Feliz Cumple Brigit...

Today is Thursday, and I am close to the end of my first full week here in Peru! It already seems much longer, and I am definitely getting into the rhythm of life here. I am adjusting to the stares, the noise, the food and the bumpy bus rides, along with the Spanish and the school itself.

Today was one of the students birthday, Brigit, who turned seven (or eight, she didn't seem sure). All in all, although a birthday is a thing to celebrate, today has left me a little bit depressed as a few of the realities of life for these children sinks in.

I have spent the last few days mainly working with Saul, the five year old little comedian, and Luis, another five year old. They are both quite bad at concentrating yet at the same time so sweet. Trying to get them to pick up their pencils and write one word is a daily battle, yet when they try, they can do it. Luis's favourite thing to say when you ask him something is "pues siiii" quickly followed by a tilt of the head in the opposite direction while saying "Pues nooooo" Basically, he is saying, welllll yeeesss, welll noooo, over and over again as I desperately try to get him to do something, anything! All the children love colouring in, the school has one packet of colouring pencils and the last part of the day is spent drawing various pictures for each child. If you are interested, I can draw you a picture of Ben 10, dolphins, cats, dogs and some kind of Japanses cartoon (which I thought was pretty good!)

This afternoon my plan is to go and buy a map of the world for the children, along with looking for some pictures of Shrek that they can colour in (by special request of Saul). They currently have a map of South America hanging on the wall, so when I say I am from Inglaterra they ask me: is that in Colombia, or Brazil or Chile... They have managed to hear about the USA though, unsurprisingly enough! So they are all very excited to see where Europe is, and where I live. They also love knowing where Trujillo is on the map, and know that Peru is the yellow country (on this map anyway!)

For Brigit's birthday we sang once in English and once in Spanish, and then everyone had to give her a hug. Watching some of the boys being forced into hugging her was one of the funniest things I have seen, and I think she really enjoyed all the attention. She got given one carton of chocolate milk by the teacher as a special treat which she was very pleased with.

Saul had a arrived in school today with 30 cents in a small plastic bag, and was beyond excited, and spent the whole telling me he was going to buy something (just to be clear 1sol = roughly 20p). When he saw Brigit's milk he was so jealous, and wanted to know how much it was, and if he could buy it with his 30cents. Unfortuantely, the carton of chocolate milk costs 1 nuevo sol, and his face was so sad - he had been so excited before by his 30 centimos! It made me feel awful, and I wish I could have just bought him a whole trolley of chocolate milk, or at least given him the seventy cents extra to buy one, but it is not a good thing to give them money, for obvious reasons.

The  next reality check came  when I went to collect breakfast for the children today, and I was talking about the last volunteer before me with one of the little boys. He told me he really missed her, because he had got used to her, and now he would never see her again.He was so sad when he said it, and was just pointing out what should be obvious, but I hadn't thought about it before: one month isn't really long enough to spend with these children, and the effect of all these volunteers appearing and disappearing can't be that good for them. I already feel really sad and useless at the prospect of leaving...