TB strikes

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Helloooo everyone

Well you´ll all be very relieved to hear that this blog entry wont be nearly as long as previous ones due to my having done absolutely nothing this week. For the first couple of days I thought I had TB (though this was more to do with the fact I only just found out that BCG doesn´t protect you from TB than any rational conclusions, and no I´m still not over that yet.) I just had a fever and a really bad cough, exactly the same as the one Bob used to have! What a blast from the past. Anyway, it was very annoying because I only went to school on Monday this week, but I should definitely be well enough to go back tomorrow so that´s good news.

Last weekend was lots of fun, Sushi and dancing etc. In the whole city there are 2 clubs, and they both play only salsa, with about one techno song every hour. But it was an experience! We had 2 new volunteers arrive at the weekend; Janelle who is 26 and from New York, currently working as a conservation volunteer at the Grand Canyon and Louise who is 24 I think and from Ireland. She´s obviously an incredibly nice person, but the kind of nice that I find very tiring. She´s really into music though, she went on tour with Unkle! She´s also quite scatty, she managed to get lost for 2 hours one night, she didn´t bring any flat shoes with her and she only drinks coke zero. Then early on in the week Travis left which was quite sad; he was really funny and good to have around. Jules and Sarah also left to carry on their travels throughout South America, including spending some months wwoofing in Argentina which sounds like something I will definitely be doing in the future! And I´m pretty sure mum will like the sound of it aswell! If anyone wants to check it out here´s the website: http://www.wwoof.org/

It was Mikey´s birthday on Monday so Mathilde and I made another crumble which was quite nice but not nearly as good as the last one, we should probably use actual measurements next time. We decorated the roof with balloons and had a mini party so that was really nice, apart from I had to go to bed almost straight away because that´s when I started feeling ill. I really have spent the whole week watching tv and venturing out for an occasional slice of cake. I started to feel better on Friday so my weekend wasn´t totally ruined. We went to Huanchaco again on Saturday to show the new girls around and it was a nice day, didn´t get burned this time! Apart from a little bit on my back... I bought some hand made earrings from a guy from Arequipa who´s travelling north up to Colombia, which were originally 20 soles but when I told him I only had 10 he let me have them for that! Everyone keeps telling me how amazing Colombia is, but we´ll have to leave it for another time. Today Rich and Mathilde are doing a roast and making some brownies so that´s dinner sorted! And Maurice left this morning as well. We might get some peace now! Maurice somehow managed to capture the hearts of about 10 different Peruvian girls who would phone the apartment constantly looking for him, so much so he had to tell them he was leaving a few days earlier than he actually was. The house certainly feels very different to how it did when I first arrived, we had 14 people at one point and now we´re 8!

Due to all the arrivals and departures Mathilde has been made the volunteer coordinator and several changes were made to who was going to what school. I offered to be moved just because I´d like to see as much of everything as possible, and also partly because it means I won´t have to be with Lorenzo the whole time. His heart is in the right place but he is a bit of an arrogant Frenchman (shock!) and also he talks very mcuh all the time. So now I go to Alto Trujillo with Janelle, which is a really nice school, and it´s actually a school not a room. They´ve got a vegetable patch in between the 2 main buildings and it´s all open so its really airy and light and we have tables and chairs and posters and its really nice. Also there´s a different teacher which is good, her name is Issella and she´s really good. She actually gives me some guidance about what to be teaching the kids! And the one day I was there we worked until about 12.30 which would never have been possible at Nuevo Jerusalem. I´m sure there´s more kids now but on the first day there were only 10 so it was quite managable.

I´m glad to have something slightly different to do for my last 3 weeks because I can see this getting quite boring after a while; I´m glad I chose 2 months to be honest. I think it´s probably the right amount of time to get to know the city and to get a good idea of the organisation but not so long that you´re really bored. I am very much looking forward to the next part of the trip though!

So there we go, told you it wouldn´t be that long 😊

Lots of love to everyone xxx

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Photos

DSCN3646
Having lunch at Otra Cosa- a sickeningly ethical traveller hotspot

Comments

[Kayleigh]

I agree- wwoofing sounds like something for the future! I'm glad you haven't actually got TB and that you're feeling better. How are the salsa lessons going?

[anonymous]

DSCN3658- I thought that was you holding a man's (that clearly isn't Tom's) hand, but further investigations prove me wrong. How disappointing. NEW BLOG NOW!

[Kayleigh]

I forgot to add my name. Did you guess it was me? Ok I'm going to go get a life now.