Wow so it's official we've finally been here in Iquitos for 2 months as of today! I can't believe we've already been here for that long, it's shown me how much im enjoying life here that I haven't even realised it's been that long.
This week has been pretty quiet in the aldea,although on Monday we found out that one of the new girls had tried to escape the Aldea on Sunday night. She had climbed the walls and got out onto the street at half 2 in the morning, the police were called and she was eventually found but it was still a big shock and talking point the next morning all over the aldea! We worked on another Diwalie project with some of the older, hand picked kids-just so we could make sure it looked pretty enough! Haha. I've decided to get myself working with some of the other younger kids, and try and start teaching them the alphabet. I did aim to do it quite a while ago but got distracted....Just psycing myself up for the inevitable stress from all the kids. But I will do it, I WILL!
In other news, one of the older girls, Jennifer who left the aldea a few weeks ago, by running away from school with her sister was heard on the radio talking about her time in the Aldea. She was describing how awful it had been, that they had been maltreated, were made to clean the Aldea every morning at half 4 before school and she also used the marks on her legs from bites (which the aldea put her in hospital for) as marks of abuse from the tías!! The whole aldea was in complete shock, I was amazed that someone who had been so well cared for there, whose sister is currently in Lima having an operation and also lives in the Aldea and who seemed so at home there could say such outrageous lies! We had some journalists come over during the week and interview the director and one of the tías which they showed on TV. That was a bit of an event but all the tías seemed pretty calm about it, however all the kids are horrified at Jennifer and keep talking about how they will refuse to ever look at her again-I think from their point of view it must be like a stab in the back from someone they counted as a friend.
There have been 3 new kids this week, one girl Julie came in adament that her mum would be picking her up the next day so didn't integrate at all and just spent time in her casa. Her mum actually did turn up on Thursday-not the next day but she did come to pick her up much to my surprise! The two other new kids, brother and sister are both pretty quiet and don't say much but the Aldea is definitely filling up again. We've been casa sitting for the boys house every evening this week whilst their tía goes back home to see her 6 month old baby! So we've got quite close to all the boys, though found out how much of a hassle they can be.
On Friday we ended up looking after 3 casa's which was really stressfull! Feeding one of the little boys tea then realising he's wet himself and that's why he wasn't too keen to eat anything. Then finding out that the room with his clothes in was locked! Bit of a struggle but eventually managed to find some freshly washed clothes from somewhere, so everything looked perfect by the time their tía returned. We went out for a drink to get away from the Aldea for a bit, we've found this cool little bar called Musmooky that's really really popular with the locals so it was packed but it plays nice english music and the drinks are nice so we didn't care!
Saturday's in the Aldea seem to get a lot more relaxed so looking after one of the houses wasn't too much hard work. We watched The Little Mermaid in spanish, I loved it! Pretty hard to understand but it was really cool seeing such a well known film over here, even the songs in spanish were still really fun and I was singing along. Alex and I went for a little romantic meal on Saturday night to celebrate our 2 months here! We found a really nice Pizza restaurant-not very peruvian but it was amazing! The food was lovely.one of the nicest pizzas I've ever had probably because it's my first one in 2 months! We had a few drinks at a cool little bar along the river and met 2 peruvian guys who worked with one of the jungle trip companys. They spent most of the time telling us/showing us pictures of these frogs that you get in the jungle which you eat and they're apparently hallucinogenics! One of them then tried to explain what it felt like, both of us found it hilarious and spent the whole time trying not laugh straight out in his face. We also got to see one of them do Bob Marley's Redemption on Kareoke-it was hilarious! So we've come out of this weekend with a whole bunch of new experiences!! Definitely something I won't be forgetting anytime soon that's for sure.
Crazy but surprisingly enjoyable night-perfect end to my week and pretty much sums up Iquitos in a nutshell!
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Pool time!
So yet again an amazingly rapido week, I can't believe it's Sunday again already! Had a bit of a scare on Monday when 2 of the girls went into school really shiftily and we thought they were trying to run away because they had seriously sutffed rucksacks. After a stressfull yoyo back to the aldea to warn the stafff then going back to school with a tía to bring them home it was all good, but definitely scary when we realised what they were planning. We've had 6 new kids this week, crazy stuff the aldea really is filling up.
We've got 2 more ridiculously cute little toddlers and some older kids (like 9-11) which I think is nice for the rest of the kids to meet and it just means more and more adorable children for Alex and I to fall in love with! This week we started our Diwali celebrations by having a painting session with them of some diva and ohm pictures. It actually went surprisingly well!! The paint stayed on the paper, we didn't end up with any screaming kids and the pictures even stayed on the wall all day-a definite bonus! Next week we're planning on making/decorating some divas from clay and attempting to tell them the story of Diwali in spanish...thank god for wikipedia in spanish!!
We went to the cinema on Tuesday- Peru's version of Orange Wednesday's to see a film called Real Steel with Hugh Jackman. It must have been a popular film because we got to watch it in the big screen room! It almost felt like a cinema back in England, until the women next to us started having a chat to someone on the phone really loud and then playing her phone music to keep the baby distracted! It's really weird, here they seem to bring the whole family to watch a film, even if there are tiny babies and then toddlers who blatently can't read they all come and watch subtitles movies!? Was pretty good though, so looking forward to our next trip.
On Saturday the whole Aldea was scrubbed till it shined and all the kids were in their best clothes because they were expecting a visit from a commision group of the government in Lima and maybe even the President! We were both pretty sceptical but kept it to ourselves to see what happened, they should have arrived at 7 so by half 12 in the afternoon everyone had given up hope and we got to eat all the nibbles they'd arranged for the big event. Typically peruvian that they just didn't show up and didn't think to give any warning that they wouldn't be turning up, it just highlights how chilled the atmosphere the atmosphere is over here and makes England look seriously claustrophobic!! We went out last night for a drink at a little restaurant down the road from the Aldea and have learnt the attraction of the gringas. When we arrived it was literally empty we were the ONLY two people in there, then by the time we left it was buzzing and we managed to get quite a few stares as we left haha. I've also discovered a new love for bananas...sounds bizarre but seriously there are so many different types here they serve them everywhere-even on street corners like crisps in bags or grilled on their little portable barbecues and they are seriously seriously yummy! I'm considering adding another bag of luggage just to bring home some bananas back to England!
Today we ventured out to this hotel near the port with....a swimming pool!! Eventually, after eating breakfast (yet again, grilled banana!) then being messed around on the bus and being charged double fare because we apparently stayed on too long. I wasn't impressed but when I saw the pool I completly forgot why. It was AMAZING, it looked all jungly, surrounded by loads of funky tree houses and wooden patio areas with hammocks. We spent the morning just chilling out, swimming (!) and having our first proper peruvian coffee whilst swinging in a hammock, it was unbeliviable relaxing and utterly beautful. I can't believe it's taken us 7 weeks to find it, but now we have I'm sure it's going to become a regular little hide out it was amazing. I really wanted to bring the kids because I know they would absolutlly love but I'm sure the rest of the visitors/guests of the B&B wouldn't appreciate their crazy antics and noise that they would bring with them!
Can't think of anything else too exciting, only that i've already started counting down to Christmas and can't believe that next week we will have been here 2 months! It just doesn't seem possible that this really has become our normal day to day life-we're living in the jungle!!!!!!!!!!
chao todos!xxx
the jungle tree top by the pool
We've got 2 more ridiculously cute little toddlers and some older kids (like 9-11) which I think is nice for the rest of the kids to meet and it just means more and more adorable children for Alex and I to fall in love with! This week we started our Diwali celebrations by having a painting session with them of some diva and ohm pictures. It actually went surprisingly well!! The paint stayed on the paper, we didn't end up with any screaming kids and the pictures even stayed on the wall all day-a definite bonus! Next week we're planning on making/decorating some divas from clay and attempting to tell them the story of Diwali in spanish...thank god for wikipedia in spanish!!
We went to the cinema on Tuesday- Peru's version of Orange Wednesday's to see a film called Real Steel with Hugh Jackman. It must have been a popular film because we got to watch it in the big screen room! It almost felt like a cinema back in England, until the women next to us started having a chat to someone on the phone really loud and then playing her phone music to keep the baby distracted! It's really weird, here they seem to bring the whole family to watch a film, even if there are tiny babies and then toddlers who blatently can't read they all come and watch subtitles movies!? Was pretty good though, so looking forward to our next trip.
On Saturday the whole Aldea was scrubbed till it shined and all the kids were in their best clothes because they were expecting a visit from a commision group of the government in Lima and maybe even the President! We were both pretty sceptical but kept it to ourselves to see what happened, they should have arrived at 7 so by half 12 in the afternoon everyone had given up hope and we got to eat all the nibbles they'd arranged for the big event. Typically peruvian that they just didn't show up and didn't think to give any warning that they wouldn't be turning up, it just highlights how chilled the atmosphere the atmosphere is over here and makes England look seriously claustrophobic!! We went out last night for a drink at a little restaurant down the road from the Aldea and have learnt the attraction of the gringas. When we arrived it was literally empty we were the ONLY two people in there, then by the time we left it was buzzing and we managed to get quite a few stares as we left haha. I've also discovered a new love for bananas...sounds bizarre but seriously there are so many different types here they serve them everywhere-even on street corners like crisps in bags or grilled on their little portable barbecues and they are seriously seriously yummy! I'm considering adding another bag of luggage just to bring home some bananas back to England!
Today we ventured out to this hotel near the port with....a swimming pool!! Eventually, after eating breakfast (yet again, grilled banana!) then being messed around on the bus and being charged double fare because we apparently stayed on too long. I wasn't impressed but when I saw the pool I completly forgot why. It was AMAZING, it looked all jungly, surrounded by loads of funky tree houses and wooden patio areas with hammocks. We spent the morning just chilling out, swimming (!) and having our first proper peruvian coffee whilst swinging in a hammock, it was unbeliviable relaxing and utterly beautful. I can't believe it's taken us 7 weeks to find it, but now we have I'm sure it's going to become a regular little hide out it was amazing. I really wanted to bring the kids because I know they would absolutlly love but I'm sure the rest of the visitors/guests of the B&B wouldn't appreciate their crazy antics and noise that they would bring with them!
Can't think of anything else too exciting, only that i've already started counting down to Christmas and can't believe that next week we will have been here 2 months! It just doesn't seem possible that this really has become our normal day to day life-we're living in the jungle!!!!!!!!!!
chao todos!xxx
the jungle tree top by the pool
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