Day 1 - volunteering, pics, etc.

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Hola

Well, now you can enjoy some pictures of some of my experiences in Peru thus far.


yesterday was busy, after my orientation I went shopping and then had a short visit at my orphanage. There are about 15 kids, both boys and girls. Most orphanages here are either all boys or all girls so this one is a bit different. I got a quick peek around and was shocked at the kitchen and main area the kids play in. It really isn´t pretty.

The bedrooms are set up quite cute which is nice. They mostly have bunk beds and that is their personal space. It´s quite a small area with no grass so not a lot of room to play games etc. I found out that most of the kids are abandoned, not just orphaned but most of the time the kids are never adopted! It might be sort of like a big foster family in Canada...basically they can stay at an orphanage as long as they work hard until they are 18, if there aren´t too many younger kids. I was told that often times the children leave the orphanages as soon as they can somewhat survive on their own as it is tough going at some of the homes and most of the kids come from off the street.

I proceeded to go out browsing the many markets, found out about free salsa classes downtown and Chris and I went for a great supper out. I couldn´t get over how many times I was offered a massage here, I decided it was time to count how many times people asked - I think it was about 8 ppl in about 4 mins!

I had an early night because I was super tired and this morning got up early for my first volunteer day. I started at the orphanage at 8 am. They have a boys room and a girls room and a small children´s playroom. I played with the younger children and the other 2 older girls. I taught them how to play rummy as I know spanish numbers and eventually worked them into a bit of english for the numbers. It was fun but after almost 4 hours of cards, I was done. The little ones just liked to play on the floor with a couple of toys and eventually found out that I would pick them up....were they excited about that! They definately didn´t want me to leave at 12 but I promised to be back in the morning the next day so it worked out ok in the end. Apparently I have to ask to get pics of the kids so I will wait until I get a bit more acquainted with the lady running the orphanage ' ok, gotta go now. Hope you enjoy the stories and pics! Buenos Tardes,

Ciao ' Chloe

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Photos

The Local Lawnmower
This dude was working hard at one of the parks near downtown!

Orphanage
In the middle of a busy street behind these doors and then behind some bars, are some beautiful orphans...

Famous 12 Sided Rock
Not much more to say about this one!

The Town Square Park
I had dinner in a restaurant overlooking this. If you look carefully to the right in the mountain you can see some writing about Peru...