didn't have the motivation to organise who was making what sandwiches for the ceilidh or who to talk to about a cake sale or to email the guy about the abseil (which, by the way, I am now not doing due to complications and the fact that I'm now finished my fundraising - but don't think of it as a cop out, I would have loved to do it! Watch this space in a few years time...I promise). It was hard work, and it paid off, but I wouldn't have been able to do it without you. 
  • Secondly, my extended family...including Lorna my sister, who has given me advice and support (even if not so much economic support - she is a student, after all) along with being a helping hand at the ceilidh and sorting out raffle tickets - it's much appreciated! My Grannie and my Nana and Grandpa, who all gave generous donations for the ceilidh, and have always been there to support me and spread the word about what I'm doing, which has, inadvertently, then raised more money for me!
  • Everyone who helped at my bagpack and managed to raise £650 single-handedly. Thanks for taking those few hours out of your day (or even the whole day!) to help make it a success, which it most definitely was. You know who you are!
  • Every single charitable trust who gave me any money. That made up a total of £2,700, exactly half of what I needed to raise. (for future fellow Project Trust fundraisers, I list these trusts at the bottom - I know how useful I found this whilst searching for suitable ones...even though you're told not to...)
  • Anyone who came to any of my events, bought tablet, came to my ceilidh, etc. It all adds up!
  • Kirkliston Primary School for letting me have a stall at your Christmas Fayre for free.  
  • The Mary Erskine School, who pointed out various trusts I should apply to, all of whom I then proceeded to receive money from.
  • The Community Arts Fund who allowed me to use the Tom Fleming Centre for my ceilidh rent-free, which added a lot to the end profit. 
  • Chris Duffy who did huge amounts in terms of the organisation of the ceilidh, which was my main fundraising event and which caused me endless grief and stress but which in the end paid off when we counted up the incredible £1,300 it raised!
  • Those of you who donated more than I could ever expect from anyone. That includes Sue Beedie, Elizabeth Ferguson, and my cousins Richard, Lorraine, Nikki and Alex Beedie in New Zealand to name but a few.
  • And lastly, anyone who donated even a single penny. I received donations from so many people, some of whom I have never even met and don't recognise the name of. It has touched my heart that people are so generous and selfless towards someone they hardly know. 
So that's it. I hope I've not missed anyone so I'm sorry if I have - your help has not gone unnoticed! I really could not have done it without all of your help and I appreciate you digging in your pockets even with the economic mess Britain is in.

Charitable Trusts

The Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust
The MES FP Guild Gap Year Fund
Independent Schools Travel Association Scholarship
The Alchemy Foundation
The Hinton Trust
The Zoe Carss Education Trust
The Tory Family Foundation
The Bryan Lancaster Trust
The Nichol Young Foundation
The Walker Family Charitable Trust
Dr Dorothy Millar Charitable Trust
Kenneth Ryden Travel Scholarship

Heather <3

Monday 6 May 2013

Placement letter!

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” - Gustave Flaubert

So I got the exciting email last week telling me where exactly in Peru I will be! I will be spending 12 months in a Northwesterly city called Trujillo. I was so excited there are no words, I got the email at school, about 5 minutes before I had to leave for my music lesson and it was killing me that I couldn't just spend that half hour researching my placement and the city and whatnot. Then afterwards when I went to class my teacher was all like "Heather, you're looking very perky today" - I have to admit I was a little bit hyper/crazy/doing everything with much more enthusiasm than normal and I'm pretty sure I was close to hyperventilating. Maybe that's too big a reaction to be counted as 'normal' but hey ho, this is where I'll be living for a whole 12 months, so it's pretty important to me. Anyway to inform y'all about where I'll be eating and sleeping from this August 2013, here goes:
 




First of all, I don't think I have even explained where Peru is in the world. That might help....














Trujillo is a beautiful coastal town, sandwiched right between the Pacific coast to the West and the Andes to the East (this is just ideal for me...as you can probably tell from the title of my blog I'd love to go to the Andes and this will provide the perfect opportunity - yay!)








Trujillo is reasonably large, meaning there is a lot going on yet still preserving that sense of belonging to a community. Pan pipes or traditional Andean music are often heard and the varied geography is some of the most astonishing in the world, with the country being split into three parts: the dry desert in the West; the Andean mountain strip down the centre of the country (along the Western coast of all of South America); and the Amazon Rainforest, covering most of the East and into Brazil. 




The lost city of Chan Chan is close by to Trujillo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with pre-Incan ruins which covers 20km² and was built in 850 AD.









I will be working with around 60 orphans and abandoned children, generally helping with the day to day running of the orphanage, along with organising activities such as arts, crafts and music. I will also encourage the children to study (although I hear this tends to be rather difficult!) which may involve teaching some English.

The home is split up into 8 "family units" comprising of one tia (house mother) and 8 kids in each. Myself and my partner (whom I will meet in July) will be living in a small apartment within the orphanage with a lounge, kitchen, bathroom and 2 bedrooms. There is, however, no fridge, so I will have to survive without my daily doses of milk!

Okay that was maybe my longest ever post (or at least it felt like it - maybe it's just because it was the most exciting post) so I'll leave you with this picture of some really cute Peruvian kids.




Heather <3