My first post all the way from Ayacucho, Peru!!!

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Yep, I am sitting in an internet place with actual Peruvians (and a lovely Belgian named Doro who is my life support for the day) typing.....Amazing.
Well let me begin firstly, by saying that, Fuck me what a journey. To say it was awful is a massive understatement. Ok...well not all of it was....the flight to Miami with BA with awesome. Nice seats in fact 2 to myself, entertainment, quite nice food....generally comfortable. The Miami flight to Lima with American Airlins, not so nice. No joke, the plane looked like it stepped straight out of the 1980s, there was carpet up the walls of it...I once caught a train to Scarborough with the exact same decoy. The food was inedible....although after a 9 hour flight to Miami, a 6 hour wait at Miami, I managed to dry swallow a whole roll and some mash potato. Katie D - no joke the chicken was Athlone style. Purple with grizzle. It makes me wretch thinking about it now. So I finally get to Lima and was expecting it to be very clear where I could book my 10 hour coach trip to Ayacucho. No such luck. Apparently I had to take a 30min taxi trip into Lima, find the office and then book my ticket. There was also no guarantee I could get a bus the same day as you normally have to book a day in advance. So I decided to book a flight...turns out I would have to wait 24 hours in the airport....so it was a case of what is the lesser of two evils.... I went with flight. And Oh my god...the wait was horrendous.......in the end I curled up into the foetal position and slept on some seats on and off. But anyway I got here somehow!
Ayacucho is very traditional....its grotty and dirty but has a good feeling! If that makes any sense! The Casa Hogar, the orphanage, is basic and the kids are loud and speak very fast spanish. I have been working with the disabled children who are lovely. The house where the volunteers (there are about 10 of us)stay is...well an experience. The toliet is outside and you have to hose it down as its not actually plumbed in. Yep. Instead of a toilet brush there is a stick with a piece of cloth wrapped round the bottom. Just in case the hose doesnt shift your shit, you can conveniently beat it down with a stick. The shower is also outside and, yep youve guessed it, no running water. You have to go to the roof, fill up this big bucket with cold tap water, go back down to the shower, undress in the garden, praying that it really is isolated and then hose yourself down. Horrendous. My room is at the front of the house and each morning I am woken by street dogs ripping the shit out of each other at about 3am (nice fact for you-there are dogs everywhere and each casa/house has a couple but they dont feed them dog food they just eat scraps...and other dead dogs...yep..there was a dogs head in our garden the other day being consumed by Rutt our dog) then by the dude who sells bread literally holding down his fucking car horn at about 5am...
But anyway...I digress...I am in Peru working, desperately trying to learn Spanish and French (all the volunteers appear to be french speaking damn them...even the Canadian!) and enjoying a whole other culture!
Peace out x

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Comments

[Katie Espley]

Praise be! she's alive, she's alive! Very very glad to hear you have arrived safely, if a little traumatically in Peru. The description of the "facilities" if you can call them that, cracked me up! Keep safe dude and best stay away from the dogs ( dead ones and living ones) eh?xxx