October 26th-30th 2009

26th-30th October 2009

The big day finally came, I had spend so long counting down the days and then suddenly it felt like it came so quickly. I barely slept thenight before my first flight, but the hours awake were well spent spooning aiden!I tried my hardest to prepare myself for the moment that I had to say goodbye but nothing could prepare me for how hard it actually was. The realisation of just how much I was going to miss Aiden hit me like a tone of bricks the night before, saying goodbye at the airport was emotional to say the least, I think I cried the whole way to London! Thank God I didnt wear mascara! My first flight was Dublin to London and the 3 hours I had to pass in heathrow quickly passed with security and checking in. It was so strange being on the BMI plane to london, it actually had seats that reclined, sooo fancy! The next leg was a 10 hour flight to Miama, my first attempt at a little mile high nap was interrupted when a guy sitting infront of me started to have a weird fit and had to be restrained, a few doctors were trying to calm him down and i was hoosed to the back of the plane and left there for a half an hour! They told us he had "diabetes", they gave him an injection and that seemed to do the trick to calm him down, I was now pretty awake, and still had red eyes from all the tears, so I decided I needed to Cheer myself up and watch the Hangover, I defffo was one of those passingers that laughs annoyingly out loud! The movie was nicely broken up by dinner, tuscan chicken pasta, (ehh yum?) The white chocolate moose it came with was actually nice. I tried again to sleep but couldnt, then I made the mistake of watching a not so funny movie, 'my sisters keeper´' The Miami flight was followed by an hour throug emmigration in America, having to deal with the usual robotic nature of americans in airports, eh sense of humour mam! I then had a another 3 hours to wait until my next flight from Miami to Arreuiqupa, once I got on this plane I lashed some strong sleeping tablets into me, and slept for the six hours, the funny thing was when I woke up my bag (which I had stowed away) was beside me, and I had no recolection of getting it! The good think was I had a row all to myself! When I landed in Lima, the guy who had been sitting in front of me gives me is home, cell, american and peruvian number, and is a like "call me", nice to know someone fancys you after 2 days of travelling, needless to say I wont be calling Victor Alba! but I might keep his number as a momento! Its here I discovered my bag had been lost, and the nightmare ensued. I then had 3 hours in this airport before my last flight from Lima to Arequipa, which was only an hour long, One of the sisters met me at the airport and 30 hours later I was there! the experience actually was not as bad as I thought it woud be, and when I got to the Orphanage I realised the two day trip was worth it. The orphanage has 40 children, from ages 1 to 15, most of them have some physical or mental handicap, but the are all the hapiest campers I have ever met, two of the girls here are around 14-15 both have babies of there own, its a big problem in Peru for handicapped children to be sexually abused, its so sad.

So basically here I help cook, teach the kids and generally look after them. The morning starts at 6.30am with mass, which I only understand half of but its still really nice, then I have breakie with the 9 sisters that live here, then the work starts! Then for dinner one sister cooks each night, usually something from the country they are from, most of the food here is given to them which is amazing because the people here are so poor- Im learning how to make good food cheaply! I learned how to make mayonaise from scratch and pasta too! It was deffo wise of me to learn some spannish before coming here because no-one has any english! But it is helping me learn more Spannish, Ive also learned that kids can pretty much pooh their own weight every day, and kids no matter where they are from are the same playfull happy go lucky heads.

My room is Simple but nice, and so far spider free, I have a view out my windows of the mountains its gorgeous. Its about 22 degrees here every day, but so far I havnt seen much of the sun because Im teaching or helping out with rehabilitation. So far its been great, there is a lot to be said for the simple life. The kids here are so poor, they just know a different world than children in Ireland do, for example they are all fascinated with the red nail varnish on my toes, they have no idea what it is! Its deffo a reality check, Im so fricken lucky!

---

---