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Published: January 3rd 2009
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Our apartment
This is our apartment (the 2nd floor) for 2 months in Arequipa. Rent was a whopping 36 pounds each a month We´re just a few days short of finishing our time in here in Arequipa, and so thought we´d better share some photos with you and do an update.
The bulk of our time has been working with the children from a particular town where opportunities are few, and they are mainly left to their own devices as their parents have to work virtually all the time. Within moments of arriving we were whisked off with the children to Salinas, a mountain village complete with salt-plains, where this organisation has also been doing some work with children, for a weekend of cultural exchange. The children tried each other´s typical dishes, heard each other´s local stories, had a guided tour of the local area including a waterfall, and learnt about the region´s flora and fauna. There was also a talent show, and it was remarkable to see how the children transformed into being ´shy and retiring types´ once put on stage.
This weekend was a one-off; general work with them focusses on homework and other such boring things. It´s very strict - no fighting, no yelling, no dogs, no playing before homework is finished etc, and considering these are children who
Local church
The church next to our house have the freedom to go off and cause whatever mischief they like (and they do like), tareas is very well attended, and most of them are good about tolerating the homework-help sessions while they wait patiently for play/activity time, which demonstrates how much they appreciate the attention. Towards Christmas, both our time away from the children, and the childrens´ time during our activity sessions, became increasingly occupied by preparations for the Christmas party. The ´naughty table´ of boys produced some beautiful potato-print angels, and despite the best attempts of the dogs to disrupt rehearsals for the nativity play (lets just say the performances of the dogs were definately x-rated material), on the actual day of the party the place looked fantastic and the play was a huge success. The children were as always hilarious and hyperactive (everything is laced with sugar here- I´ve developed a terrible addiction) but what with all the angels and wisemen costumes they were too adorable to discipline. Amazingly the thing that finally got them to sit still in stunned silence was the volunteers´rendition of ´the 12 days of Christms´ in poor Spanish - we think it was appreciative silence...
We are living in the
Christina
Christina at the top of Colca Canyon suberbs, slightly away from the town centre where the other volunteers live. It´s an area that vibrates with life, and our appartment is slap bang in between a primary school, a church and a university, all of which seem to have a rotating schedule of making music and a general noise of existence. Both our work which keeps us in a near-constant state of panic and rush, and our previous habituation to the London-pace, causes us to attempt to march briskly whenever we´re out and about. However this puts us at real odds with the Peruvian national character (particularly the case with the university students near us), which is, in a word, ´relaxed´. Getting stuck behind the ´slow patrol´ students means having to adopt such an unnaturally slow pace that we genuinely have balance issues, and usually resort to overtaking them in a gutter dash. We´re hoping the effects of our Londonisation will start to wear off soon. Behind the walls of the University, however (which we witnessed first hand when we were doing a collection for the Christmas party), the students are a blur of activity and commotion (and of course music); I attribute the dramatic change in energy
Colca Hot Springs
We enjoyed these luxurious hot springs, by the river, at the bottom of the worlds second deepest canyon, during the rain!! levels to what one of the Peruvian volunteers (she is also a student at this university) told me about how they like to mix coca cola with black coffee for an instant boost (the rush of alertness is followed by an immediate low, which must kick-in when they are walking down the street in front of us).
We´ve just come back from 5 days treking in Colca Canyon, second deepest canyon in the world. It was so tough but so spectacular that keeping motivated was easy enough most of the time. When the exhaustion got too much for me luckily Mark was always on hand with a fart or two to get me moving again. The two nights most noteworthy for their originality were probably the one at a lodge with an open air hot spring bath, right on the edge of the river (even the icy rain didn´t manage to keep us out of that one), and the night in the oasis.
We´re leaving on Sunday to go to Bolivia. I´m going straight to Cochabamba for a three month journalism internship at a local newspaper office. Mark will spend the first month in La Paz doing an
Colca
Haldway up a very steep hill, very early in the morning. Taking lots of pictures using the timer seemed like a good excuse to rest! intensive spanish course, and then will join me in Cochabamba where he will be teaching physics.
Lots of love and hoping that everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year, and wishing you good luck with your new year´s resolutions. Please write and let us know how your´re getting on.
Big kisses Christina and Mark
xxxx
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