I made it!

Well where, to start?!? So after a longggg day travelling I finally made it to my first destination of Cuzco, Peru. As predicited I wasn´t met at the airport but it´s nothing that a quick phone call didn´t sort out. Jeremy, who runs the orphanage picked me up and gave me a quick tour in his car of Cuzco centre. It is beautiful and I wanted to get out there and then and explore. However, we went to the orphanage so I could meet everyone. I dumped my bags and went to meet the owner Nilda who is Jeremy´s Mum. We introduced ourselves and then I was told to grab a chair and sit with the kids. I was chatting away for a while but it soon became obvious that if I wanted any information about the orphanage it was up to me to ask beause it was clearly not going to be offered. I went and asked her about their routine and what kind of things she would like me to do with the kids, what was expected of me etc. but this was met with a very relaxed attitude about how I can do what I want, when I want. This wasn´t really the answer I was expecting so went to find the other volunteers who pretty much confirmed this - you can come and go as you please and spend time with the kids as you wish. This was totally unexpected to be honest.

The kids are absolutely lovely and so affectionate, they greet you in the morning with a buenos dias and a kiss and at night they all come and give you a kiss before they go to bed. It´s heartbreaking sometimes though. The orphanage is ok but needs a good clean and a lick of paint. Hygiene is not high on the list and I don´t really get who cleans the bathrooms etc. because the boys one absolutely stinks and no one seems to be doing anything about it. To add to it, this is in the small courtyard where they have lunch and it´s horrible sometimes. I think my lowest point so far (on my second day!) was watching a 6 yr old hand wash his own clothes in a bowl of freezing cold water. I started to help him and there were solied underpants in there and was making the water dirty and mixing with the clothes he´d already cleaned.

The girls go to school in the morning and the boys in the afternoon but there is no where near enough structure to there day. I came down this morning to find the boys just all sat there on their own left to their own devices. There are no proper adults there either and as volunteers as we have not actually been offered much advice or information it´s hard for us to know what time to send them to bed or whether they shoudl be doing their homework or not. Some get on with their work themselves but get so distracted as there is no proper study space and there are only two small desks anyway. There is one adult who stays over night called Esther but she goes up with the girls and sleeps in their room. There are also 2/3 older boys who are about 20-21 who were brought up in the orphanage and live there - maybe they are in charge?? One positive thing is their solidarity and you can see how they are like one big family. Yesterday I saw how generous some of the kids are when me and Fred took some of them for a juice in the local market, which they love. They could have had all of the juice but instead some of them decided to save it and take home what was left for others back at the orphanage.

Yesterday I went to the centre of Cuzco for a bit, es muy linda. We went and got some food and then walked around a bit and went for a cocktail in a cool bar with beanbags. After a while though I started to feel guilty because it was so easy to forget about the orpanage and thinking about me having a drink whilst they were all back there just felt selfish. I think it´s going to be hard to get used to that.