Sand, wind, paint, paint and more paint....

Managed to survive a week of hard labour… if any of us ever see the colour blue again, it will probably be too soon! In addition to painting everything blue we have cleaned and scrubbed, polished and shined, The outside of the building should in theory be sparkling but in reality with the sand being whipped up by the wind continually and managing to get into every nook and cranny it doesn’t look a lot different!

Although we are working hard and the time does drag we are getting more used to it and the girls are enjoying spending time with the children. We are not getting used to the mosquitoes, which luckily around here do not carry malaria and even though we sleep under mosquito nets every night, still seem to get bitten everywhere!

Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of the orphanage being opened and there was a big celebration, hence the cleaning, mending and painting of the building. Jo and Mil were up by 7am to go and help the girls with their hair and getting ready. I did warn them that they would probably be crawling with head lice, seeings they live in such a close environment and they are young kids, but Mili was dismayed when she saw the reality! All the other long term volunteers were up nice and early getting ready for celebrations, I seized the opportunity of staying in bed for a bit and using the internet. After about half an hour Mili arrived with half a dozen girls who all walked in and said good morning Auntie (we are all Auntie’s) and all kissed me on the cheek, followed by the lead volunteer co-ordinator to say they were not allowed in the volunteer’s rooms, by which time of course I had been caught in bed! The celebration itself lasted for 2 hours, kids singing, lots of talking and about 40 minutes of the local pastor giving a sermon in very fast Spanish, towards the end of this time a man started to play the guitar and the pastor started rapping.. it was all very interesting! After the celebration meal (more rice) we escaped for the afternoon.. For me it really did feel like escaping, with the high grey walls, barbed wire and alarms every time you go near the walls.

We went into Trujillo and found what I imagined a proper Peruvian street market to be like, hustle and bustle and selling everything imaginable… once Mili saw all the cages of kittens and puppies and guinea pigs (unfortunately we know what happens to them!) she had a panic attack and we had to leave. We also couldn’t risk taking any photos as our cameras would have been stolen but it was an interesting experience. We then got a taxi and the driver told us that we shouldn’t have been there as it is far too dangerous for gringos. After we had bought a few essential supplies from the supermarket (not rice!) Jo and I put Mili in a taxi to go back to prison, while we then found the shoe market, the MOST beautiful shoes and so cheap, but they only go up to a size 6 here, so no shoes for us!

Today we went sand boarding up in the desert behind the orphanage and it was fun!! It was hard going climbing up but loads of fun boarding down.

I have booked a room in a really nice looking hostel in Mancora, which is up near the Ecuador boarder, it overlooks the sea and it will cost up £8 each a night. We are going Thursday night or Friday, we just have to sort out how to get there, it will take about 10 hours and just trying to research if it is same enough to do the trip at night.

On that note, just 4 days work to go…..