Blogs from Ayacucho, Peru, South America - page 8

Hola, Doesn't that title remind you faithful readers of a previous blog entry?? Yes - lots of rain and I'm soaked through. I've never experienced rain like this anywhere except the Andes!! Apologies for the volume of photos today. Some should have been published yesterday, but the storm put paid to that. Storm didn't come to much, just lots of heavy rain. Kinda disappointing as I was hoping for a beautiful Andes lightning show. Was up early today and made breakfast in hotel. They seem to understand my Spanish re being vegetarian and I was given fried eggs, with a selection of warm breads. Freshly squeezed pineapple juice and topped of with Matte de Coca to ward off any altitude effects. After breakfast I went for a wander. I went back towards the CCS house and ... read more

So while I am writing my travel experiences, there will be a couple of entries that backtrack, but I hope you enjoy them anyway. A bunch of events connected with the Casa Hogar that were quite neat :) * A few weeks ago, Walter, an American Christian missionary, and his wife organized a Comida Mexicana to benefit the Casa. Many Peruvians, as well as many volunteers, showed up and we ate yummy tacos. My personal highlight was the brownies that the wife made with real walnuts. They were exquisite. * On the week of her birthday, I decided to take one of the older girls, Sonia, to the center, since they are not allowed to go out alone much. So we walked around the city for a while and had ice-cream and she had a piece ... read more

A/N: More photos have been added to the previous (Ayacucho) entry so check them out. Also, yes, the dates of the entries are old, but I am trying to catch up on the events so I am using dates of when they happened rather than when I post them. I have done some serious writing recently so weekly updates will ensue. Thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments, messages, and emails :) For Mercedes: you left a message but not an email so I cannot email you back. So onto the Best and Worst of Life in Vista Alegre Let’s start with the glass half-empty :) What I dislike about my life here (I would rather put ‘hate’ but a self-help book would tell us to try not to be so negative): * There are ... read more

Anyway, before I get into details of the accommodation let me explain the current situation a little bit. According to the administrators, currently there are a lot of volunteers. Actually, what happened was that suddenly there are a lot of people who are staying over two months. Usually, most volunteers come to stay for a month or two (which means there are goodbye parties almost every week). I don't understand how you can have too many volunteers (some people who were in Ayacucho for others reasons and wanted to be volunteers for a while have been turned away), just give others more days off. Lol. That's me being lazy. Eight volunteers at a time is a correct number, but there are 9 beds available so I don't understand the logic. Sufficely to say, I am not ... read more

All of the following info is unofficial! :p Casa Hogar Los Gorriones is run by a Belgian/French couple who founded it in 2002. The Casa houses around 25 kids divided into three groups: Lupes (the disabled), Pequeños (aged 3-5), and the Grandes (aged 5-12). The Casa is designed to be more like a household and less like an institution, that is why its small. The point is for it to be like a large foster family. Many kids at 'my' Casa are not wanted by other Casas because they have special needs, having come from broken homes full of violence and alcoholism, in addition to the disabled kids. Each group of the kids have two or three employed señoritas who look after them. The volunteers support the señoritas in their work, usually entertaining the kids and ... read more