Tommy Battley

Its been an exciting time in Peru so far. Completely not what I was expecting, but at 35 degrees every day I can’t complain. After arriving nearly 2 weeks ago, from a long, boring, 12 hour Iberia flight, I was told that we were leaving with all the children from the refuge nearly straight away for a 6 hour trip to Casma. I was initially furious, as it completely destroyed my plans for the shanty towns – or at least I wasn’t told about this, so had to put them on hold. So instead it was 8 days at a secluded beach in the middle of no where, and although still a place in extreme poverty, my main plans for coaching in shanty towns were on hold. But when does a plan ever go to plan!? ... read more

I have spent the last couple days in Las Laderas coaching as many children as possible in my final days here. I was helped by some of the mothers with only small bits of translation as now my spanish is a lot better. They also helped take the pictures. It was a fantastic experience as i arrived yesterday for the first session, as all the children who had been with me before knew i was coming and ran to the taxi as i turned up. They grabbed the bag of footballs and marched me up the hill so that we could start. It was a bit hectic as Las Laderas holds 8000 children, everyone who came by wanted to join in. I did the same session with roughly 25 different children per hour. 'The Don' of ... read more

Today i landed safely in Cusco with a very light head. I met melquiades at the airport who took me to the Santa Rosa hotel. A beautiful hotel in the middle of inca stoned building. It was important to sleep for two hours to get used to the altitude. After this i was shown around a wonderful town of Cusco, it is like going back in time with llamas patrolling the street and little old ladies selling finger puppets, inca hats and keepsakes. It is surrounded by green mountains and inca stone, as the whole town is in what effectively is a hole in the earth, a valley. Proper tomb raider stuff!! I was also taken to Sagssaywaman, on top of the mountain where you could see the whole of the town, it was amazing. I ... read more

For the past week i have been in Camsa. A downtown village 5 hours from lima. Ive come here with everyone from the refuge as their holiday. Coaching internittently while having fun with the children at the beach and participating in various recreation. I have no access to internet here, so escaped for a few minutes to update. It been a great week but very tough. It is deserted here. A beautiful beach with fantastic scenery but minimal people. In a few years it will be a massive tourist attraction which will infact ruin the peace and quiet of a lovely place to go and relax. Apart from the beach, there are a few homes, a church and simply desert. Nothingness, but sand, for miles. Yet a wonderful secluded destination. As much as we are away ... read more

Today was a slight change of plan. Straight after breakfast i handed out the team shirts that Surrey Sports Park provided. Also, presenting many footballs i spent the night pumping up. It was a moment to treasure as everyone felt like they had status and all part of one family. Excited to experience forthcoming events. As opposed to the swimming pool today, i took everyone to a 3G football pitch, where we spent a few hours going through fun games and basic football skills and drills. Of course, ending with a game, it was a joy to behold as it made a change for them to play on something other than concrete. We returned to the refuge, to take part in a mega volleyball match with some of the children and all the local staff. It ... read more