The good, the bad and the ugly

So my time in Peru is quickly coming to an end. Its only a month and a half until I leave and I´m feeling kind of nervous about it. On the one hand I know that I need to go back and make a step towards having a career. On the other hand I can´t imagine leaving because life here is so simple and easy and I´ve made a great bunch of friends amongst the staff, volunteers and kids. Plus, everything that happens here feels like an adventure.
For example; wake up and have breakfast outdoors looking out at sand dunes, go to work downstairs, teaching 3 little Peruvian boys who call you Tia Joo, have lunch which may be something delicious or chicken feet/ cow stomach soup/ mystery meat, take homework class problems, problems, more about this later, chill in the afternoon play with kids/ watch movies with mates/ run laps around the orphanage which did I mention, is in a desert! Its all very surreal.

One thing I definitely will not miss is tutoría time. This is the 2 hours of homework time in the afternoon. Since July, I've had three different groups to work with, two Iniciál  kids (the Kindergarteners that go to school; Pedro and Jorge), five Year 1 kids and now the 3 highschool girls. Its never been an easy time for me or the kids. With the two younger groups my biggest challenge was getting the hyped up children motivated and interested enough to sit still and complete their homework, without just copying each other.
Now that I have the teenagers, the problem is their lack of commitment and motivation to better themselves. They show up late or don't turn up at all, forget their books, copy and paste from the internet, prioritise art over all other subjects and then sulk when I try to explain the importance of responsibility and respect.
 As I write this, Roxana is very diligently doing her homework (thankfully), while Esthefany sulks in the corner. Esthefany has two exams in two days time and she can't understand why she can't leave her studying until the day before. It feels like I'm banging my head against a wall trying to explain it to her. Shes an excellent girl, very enthusiastic and kind and loving but shes struggling to cope with what she sees as limited freedom here, so she frequently rebels. Yamelit, my third student, has decided to study in her casita with her madre, which is probably for the best. This is a huge improvement from Friday last week where she decided she'd nap instead of turn up to class, then, conveniently felt rested enough to wake up for her hour of internet time. I guess I'm expecting too much of them to show some responsibility. Incredibly frustrating.  
I just had to let that out...

Good news is though, in case you haven't noticed, Christmas is coming yaaaaaay! I haven´t been excited about Christmas since....childhood? Yes, that long ago. The kids here are really excited. The best thing for the kids about living here is that they get presents in a constant stream all through the month. Church groups, families and individuals from around Trujillo and from overseas come bearing gifts throughout December. Madness! But fun nonetheless.
My very generous coworkers back in Sydney have sent me money to buy the kids individual Christmas gifts! So this weekend is reserved for Christmas present shopping. The volunteers, organised by Stephanie, are all chipping in to buy all the kids new (fun) bedspreads. If anyone feels like helping me make up the last $40 of the $140 I need to raise to do my bit, feel free to email me and I'll work out how to transfer the money. Much appreciated. Plus any surplus can join the Christmas gift fund.

I leave you with pictures of my trip with Jenn to Puno, where we visited Lake Titicaca and Cusco, where we hiked the Inca Trail for four days to Macchu Pichu. Yes its a hard life.

The floating islands of Uros. The islands are made of reeds bunched together.

2 hour boat ride to the island of Taquile

View from the top of Taquile out to Lake Titicaca.. It looks just like the ocean.

Another underbite dog that stalked Jenn for about 15mins.

 

Calle Recoletta, which is barely wide enough space for a car and one pair of hips 

Baby alpaca!!!

12 sided Quechuan stone...which is apparently famous

A dozen fruit juice stands all selling the same types of juice, right next to each other

Cusco Planetarium, the best part of the trip!

Gandalf the White, showing us the stars

Briefing for the Inca Trail hike

10 out of 16 people on the group were from Australia haha, the others were from England, Belgium, Germany and America

First rest stop on the first day of the hike. The donkey didn't move the whole 20mins we were there

The hardest workers on the planet; our porters

The sight we walked 4 days to see, which is also accessible by bus

Llamas; pose for photos, eat grass, repeat

Sun Temple

Earth temple

Royal toilet (the hole in the ground)

Kickin' back on one of the many terraces

La Selva

Getting time away from the orphanage is great, especially when you get to spend it in the jungle with some amazing friends. A couple of weeks ago I spent 10 days travelling to the jungle and back with Oscar, Sam and Bryson, which was, in a word "fuuuuuuunnnnn!". I did have heaps of little stories to tell but then I realised they are the "you had to be there" type. Hopefully the photos will suffice.

Trujillo > Chiclayo 3 hrs,  > Jaèn 6 hrs, > Moyobama 5hrs, > Tarapoto 3hrs

Oscar's uncles farm at Jaén

Woke up at 5am in Jaén and spent the morning at Oscar´s uncles house and farm. At the farm we tried the mangoes and cocoa, both of which reminded me of the Solomon Islands. It was very tropical (hot!). Thats a moto taxi which is a little carriage that holds two people, drawn by a motobike. 

A relative of Oscar´s, risking encountering virus carrying ants to get us some fresh coconuts.

Second stop on the first day was at Oscar´s other uncles house in Bagua chica. This little pig came running down the street and hid under our moto taxi because he was being chased by a puppy. 

Hunting at Bagua Chica on the first day. We were looking for deer but unfortunately none of them wanted to come out to meet us. Excellent morning out hiking though. By deer I mean the Peruvian version of deer, which is small (maybe 55kg), grey and has little horns. I don´t know what the Peruvian name for it is.

Thermal baths at Moyobama on the third day. Note Gollum in the background.

Sam is ultra-excited to see rain. It doesn´t rain in Trujillo so its been 3 months since I had seen rain. 

Finally reached Tarapoto our destination on the third day.

Day trip from Tarapoto to Lamas to find a local tribe. Unfortunately we didn´t find them, I guess the deer warned them we were coming.

However, as a consolation prize, we found a medieval castle. This was still being built and painted but we got to have a look around inside anyway. Its being built by an Italian guy, I don´t know any more about it than that.

Found this guy perched way up in a tree at a hotel we looked at. I´m not sure if this type of parrot is even native to Peru.

We ended up spending quite a bit of time in the ATM rooms, just to cool down. Very hot and humid outdoors.

Night time dessert bars on the street are pretty common in Peru and I´m not complaining.

Local food. The yellow ball on the left is mushed up and mixed up yuca (tapioca) and platano (plantanes) with some meat inside. Also on the plate is fried banana, which is delicious!

I´m eating some kind of bush big (?) in a peanut marinade, which I thought was pretty good even though no one else agreed with me.

We think that was the pig thing that I had eaten the night before.

 One of my favourite parts of the trip, swimming beneath this waterfall. The photo does not do the scenery justice; it was so green out there!


Bryson made friends immediately as usual.

The only downside...Oscar lost his wedding ring. It was pleasing however that everyone around us helped us look for it, even after we had given up a few of them persisted.

After a bit of miscommunication between the married couple (jajaja) we ended up in Yurimaguas which is a river port town. This was the absolute hottest day we had experienced so it was great to get out on that little boat just to feel the breeze.

Great shot of the typical selva man; shirt up over the belly, its all the rage.

Jungle produce at a market in Yurimaguas.

The girl is pointing out the bbq grubs to Oscar. Bottom left hand side, the eggs in the bag are actually turtle eggs. She said turtle but I think she meant terrapin.

Gross, yes he ate them. They are even more repulsive when you can see them moving.

Our last day in the jungle, so we went to Laguna Azul. A common feature of river crossings in the jungle; using boats to carry passengers and cars across the river, instead of constructing a bridge. I suspect the only reason for this is that the people running the boat will get paid for it but still...so inconvenient for the rest of us.

Tranquil Laguna Azul (Blue Lagoon). The water itself isn´t blue. It gets its name from the way that the colour of the sky reflects onto the still water.

Oscar is trying to make up for the lost ring by wearing the groom hat...and striking this debonair pose. Well it worked for Bryson and I. 

Another strange to me but common in Peru; dogs with underbite! Found this one roaming the resort/hotel at Laguna Azul.

And this underbite dog belongs to Oscar. His name is Zar. Its hard to tell he has an underbite because he is missing his lower teeth.