Reuniting with the family

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So I have spent the last few days living the life of luxury, eating more than ever, relaxing, watching, listening, not understanding and frantically studying my Spanish book. Yesterday I spent the day with the Noriegas of my family, starting with the youngest sibling, her husband and her baby boy, who was a smiley, quiet and massive baby!

Then to Cieneguilla to lunch with the three brothers, their friends, wives and children. What a beautiful place my cousin has built there. 30 minutes from the noise, dust and traffic of Lima, nestled in the valley of towering grey hills sillhouetted by the Sun, a bit of peace and tranquility from the chaos of Lima. There they have horses, chickens, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs. A beautiful house with a "terrace" the size of my flat in Bristol where we ate the most fantastic lunch and spent most of the day watching the children play. A beautiful day and such happy families, it was lovely spending time with them all, their wives and their children and I´m so grateful for the time they all gave me.

I have to admit my command of the Spanish language is very poor, but just listening to everyone talking helps and I´m thankfully happy enough to just sit and watch the world go by and relax. The more I listen, the more I remember, and the most important part is the more I hear how verbs are actually used. Unfortunately the more I read my book on Spanish grammar, the more I have to remember and the longer it takes me to form sentences!

Today I had a quick tour of some of the districts in Lima, it is a massive city made up of all different areas. Probably not as big as London but with no tube transport system and only cars and buses for transport, it takes a long time to get anywhere. What impresses me most here is the effort that goes into keeping areas green and manicured. Gardiners everywhere. It puts some of our cities to shame when they made a city in the desert and have more green than our rain-soaked country!

But what impresses me most about it here is the work ethic. There are no hand-outs, there are many homeless, hungry and unemployed, and every job and opportunity for work or money is taken, appreciated and made the most of. Jobs are made here for the unskilled and illiterate. And they are proud to work and improve their lives. Yes there is a massive class barrier, and there are maids and nannies and countless gardeners and street sweepers, but these are jobs, this is money, these people have the chance to earn, eat, live and improve their lot for themselves and their children. And many of these things could be done more efficiently by machines, but they aren´t, they are done by people, people who earn and are happy and then give money back to the system in taxes. I can´t help but worry that in England, a country of technology and maximising efficiency and profit with computers and machines, that we having a growing population with a dwindling job pool. Not that I know the answer, or I think technology is bad, but maybe our priorities should be humans rather than profits...

And so after my philosophising and musings of the impossible... I went for a luxurious lunch with the Max Cooper clan, silver service no less! It was fantastic to see Max and Ivy and their 'children' who are also all looking very well and happy and have new children of their own. A wonderfully close family and glad to see my uncle looking fit and well again, glad to be back with them. Funny also that news from England has been of the Fergie scandal but nothing of the Cumbria killings. Celebrity is alive here too!

So a lovely couple of days, catching up with the family, but mostly just seeing how well they are all doing and their beautiful families of their own, they are all succeeding and it is so impressive, they have worked so hard, each of them, for what they have and I´m damn well going to try and have some of that work ethic when I come home... whenever I can actually decide what work that may actually be hehe.

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Comments

[Josie]

Alex, I'm glad you're having such a wonderful time. I can't wait to hear more, keep posting. Lots of love x