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