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Published: April 5th 2010
So I survived my afternoon with the pequenos...and I really want to stress the word survived. It was a very surreal afternoon. I was suppose to be working with another volunteer, but she had to sell cakes in the centre, fundraising for the new casa they want to build. Dont get me started. I was roped in on day one....I had to literally stand in the street and approach people and say in spanish we are selling cakes and waffles for the case hogar los gorriones....hideous. Both my pronunciation and the blatant disregard of us volunteers by the Peruvian people. Ok, not all of them, some of them were very generous....but to put it into prospective....lets say you took to Oxford Street in the middle of the afternoon with a load of handmade cakes and tried to sell them on the street....what would your success rate be? Yeah not great.
Anyway I digress, so I had to look after the kiddies alone. For the first hour I was looking after 2 of them and we were colouring very peacefuly...then all of a sudden the senoritas start yelling ´el toro´ and that we have to go upstairs....now my spanish isnt great but I know toro is bull...but then I think...no that isnt possible....they cant bring a real bull into the orphanage....So to my logical mind I think...its Easter...its must be some peruvian tradition that someone dresses up as a bull...like in England you get old perverts who dress up as Santa....so I go inside and wait for the spectacle...all the senoritas are laughing so by this point im sure its a fake bull....then I shit ye not....all of a sudden an actual live bull is dragged through the casa through the garden and tied up at the back....oh yeah its a peruvian tradition alright......yeah to slaughter a bull. Turns out the slaughterhouse was closed so el toro had to stay at the casa until today when he will meet his untimely demise. The same fate lies ahead for the pig that appeared in our garden two days ago. The woman who owns the shop above us bought a pig for easter...I dont know what is up with the buying of animals for ritualistic slaughter here...its a bit wierd. But hey ho when in Rome....that almost sounds like I plan to kill something...I dont....promise. So yeah after el toro appeared...well that was it...all the kids went onto hyper mode. And that my friends was the end of my peaceful afternoon. From that point on, I had pissed trousers, fights, biting, I was told I was caca (shit) and a 15 minute meeting in Spanish to discuss my first day with the pequenos where I managed to say literally all of 10 words. Bull-shit.
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Natalie
non-member comment
OMFG
I will respond in full later when i'm not on my lunchbreak at work, but I say again OMFG!!!