The work

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Hi All

Been 2 weeks or so since I had a little tap at the old and somewhat crusty keybord here in Tujillo.

To fill you in,

Well firstly have started the volunteering in Bruce Peru, the day consists of getting up at about half 7, sometimes making rolls for the children and then at about 8.30 we head off to one of the 5 locations to help teach. Most of the locations are in the shanty towns on the outskirts of Tujillo, few have running water or power but that is something I have come to expect. In general the schools are pretty dire, in the fact that they eaither have dirt or straight concrete floors, crusty tables and plastic stools. But I guess that is kind of what I was expected when applying for the work. The children are more then happy in school, I guess its a bit of improvement for some of them.

As an example I went to one of the childs houses the other day to see why she has not been coming to class. She is 11 years old and her mum died a year ago and the dad just left the children on there own. So now she is the oldest in the house and has to look after 3 other kids. Over here this story happens frequently, as I have been told by my english conversation class there are 3 or 4 woman to ever man, and in the shanty towns men often have 2 or 3 partners, and do not look after their offspring.

Despite the rough conditions and the obvious neglect the children are always so happy to see you in the mornings, they always come up hug you and give you a kiss on the cheek. Many are so eager to learn and often will not stop pestering you at the end of ythe class, trying to get you to give them more homework.


The town of Trujillo itself is very gracefull, at the center and just by were we stay is the Plaza de Armus, which is such a beautiful square with the towns Catedral on one side, the Heros of War statue in the middle. It is a great place for people watching and always is busy with painters, candy sellers, shoe shiners and many Peruvians busting the moves on their better halves.

The markets are similar to most towns, myself and a firend tried to eat at the central market, about 1$ for chicken and noodles, I have to say with all the flies sitting on the open meat and fact that the cut of chicken that I had did not resemble any part of the chicken I know will probably mean eating there is a once off.

Close to Trujillo is the surfing beach of Huanchaco, it is a left hand point break with beach breaks aswell. On a good day you can get rides up to 700m and more. The place is so consistant though, there has not been one day yet that I have gone there to find bad surf. So that is a real plus of being here.

In the weekend just been myself and a Zim mate, Tom, went to Chicama, whis has the worlds longest left hand point, the place although not at its best was still pumping and we surfed it with about 5 other perple for 5 hours. Most of the time you are the only person in the water because everyone is doing the 1 km walk pack out to the point. It was so much fun. On its day appreantly it can break for 2 km, but god knows how to surf it. after the 1km mark my legs were gooooonnnnneeeeeee.

On the way back from there, (about 1 hour) our taxi got stopped 4 times by real honest local Police, taking bribes of about 2 usd each time. Was pretty random but added to the day.

Well thats it from me.

Cheers

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