Hello again!

SO the Carnevale day we had at school was epic just as predicted. I went in armed with a super soaker and a backpack full of water ballons but that was no match for ten teenage boys running at me with a bucket full of water each....brrr! Everyone was sufficiently soaked with minimal injuries, although I did have to give poor Benjamin a long cuddle because he was so confused as to what was happening and why he was getting splashed. We also had a great celebration that day in which a tree is cut down and then replanted (?) with lots of little presents tied to the branches. Everyone dances round the tree (very danish :p) while a couple dance together in the middle, then the boy takes an axe(!!!! health and safety!) and takes a couple swings at the tree. A new couple then enters the circle and the dance begins again. This lasted quite a while and everyone got a turn at chopping down the tree before it finally fell and the children descended on it in a frenzy scrabbling to get the best presents. It was a lovely day and all the children were pleased with what they got, which was fantastic. The following day was the last day of summer school

:( The children performed each play and dance so well, and at the end all the teachers and staff were invited on stage to dance along to the routine, that was not quite as smooth, haha! Then there was a slight panic in the kitchen as we frantically tried to preare a HUGE traditional peruvian meal of Beef, potato, Yucca, corn etc for SIXTY children.......omg. That was an experience man.... After the meal goodbyes were exchanged between the children and teachers, some children asked ´will you here next year?´ Ahh....if only I could be. That night Maggie and I hopped on a bus up to Cusco where we had a very lively weekend, Australians man....they party hard, haha. It was almost too much for me to handle but I managed somehow. Monday we started our work painting the Rainbow house which proved to be a bit of a challenge with six children running amok with pàintbrushes. It was quite a tiring day, I don´t remember ever shouting at the children so much; ¨PUT THE BRUSH DOWN¨ ¨GO PLAY OUTSIDE¨ by four o´clock I was ready for a beer, so was Maggie so thats what we did. That became a little routine throughout the week. On Thursday we started work on the Rainbow Centre so now it is looking quite fresh with bright colours. Our new coordinator Laura also brightend up the animals buying collars for the school cat and dog, very cute. On Friday we sadly had to bid farewell to Maggie. Needless to say that I didn´t remain dry-faced during this farewell, I got quite attached to Maggie as she reminded me quite a bit of Denmark, the lifestyle and my friends back there so it was very difficult to see her go. The volunteer house is quite empty now with Maggie gone, and also David and Laura have found a little flat not too far away so they´ve flown the nest. Soon Gerry and Andy will be saying goodbye too :( sad sad. We all have such a laugh together. Caroline is still here though, which is excellent! This weekend Caroline and I went up to Pisac for a little bit of shopping, and I was supposed to go dancing with Arson, a Peruvian friend but was feeling a bit ill so that didn´t happen. On Sunday Gerry, Andy and I went on a four hour hike up the the Inca salt pans (Salines) which are absolutely breathtaking. They were built by the Incas but are still functioning today and they cover an impressive stretch off the mountainside. We then continued up to the village of Morais before returing to Urubamba. Caroline wisely opted to sit out on this little adventure.

Today in school was more painting and updating a few things for Laura, more of the same tomorrow. Then Wednesday off to the fourday Inca trail!!!!!!! At FIVE IN THE MORNING! No I´m sure it´ll be amazing. Lots to see! Lots to walk!

I´ll try and post some pictures soon, its just that I can´t seem to find a working USB port in all of Urubamba. But will try!

Lots of love to everyone, keep writing to me its great to here from my various homes around the world.

Take care,

Harness lots of good Karma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace and love people!

Chloe

It´s been a month!!!

Hi guys!

A lot has happened since I last wrote, we now have two more volunteers in the house; Gerry and Andy a married couple im the sixties. Very nice people. Summer school is almost over! This is the last week, next week is a week off for the kids while we volunteers fix up some things around the school. Tomorrow is the carnevale celebration at school, which is a water and coloured flour fight, which is going to EPIC! I will post pictures :) Last Monday I took Yelson out for one on one time and we had a really good talk about our dreams and plans for the future, the two of us have a great bond. It is wonderful to see him open up and be comfortable because he is quite a shy quiet person. At school we have been rehersing for the end of summer show, my class is putting on a short skit, while some other classes are dancing. It is so much fun but SUCH hard work to get some of these children focussed on the task at hand. We had some trouble with a few feisty boys at the school who were constantly fighting and getting into trouble but after a few trips to the principles office they are now on their best behaviour and are quite pleasant to be around. Two of them are quite happy to sit on either side of me and play with my hands which is very sweet. I´ve been having massage therapy with one of the older downsyndrome students at the school, Katya who is 22. Our sessions have been going well and we have some really good conversations, the therapy is important not only to reduce the pain of her arthritis but also for her to have an outlet where she can express her feelings and thoughts to someone.

We missed our trip to the rainbow centre last Thursday because Soledad had had an epileptic fit at school and was exhausted so it was best to just let her rest. Maggie is now out of hospital, having been put on an Iv drip for four days, she was diagnosed with Kidney infection, two types of salmonella and parasites....YIKES! Glad it wasn´t me, I´ll stick to the irregular bowel movements.....haha! We has a really great weekend in Cuzco, with tours of Saqsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo, Cuzco and lots of other stuff. Valentines day was celebrated in school with lots of friendship and trust games which was a lot of fun and really sweet to watch. Two of the special students Sharon and Michel, who normally are archenemies, spent the day giggling and kissing each other on the forehead and cheeks, much to the teachers amusement. Today one of the students Mauricio, who is 3, fell asleep in my arms for 3 hours (!!!) so adorable, I didnt want to let him go! My spanish has improved greatly and I can now carry on a conversation with the older children which is very rewarding. I´ve also learnt basic sign language so that I can communicate with a wondersful girl named Nayda who has severe loss of hearing. She is wonderful with a great sense of humour and likes to tease people.

. A lot of teasing between the children occured on Valentines day, and poor Yelson got an earful when some boys heard me call him ´mi amor´which translates to my love....whoops!

Thats mostly it I guess...I´ll try and write more frequently. If you try and comment more....haha

So yes, Cuidate (take care)

lots of love from Peru!

Good Karma !

xxxxxxxxx

Chloe

Hello again!
A lot more up and down to report honestly :p My life has become very dramatic.
So Thursday and Friday were good, I had some good classes with the children. One moment sticks out quite a bit, Pierro and Abdiel are a pair of brothers in my class and we were makng some kind of paper mache thing. I was at one table with half the class while the other half worked at another table, Pierro has one hand with is cripple and sometimes its hard for him to do manual things, such as crafts. Abdiel came to me and said ´please please come help my brother, he can´t do this and he´ll be so upset if he is the only one who´s project isn´t good´. So I went over to Pierro who sure enough was struggling, and helped with his paper mache. While I did so, Abdiel hugged his brother and said ´my poor brother can´t do so much because of his hand, its so hard for him and he gets sad´. Hallmark moment! It was so so sweet.
Thursday I took Lizandra out for one on one time, we went to a bakery where we had cake and lemonade. She opened up a lot, we talked about boys which is really important for her since she is the oldest one in the house and needs someone to talk to when it comes to these things. (Alex, again she brought up your name!!!). Then out of nowhere she collapsed into tears, in the bakery. She explained that she was upset about Ely (the head teacher) leaving and couldn´t picture a future without her sunce Ely has been at the school for years and is very much a part of the family. So Lizandra was able vent her feelings in a very long conversation we had about Ely leaving. Then to cheer her up a little I took her to Plaza de Armas and gave her a very amateur manicure, which vastly improved her mood! SO it was great outing and really beneficial for her to talk about her feelings.
Then I was off to Cuzco for the weekend with Suzanne, fun fun fun! We ended up staying at different places, I was in a hostel and she in a bed and breakfast. But we met up every night at a Salsa club where I have now learnt to Meringue and very simple salsa steps.
So now the bad....or rather the sad.....
Monday is our day to go to the rainbow house and spend time with the kids. So Suzanne and I stayed at the house playing Uno and Ludo with them while Caroline took Soledad out for one on one time. The afternoon passed pleasantly with nothing out of the ordinary to report.
Then I went to an internet cafe to upload pictures and found that my camera was gone.
I ran home to double check that I hand´t left it there, I turned my room upside down, but it was nowhere to be found. I felt sick, could someone at the rainbow house really have taken it? the kids? the house mom? I loved them all so much and hoped that it wasn´t true.
The next morning at school Ely had a loooong meeting with all the children of the rainbow house. When I was called in, most of them were crying. I sat down and my camera and sunglasses( which I hadn´t realized were missng) were handed to me. Each child apologized to me one at a time, in the middle of which I broke into sobs, which made them all cry even more. They said that nothing like this had ever happened before and they all promised that it would never happen again and that they all loved me. It was very very emotional. Noone owned to taking the camera, which is why they all apologized, and it shocked them to see me cry. I still can´t believe on of them did it, I´m sure that they didn´t have th eintent to steal, but probably wanted to take pictures or something. Anyway so lots of crying over that last twenty four hours, unfortunately ontop of the drama I have contracted travellers sickness, as have three other people in the volunteer house. Meaning irregular bowel movements and abdominal pain......not fun. Another Volunteer has arrived (YAY!!) Maggie from Australia who is in her twenties. ALso the new coordinator is her(YAY) Laura from Englad who is also in her twenties. And a guest at the volunteer house named David from America, so FULLHOUSE!!!!!!!
Nice nice nice.

I´ve uploaded more pictures on the first album
And also created another which has picture from weekends, Cuzco, etc.

Also PLEASE COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on people I write loads and loads so I think you can muster a few sentences ;)

Ok thanks for reading and send me positive energy for my bowels! HAHA! ok lots of hugs and love and good karma!

xxxxxxxxx

Chloe

Hi everyone!
A lot has happened since my last post, good and bad. But first things first. for some reason I can´t post pictures on my blog, it is very fiddly and takes ages. SO! If you wanna check out some pictures from my trip so far, this public facebook link should work;

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=617245&id=643950153&l=917e4c75c3

Also, I wanted to thank you all for your lovely messages! Makes me feel a lot less lonely and weird about writing this blog. So muchos gracias a todos!
So first the bad.....
Caroline and I were on our way to the Rainbow house for our bi-weekly visit with the children, we were walking up the road when we saw Soledad (one of the house children) coming our way. This was troubling because Sole is not allowed out by herself due to epilepsy, and also just because she is young and its not safe. We asked where she was going, but failed to receive an answer, so we walked up to the house with her. Upon arrival at the Rainbow house, we found the kids running amok, with no adult present and Yelson was missing. This should not happen. Because it was our first week, we didn´t know the numbers of the Kiya Staff, so just decided to stay untll the house mum showed up. However before she had the chance to do so, the phone rang, it was Ely, one of the Kiya staff. I heard her ask Lizandra if she could talk to the house mum, Lizandra replied ´she´s in the bathroom´. Lie. I asked for the phone and set the record straight with Ely, about finding Sole walking up the road, Yelson´s absence and the absence of an adult at the house. This caused Lizandra and Soledad to panic and run out of the house. They returned ten minutes later with Rosa, the house mum, and Yelson. By this point both girls were not too happy with me for ´telling´on them and Rosa was desperately trying to explain herself.
We had a meeting with Ely the next day in which she explained that it´s fine if Rosa wants to go out, she just needs to inform Ely so that either she or one of the volunteers could watch the children. So that was fine, the two girls however, should not have lied or have wandered out onto the road. I ended up receiving the cold shoulder from them both for two days before they got over it. But what to do.
SO now the good.....
We had a second visit at the house on Monday and this one was wonderful! (YAY!) It was Ely´s birthday the next day so the children and I made her a big birthday card, then we played an hour of Ludo and topped the evening off with lots of dancing to Shakira. It was a great bonding experience and I feel so much closer to them now. I also found that Yelson and I get along very well, he is my new ´amigo´and we laugh lots together. He has a very cheeky sense of humour, when the drama was unfolding at the rainbow house, all the did was giggle at my obvious distress!
So overall a pretty up and down week. We´ve had three rounds of Spanish classes, and I´m picking it up quite quickly which is good. The children at school have been so much fun, when they aren´t fighting or not listening ot me ;) We celebrated Ely´s birthday on Tuesday where I (the vegetarian) ate the most mouthwatering lemon grilled chicken imaginable. It´s the first party I´ve been to where I am everybodies junior by atleast 15 years! But fun none the less.

So tomorrow I am taking Lizandra out for some one on one time, then this weekend off to Cuzco (YAY!!!!!!) Love Cuzco.

So yes thats it!
uhm...yeah.....YES. Ok so hope everyone is happy and healthy.
And good karma.
ANd please comment!

P.S. Wardy, Luisa says ´Hi and will you ever be married in Peru´ haha

ok lots of love people!!!!!!!

Chloe

The Rainbow Centre!

The first few days at the Rainbow Centre have been intense! They are currently short staffed so us volunteers have a lot of responsibility resting on our shoulders, which is why it has taken me so long to blog :p Anyone from the second and third generations of Team Peru will know that it doesn´t take much for me to get emotional when it comes to the Kiya children. So when I first walked into the centre and recognized so many faces it was all I could do to stay in control of my tears, thank god I lasted through the day dry-faced! I was remembered by most of the staff, the children however needed their memories jogged a little before they remembered that this was not my first visit to the rainbow centre. Many asked about various members of Team Peru, and asked me to send my love. The children were particullarly happy when they found out that I was friends with Prof Alex and Prof AC. A very enthusiastic Lizandra begged me to ask Alex to please please return to Peru, so Alex there you go! Because the children found it hard to pronounce Chloe, I have now been named ´Claudia´, always with the word ´profe´ in front (teacher), a title which I quite enjoy. Because it is summer school there is not much teaching going on, and the kids were divided into classes according to age. I have my own class(!!!!) that I´m in charge of and my kids(!!!!) are the 6-8 year olds. Those of you from Team Peru might remember Juan Cito from the rainbow house, he is in my class and he is extremely fiesty :) After school Ely took Carolin, Suzanne and I to the Rainbow house were the orphaned children of the centre live with a surrogate mother. These children are Solidad, Lizandra, Juan Cito, Marco, Yelson, Fernando and Matilde. All these children, except for Solidad, are related and came from an extremely poor and abusive family before being taken into the care of Kiya. Now most of the children are in mainstream school, and Lizandra is working. Fernando now has a room at the Rainbow Centre where he works. At the rainbow house Ely talked us through the various emotional, physical and mental problems that each of these children have and what our responsibilities would be concerning them. One of my jobs is to take Lizandra to work, and pick her up when she is done, another is to try to take two children on one on one outings once a week. After this information sessions we were let loose to bond with the children. I immediately sat down with Lizandra. I had forged a strong bond with her three years ago, and it was to her that I made a promise to return to the Rainbow Centre. As soon as I sat down Lizandra started talking about school, her cell phone, profe Alex and how much she missed him(!). After half an hour of gossiping, she became serious and she told me her life story, She talked about living in a one roomed mud hut with her abusive father and mentally ill mother, about how her mother was so ill that it became her duty to look after the children while her brother Yelson cleaned the house. She told me her life was hard, and that she understood that her mother was ill, that it wasn´t her fault, She sat quietly for a while then she looked and me and said, ´My mother was very beautiful,when she was in hospital one day Ely came to see me and I thought she would say your mother is better, she is fine now. But she said my mother was dead. I miss her, even though she was ill. I miss her. I wish you could meet her.´She then went on to say that she could not believe how great her life was now. That everyday she thanks god for bringing Suzy Butler (the founer of Kiya Survivors) into her life, that she loves Suzy with all her heart. That now she knows that she and her siblings are safe and loved. I sat there listening feeling like my heart was going to burst, Lizandra had matured so much since the last time I saw her, she was so willing to open up and talk about such hard years of her life. It is a conversation that I am going to remember forever, and makes me even more dedicated to the cause and the children here.

Ah...that was a lot to get off my chest. The conversation with Lizandra left me somewhat overwhelmed and it feels good to put it all out there and ´tell´someone.
No pictures yet! I didn´t want to bring my camera into school on the first week. SO next week I´ll post some.

Please leave comments, It would be nice to feel like there is an actual conversation going on and that I´m not jsut babbling to nobody in particular, even if thats exactly what I´m doing!

Lots of Love from Peru!

Off to drink some Pisco Sour tonight, here people party on Wednesday :)

xxxxxxxxxxx

Profe Claudia :)

Urubamba!!!!

Again, I have not yet made it to the Rainbow Centre, it is still closed for Christmas Holidays and re-opens on Monday for Summer school. This is more fun for us volunteers because summer school focuses more on being creative and fun, with a bit of learning on the side. It´s a really important time for the centre because during summer school the centre is open to all the children in the village, not only those with special needs. This is essential to integrating the special needs children into society and educating the locals about special needs. SO I will more exciting news to report hopefull by Monday or Tuesday. Flying into Cuzco proved to be a bit of a challenge because Andrew, our wonderful Kiya liason in the UK, failed to tell us whihc airline we were flying with. Caroline and I proceeded to the airport armed with the knowledge that our flight left at 10:10. That was all we knew. Unfortunately there were two flights leaving at this time, so I had to ask a bewildered woman at the check in counter to please look at my passport details and check to see if we were scheduled to fly with her airline, luckily we were! There were several groups of volunteers on our plane, all from different NGOs, I meet a fellow nineteen yar old volunteer from Oklahoma, it was his first time out of the US.

At Cuzco we were met but the lovely Ely who has been with the centre for nine years. She showed us round the volunteer house and the village. A few hours later we met Suzanne a third volunteer who has already been here two months, she British and in her late fifties, making me by far the youngest one in the house....intimidating :p

But yes, thats it for now, sorry that was quite a boring post :p

My room at the volunteer house ........................ Staying healthy

Peru at Last!

-Newark Airport -Sunset Lima -Fountain in La Plaza de L armas

-Sacrificial Knife -Statue of the first Liberator of Peru

-Beach in Lima -Oldest hotel in Peru -Bishops something.....(?) :p

So while I am not yet at the Rainbow centre, I have landed in the beautiful country that is Peru. I was immediately greeted by a wave of humidity, a crowd of very loud short people and the smell of sweat, exactly how I remember it! I met Mario the Kiya driver, and an hour later we met Caroline, another volunteer who is 28 years old, but we get still along great, we are both find of laughing :) . We were then taken to the Lima Wasi hotel which has been renovated since the last time I stayed there, it is quite the fancy hotel now :)

We did a bit of exploring in order to find lunch and I could not believe how tourist-y the area has become! We turned the corner and were faced with a Starbucks, Dunkin´ Donuts, T.G.I Fridays, Chili´s, Tony Roma´s, etc etc. All we were looking for was some Peruvian food, which we didn´t find, and hence we settled for Pizza Hut. Sigh.

We took a City tour of Lima at 2pm, we had a very charming tour guide named Alfredo from whom I learned that Lima has a population of 9 million, and Peru itself has a population of 29 million. Also 60% of Peru´s exports are mined goods, such as coal. We also learned that the first five star hotel to be built in Peru was the sheraton, and we were shown the oldest hotel in Peru where Ernest Hemingway and Mick Jagger were said to have tried their first Pisco Sour. After that, Caroline and I enjoyed an exotic dinner at Starbucks. Now we are off to bed early because Mario is picking us up at 7(!) tomorrow morning for our flight to Cuzco.

So I´ll will see you in Cuzco!

Lots of Love,

Chloe