Amz 91
Amy Ballantyne Joined: July 18th 2009
Logged in: September 9th 2009
Logged in: September 9th 2009
I am leaving for Peru on 3rd August. After landing in Lima i will transfer to the highland region of Huancayo where i will stay for 4 weeks, as an assistant English teacher to the street children.
I will be staying with a Peruvian family and I am really looking forward to experiencing their culture and a very different way of life.
I am very excited to pass on as much as i can to the children i meet and to learn more about myself!
Hopefully i will be in touch soon :)
Bye for now
xxx
Travel Blog Posts
Hello! My trip is gradually coming to an end- tomorrow will be my final day at both the orphanage and the school. Whilst i must admit that i am looking forward to returning home, i will without a doubt be sad to leave. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, it has been quite challenging at times but that has made it all the more rewarding. As i expected I have become somewhat attached to the children... saying goodbye won´t be easy! I don´t think that i have mentioned the driving here yet...it is CRAZY! The roads are very wide and there are no lanes, making it possible for 2-3 cars, minibuses, coaches, bikes to drive alongside eachother in no particular order. Whilst walking, almost every taxi that passes by assumes that you want a ride, ... read more
Hello! On Saturday morning we went to Torre Torre which, alike everything else here, you have to climb up some very steep hills to reach! As we walked through a small village on our way, many children ran up to us eager to practice their english shouting ´hello, i love you, goodbye!´ Torre Torre was great to see and made some brilliant photos, but i´m pretty certain that it is the most terrifying thing i have ever done! It is in the middle of nowhere and definitely not tourist friendly! We had to climb along thin strips of rock, whilst very high up, on loose footing and when i tried to grab hold of rocks they fell away! I can´t explain how horrible it was at times, but it was just about worth it! On the ... read more
Hello, I have been relatively busy this week- helping at the orphanage 9.30-1 then at the school 3-5. Whilst at the orphanage I have been trying to entertain the babies, change them and help to feed the toddlers. This sounds simple enough but to be honest i have found it exhausting! Lunch is usually reversed so that the giggling children try to feed me their food and the spoons often become phones as they all shout at eachother! I have to admit that i find it quite amusing, but i can understand how it isn´t for the staff who are on the receiving end each day. I sometimes find it hard to maintain a good level of enthusiasm after a couple of hours, but it doesn´t take much from me whilst i think that it makes ... read more
Hola! On Saturday I went shopping in the centre of Huancayo and bought some .....interesting gifts! I soon discovered that it is best to use 50 Soles notes in the main supermarket as they are generally not accepted anywhere else, although 50 Soles is only around 10 pounds. Apparently it is fairly common here for pockets and bags of tourists to be cut open and their money, passport etc stolen without them realising. However, I feel fairly safe walking around, i carry my bag on my front in busy places and know that if a group of children run up and hug you, it is a good idea to walk away before their hands find their way into your pockets! The majority of people on the streets either begging or selling food are elderly women. In ... read more
Hello again :) On Wednesday I met a 24 year old from Germany called Pascale, who is staying around 15mins away from me and speaks english and spanish!! She is very nice and has shown me around the area, it is also a huge relief as i have been struggling along with virtually no spanish at all! (It took me around 20mins to buy some lip balm this morning ... and i´m not convinced that it is lip balm because the man that sold it to me kept doing impressions of rubbing it on his cheeks!!) I started working at the school yesterday which wasn´t at all as i expected it to be. The youngest child there was 2 whilst the oldest was 12 and many of the older children arrived with younger siblings on their ... read more
Hello, I landed in Lima late last night and I'm still unsure about who i stayed the night with! I was picked up from the airport and taken to a very nice flat near by, shown to my room , woken up at 6am and told i was going on the bus!! Lima was very interesting, especially the extreme contrast in wealth. There were huge colourful billboards in every direction standing directly above homeless women. Women were working on food stalls with their babies in prams, by their side and the driving standards ... were interesting!! After a 7 hour bus journey I arrived in Huancayo, where i will be staying for the next four weeks. I didn´t mind the long journey as the route was very scenic and i was able to see quite a ... read more
