A relaxing week!

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Well last week was a pretty chilled out week, which I was definitely in need of after my crazy weekend! On monday we returned from our weekend at the coast and so on tuesday I was pretty exhausted still. I went to work in the morning, and had fun playing with my wawa's. Laine also came with me as she does not want to go back to her clinic for her last week, and it was nice to have someone else there with me. Apart from anything else its really nice to have someone that I can actually talk to! My spanish is improving I think, and me and Gloria are now able to have some conversations, and I can understand most of what she asks me, but we still struggle sometimes.
We had a new little girl on tuesday who obviously is not used to being apart from her mum, and she cried so much that she made herself throw up. It wasn't nice! And she did exactly the same thing on wed. On thursday although she still cried for the entire time I was there, she managed to make it through the morning without vomiting so I think we made some progress! One of the other little girls is ill as well, she has bronchitis and she is coughing a lot. The worst part for me is that she can't even cry properly, she just can't get any sound out, and its really sad to see a one year old who can't even cry! But she's taking some medicine from the doctor and does seem to be getting better so I hope she'll be fine soon. Last week a couple of the volunteers who are working in health clinics saw a little girl of six months who had died from bronchitis, so its kinda scary and I really hope that Brittany is better before I leave.
On tuesday afternoon I did very little cos I was tired out from the weekend and on wednesday afternoon we had another guest speaker so I stayed at the house for that. Although I didn't find the guest speaker this week (on traditional medicine) as interesting as I have done the past two, I was quite interested to hear how it is still used as an alternative or complementary system along with 'Western' medicine. Apparently a lot of people here use both systems, using each one to treat different problems. Their traditional medicine is used to treat what they call 'cultural disorders', and the poeple know the symptoms to look out for in order to decide whether to consult a doctor or a healer. Again, as with the other talks, Marisol was able to give an insight into her own personal experiences of traditional medicine and healers, which helped us to understand the views of the people here.
After the talk, Tori asked me to go with her to teach at the university as the other guys she was doing it with have now left, so I thought I would go with her and see what it was like. It was actually a really fun hour. It was the lasrgest group that Tori has ever had and there were some new people as well as people who had been going for a while, so we split the group in two and I taught the new people some basic questions such as "what is your name', 'how old are you' and 'how are you'. I never realised how hard it is to teach English and trying to differentiate between How old are you and How are you was really quite challenging. But I enjoyed it and for one of the first times since I've been here I could actually see a difference that I had made. Although I know we make a difference at all our placements, sometimes its hard to see this, and this one class showed me so clearly the difference we were making. It was really rewarding.
And then on thursday afternoon I had the chance to do something which I have been meaning to do for a while but had not yet got around to doing, and that was to spend some time at the girls orphanage. Although its called a girls orphanage, there are also spaces for boys, but only up until they reach the age of 6, and I was able to spend two hours with the babies there. There were about 12 babies there, and me and Cat spent the time playing with them and giving them lots of cuddles. There was one little boy there who had Downs Syndrome and he crawled on to my lap with the biggest smile ever. Unfortunately we were told not to hold the babies for too long because they get attached and then get upset when you leave, and after holding him a while I tried to put him down, which he was not happy about! He started crying and then starting banging his head on the floor, so I had to pick him up again. We did this a couple of times, and then in the end I lay him down on a mattress and let him cry there, at least he couldn't hurt himself now! It was really sad and I would have loved to have held him longer but I didn't want it to be even harder when we left. But it broke my heart watching him crying and reaching out to me.
It was really interesting to see the orphanage and to spend some time with another group of gorgeous children! Because of the high levels of poverty in Ayacucho, there are a lot of children that are abandoned by parents who can't afford to feed and look after them, and its really nice to see how well they are being looked after by the nuns at this orphanage. They have a primary school on site and the older children go out to one of the secondary schools in the city. I talked to Rudy on the way back and its also nice to hear that the children are well looked after they leave the orphanage. There is one house where the girls can go where they are fed and given money to continue their education, and then the other girls are usually taken in by some of the families here. Often the girls are used as housekeepers by these families, but they are treated well and are still visited by their social workers to ensure this. Again these girls are also normally given the chance to continue their education if they want, which I think is really important. I had had images of the girls being mistreated and basically used as slaves by the families they are taken in by so I was really relieved to hear that that wasn't the case! Anyway I really enjoyed my afternoon there and will definitely go back if I can.
Friday morning I went back to the prison again, and although I had been hoping to take the children there out (the kids stay with their mums in the prison till they're 3-4 and they only go outside on fridays when the volunteers here take them out), marisol was unfortuantely needed elsewhere so we were not able to do this. But Tori, Cat and Julia, who all work at the prison every day, were helping the ladies to make enchiladas that morning so they needed some help anyway. It was an interesting project, as all they had to cook on were two gas camping stoves and a portable oven which looked like a wok with a lid on! But the women were really enthusiastic and took on most of the cooking themselves, with only a little help from us. We had been planning on eating the enchiladas with the ladies but were a bit dubious, as the spinach we used had been washed there, and we weren't sure how safe the water was. In the end we all tried one, with much persuasion from the women, and they were actually delicious. We have decided that we are going to make them again one day at the house.
As some of the other volunteers were leaving this weekend we decided to go out friday eve and we went back to the nightclub that Julia, Natalija and I had discovered the first weekend we were here. We went to a bar first for a couple of drinks and then hit the club. It was a really good night, with everyone in really good moods and a lot of silliness! One of the guys here Grayson is pretty crazy and he in particular added to the entertainment of the night, by doing various mad dance moves, including some pretty amusing ballet on the dance floor. The only bad thing about the night was on the walk back home, when we nearly got attacked by some mad dog. Julia decided that a good way of getting rid of it was to throw a stone at it, but for some reason this only made it more mad! Anyway we made it home in one piece after a really enjoyable night!
Unfortunately I woke up on saturday morning feeling really rough, and although at the time I thought I was experiencing the worst hangover ever, I later discovered that it was actually the enchiladas (probably the spinach) we had eaten the day before and everyone else was suffering the same as me. I felt really ill and after being sick twice I stayed in bed and slept until two in the afternoon. As everyone else was ill as well, the rest of the day was really uneventful and the most exciting part of the day was making pizzas for tea!
Sunday was equally as uneventful as sat, although on the most part we were all feeling better. We just felt we needed a quiet weekend after the last one so we just chilled out at the house and relaxed.
On monday it was a public holiday so most of our placements weren't open. Grayson's school was going on a fieldtrip out to the country and we had been invited to join them, but I felt that spending the day out in the hot sun was probably the last thing I needed to do so I decided not to go. As everyone else went with Grayson, I went with Tori to the prison to help her teach English for a couple of hours. There was only two women that came to the lesson but it was quite fun, we taught them the names of the body parts and also "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' which was funny! After we returned to the house we went to 'Gringo Plaza' for lunch as we had told the cooks not to boither with our lunch so they could have the day off, and it was a really nice chilled out meal. After lunch we returned to the house to chill out some more and enjoy having a quiet house (that very rarely happens here!). It was actually kinda annoying as we had a big storm and had no electricity for a few hours and the internet didn't work all day so I spent a productive afternoon napping, and playing cards!
The bad part of the weekend was that quite a few of the volunteers left, and its going to be really weird not to have them here. Two of the girls that have left, Laine and Katie, I got on with really well and I was really sad to see them go. Its amazing how quickly you bond with people during an experience like this and I nearly started crying when I had to say goodbye to katie Sat eve. But we swapped email addresses so hopefully we can stay in touch. And next weekend we have a new group of volunteers coming in, so it will be interesting to meet some more new firends (although I'll only be here for another week, :-(.
This morning it was back to the wawa wasi for more fun playing with my babies, followed by another relaxing afternoon in the house. I've got a cold at the mo, and haven't been sleeping well at nights, so I'm pretty exhausted in the afternoons and don't really feel like doing anything. But this evening I'm determined to go to the spanish lesson as I haven't been for a few days and need to continue with them to continue improving my spanish. Thats about it for now, not a very exciting week this week but am still having fun and enjoying my time here. I've also now booked my trip for when my volunteer placement is over, and I'm really excited bout that! I'll be going to Cusco, Macchu Picchu, Colca Canyon (which is deeper than the grand canyon) and the rain forest, it should be really good. Will write again soon, hope all is well at home. Missing everyone loads! xx

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