Leaving Home...

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So much to say and so little time to say it so here´s a brief account of our last 3 weeks in peru...
(p.s. we´ll post a blog with a link to our photos as soon as we can...I have 13rolls of film to develop!!)

By the time we got into our second week in Huancayo we´d really settled into a routine. Prianca continued to work at the orphanage while I started lessons with a Peruvian Nurse who wanted to improve her English. This was difficult for me as her English was advanced and so the next step for her was to learn grammatical rules...which I didn´t really know! So we ended up practicing pronounciation and conversation where we discussed her work as she was working on a project involving educating teenagers about AIDS, and I was able to compare it directly with what I learnt in South Africa. It was really interesting to see how differently the two countries tackled the problem.

The weekend started with a trip to Lima for my birthday. We spent saturday morning having a nice breakfast and wandering around Miraflores shopping - after having hot showers with actual running water, of course! We then managed to find a Pizza Hut for lunch which went down very well! After having a long overnight bus journey from Huancayo to Lima we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in our hostel before hitting the English Pub for Happy Hour at around 5ish - they had Corona! (Finally a decent beer!) What happened in Lima from then until 6:30 on Sunday morning, stays in Lima! You´ll have to come and visit us for the details!

During our final week in Huancayo, we met the volunteers who would be taking over from us. We showed them the ropes, introduced them to our classes and warned them about the public transport! Going through things with them made us realise how much we had both gotten used to living here and how much we were going to miss this place and the people when we eventually had to leave.

We got to our final teaching day which was inevitably emotional. Lots of goodbyes were said and more pictures taken. The family, with everything they are going through are incredible. Things have gone from bad to worse for them as they were told this week that Romyna, their little girl, has been given 3months to live. Yet despite this, they still went out of their way to look after us and make sure we had everything we needed. At our last dinner, we gave them few small gifts and Marisol, the mother, gave us a speech thanking us for looking after her children and being there through their difficult time. Saying goodbye wasn´t easy but it´s something we´ve had to get used to over the past 6weeks - as impossible as it is. It really was like leaving home.

We decided a few days before leaving Huancayo that we wanted to visit Arequipa, and we were able to as we found some cheap flights. So after spending the morning taking in the main sights of Lima we set off for the airport and headed to the "White City". It is so-called because all the buildings in Arequipa are made of "Sillar" (white stone). It reminds me a lot of Bath except with bigger buildings and shorter people! The Plaza de Armas is one of the most spectacular in the whole of South America - and it really is beautiful! Arequipa is a seismic city (as are many in Peru) and in 1995, after one of its earthquakes, "Juanita" a 500-year old mummy, perfectly preserved by snow and ice, was discovered. Through carbon dating and the fact that all her organs are still intact, scientists have been able to date her back as a 12-year old virgin girl sacrificed by the Incas and we were lucky enough to be able to go and see her. Courtesy of one of the many friends we met on our travels, we were able to stay in a nice hotel resort and eat and drink for free (you know your Spanish is good when you can blag your way to free cervezas)! So we took advantage and spent one of our final days in Peru relaxing in Arequipa.

After 6weeks of travelling, hundreds of steps climbed, many people met and many more cerveza´s consumed, we find ourselves on our final day as honarary Peruvians reluctant to leave. And as much as we´re looking forward to seeing you all we have really gotten used to living here and have decided to stay for 3 more months..

See you at Christmas!

Love Avni and Prianca xx

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