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Published: February 21st 2012
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Hi everyone,
I am very very tired as I write this but it is not because I have been up all night partying!
As those of you who have been to my flat know I love to decorate! I love painting and I love changing the colourscheme of a room as often as possible, and cushions are my passion in life! Well as so often happens in a project like this you bring the skills and talents that you have and you share them with the people you meet. I have shared a bit of Maths and will continue to do so, but I decided that it was time to bring my love of colour to the girls' home.
Peru is the land of the Incas and as such as colourful materials and murals are everywhere to be seen however the girls' main playroom where they have their additional lessons, watch their films, play and dance had magnolia walls! Oh it did have one red feature wall which I would normally appreciate, however it was a dull red which didn't bring any life into the room. For security reasons, the curtains are also normally kept closed which makes
the room where they spend most of their time quite a disheartening place to be.
So after the girls went off to bed, we volunteers snuck downstairs and set about bringing their room to life. Taking inspiration from some stained glass that they have in their door, we painted the whole room, brilliant orange and blue colours. Some of the volunteers also added murals which really helped to lift the spirits of the room and hopefully the spirits of the girls too. I really do believe that although painting a room could seem a little materialistic, it really will help to make their home even more warm and comforting which can't be a bad thing.
We almost managed to finish the room in one night and just have a few bits of the murals to finish off. The girls really loved it and set about moving their things around to make even more of the space. It was lovely to see them so happy and inspired by their updated room. Next stop, cushions!
What else have I to tell you? We made dinner for the kids again this week. We really wanted to make English food, a
good roast or bangers and mash but unfortunately the ingredients and an oven are quite hard to come by. So this week we made American food. Yes we made burger and chips! Beef burgers are very difficult to find so the closest we could get were chicken burgers, which were nice in the end. We spent an awful lot of man hours cutting up 10kgs of potatoes into french fries but I must confess that we cheated and bought the potatoes ready peeled from the market! All in all it cost us £30 to make enough burgers in buns with cheese, ketchup and mustard and with french fries to feed over 30 people! Now that really is a bargain. Today we will be cooking again, this time it will only be pudding though as we are going to make pancakes for the kids to celebrate Shrove Tuesday, I will let you know how that goes!
It will be quite a different way to celebrate compared to how the children usually do. On Sunday we went into town to enjoy their approach to celebrations! It was carnival time and the floats were amazing. Bright colourful and full of dancing in
traditional dress. I really can't explain to you what a spectacle the whole day was! Not only did we watch the parade but there is also the very strange tradition of throwing water at everyone! And not just water, cans of silly string and spray foam are sold everywhere and the idea seemed to be cover as many people as you can! It was terrific fun and was wonderful to be a part of such an interesting and different event. I forget to mention that it was absolutely tipping down with rain throughout the entire day, but somehow that didn't put a dampener on anything, after all we were under attack from water bombs anyway! What was really nice about the whole thing was the feel of community, tourists and locals mixed and enjoyed the festivities together and everyone was fair game for the foam and silly string war!
Tomorrow I am taking a mini break and am off to Macchu Pichu for a few days but I will update you as soon as I can.
Take care,
Tasha
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Gwen
non-member comment
Decorating is Fun and relaxing
I enjoy reading your blog regarding decorating, colors represent a lot of personality for a person. In Peru, yes there are many different colors that I can see from the culture. The world would be a dull place if we did not have the red, white, blue and yellow colors!