UniBreak Jo in Peru

Peruvian Time!



I´ve finally got a chance to sit down and tell you all about it. Fell free to pass this on to others if you like. Firstly the host family is lovely! Dina our mother is fantastic and totally undertands what its like to be a volunteer because she has many throughout the year which is great. At the moment she has about ten but laura katy and I are in a seperate house closer to the volunteer office. They are extremely helpful and all meals are great, just lots and lots lots of carbs (i.e. rice, potato and bread).

Cusco life is great because you have the opportuinty to experience both the turistic side in the plaza and also the local side through the local village work. The weather is freezing! Thermals are a must. But there is also really strong sun so hats and sunnies and sunblock are also a must. Day to day life usually involves 9-1 going to the school at Punamacca. However what activity you do can really varry, some days you will be onconstruction which involves building chimneys and mud bicks, and other days you will be teaching maybe english or p.e. The kids here love you! They all referto you as ámiga or amigo , even before you know them! For those coming in January, for thing to bring for the kids, we already have heaps of koalas haha. Colouring pencils, hair accessorices , stickers those types of things they generall like.

In the afternoon you either do a spanish lesson or a home visit. The spanish teachers have been amazing with us! The three of us feel like the spanish is ocming on so quickly! The home visits involve a drive into the comunity aroud the school and you either build chimneys or plant tress or whatever. We are generally given a timetable at the beginning of each week telling us what we are doing.

But a warning for those coming- Plans made are easily able to chnage. It is a concept reffered to here as ´peruvian time´. It can be extremely frustrating. So be prepared to be flexible. Some days you might turn up and be told you are doign something completely different. Other times people can turn up like 2 hours late, and that is just accepted here. It can really test your patience!

Laura , Katy adn I have done a few really good tours, including sacred valley and sexywoman. I just got back from a solo trip to the amazon which was incredible and this friday Katy and I are treking the Inca trail. (so we are hoping that we will still be alive to meet the new volunteers hah). For christmas we are going into the main plaza and then having dinner with our host family.

Also everyone here is really sick, its bound to happen to everyone. Weñe all basically had travellers diahorrea and other volunteers hae gardia and salema. So bring medication!