Days 7 - 11

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Hello all! Second update in nearly two weeks of being on the other side of the world!!!

Where to start: the shower in the Mad flat is always bloody freezing and it´s driving us both insane. Other than that, the first week of teaching has been pretty intense. Every morning, we travelled for half an hour to work from 9-12 in a place called San Jeronimo market, at the back of which are two tiny classrooms that each holds approximately 35 kids under the age of 5. We had one class each, and were there to help the teachers to control the class and give them exercises and activities to do. The poverty that the children live in is unbelievable, and they were incredibley hard to control as they were all so desperate for attention.

At 3pm, we would get a bus to a local village where we would work at a place called "Seeds of Hope", an organisation run by a young man called Javier. There, we work for a few hours helping the local children with their homework and providing them with games, activities and english lessons. The kids are a little older, and generally better behaved for that reason, but they were still very hard work!!!

The teaching has been difficult, but very rewarding. The kids are lovely and always wanting cuddles, and our art and crafts resources have been put to good use.

Generally, this week has been good fun, with us and the MAD crew going out for meals (one exceptionally bad one that included lots of raw chicken) and going out to clubs and pubs in the evening. We have discovered a British pub called "The Real McCoy" which does the most AMAZING milkshakes in the whole world. Our Spanish language skills are improving drastically, (as are our tans), and Alex got to sample the delights of a traditional Peruvian football match full of crazy South American fans and neverending Mexican waves. Peru lost to Brazil 3 - 0, but it was still a great experience.

The alpaca and vicuña wool out here is really cheap (an alpaca jumper that would cost 500 quid in Britain, costs just over 10 quid here!!!) Please feel free to give us your clothing orders; needless to say, socks and gloves and all the bare neccessities will be purchased!!!

In general news, happy birthday to Lisa for friday the 18th of April (presents will be brought home with us!!!) and thank you to Mike and Sarah who are helping us out a lot with our Mexico plans. It´s great to hear that you are all well, and we miss you all loads!!!

Lots of love,

Chalexander

xxxx

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