Leaving Lima turned into an exciting event with Kathleen falling over and deeply cutting her knee. And of course this happen only minutes after leaving the house. She then had to spend a 7 hour bus ride with her jeans covered in blood and many weird stares.
We arrived in Huancayo and were immediately greeted by the cold. The change in altitude meant we were all very tired, so spent large amount of the day sleeping. In the afternoon we went to the local market and then to the zoo. As seems to be the custom when I go to the zoo, I had a baby shoved into my hands and many photos taken of the weird white girl and a peruvian baby.
After the orphanage we went to the school where our host father, Javier, works. It was interesting since not many of the teachers spoke much english. I think at one stage the principal was talking about economics, but I can´t be sure either due to my lack of interest in the subject of economics or because of my spanish.. On Tuesday at the kinder garden we discussed with the teachers what kind of mural they would like us to paint. The kinder garden, in a somewhat poor area of Huancayo, did not look to be a place of fun and learning for the children, so it was decided that we would paint the front of the kinder garden. This posed us with some problems since none of us deemed ourselves any good at drawing or painting. For once the perfectionist inside me was an advantage. I surprised myself that evening when we were lesson planning, by actually being half decent at drawing. It was a very exciting discovery. The plan was to touch up one side which had previously been painted with some disney characters and to add more. The other side of the wall was to be a jungle scene, using everyone´s special cartoon characters. I decided I would draw and paint Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. The rest of the week saw us working on the Mural after taking classes. On Friday we planned to have a day of painting, as the children didn't have classes but instead were celebrating teachers day. While painting, I would occasionally stick my head in to see all the children dancing. My favourite definitely had to be their attempt at Gangnam style.
On Friday night Javier took us to Parque del Identidad. It was beautiful. It looked like an enchanted garden. We had a wonderful time strolling around looking at the different gardens, with wooden log bridges. Charlotte also discovered that it was not tall people friendly.
On Saturday Javier arranged for us to do a tour of some of the towns surrounding Huancayo. We were all expecting some kind of public tour, but when we talked out the front a private van was waiting to take us on a tour. We started in Cochas, going to a local artisan and listening to him tell the story that he had carved into a large wooden nut. The precision with which is drew, cut and then painted was amazing, especially for a man who looked to be going into his 80´s, if not older. After we went to a park in Cochas. It was somewhat disappointing after the previous night´s adventure in El Parque De Identidad. The most amusing part was when we were walking through the park to the exit, a newly wed couple having their wedding photo´s taken asked us to have a photo with them. Yep! I made it into a peruvian wedding album!
After Cochas we drove to another town (not going to lie, I don´t actually remember the names of the other towns) where we stopped to look at another artisan shop. After that we went to a town known for the silver jewelry it produces. It was so pretty.
Possibly the most exciting part of the trip was the trout farm we visited next. I have now decided that fish are kind of freaky. Not to mention that when you really have to use the bathroom, a trout farm is not the best place to be.
Our final stop was a church. It was exciting to see some monks, and attempting to take a sneaky photo of him. The monk did eventually come up to us and said "Hello, my name is Jesus". Who ever said monks did´t have a sense of humor.
Sunday was to be our day of rest, but turned into quite the adventure. We had a late morning shop at the local market, where we met a few other volunteers from other organisations. After lunch, two of the teachers from the school where we had been working picked us up and drove us to a small rural town (about 1.5 hours from the center of Huancayo). It was a beautiful town, and lovely for us to sit, rest, think and stroll around. Following Charlotte's leadership, we decided to cross the river by jumping stones. This didn't turn out to well for Ellyn who fell into the river, although made a lot of amusement for myself and Charlotte.
We continued painting on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, knowing that we didn't have much time to complete everything. Wednesday was our last day helping Miss Victoria with the English Exhibition. After school we went with her and a couple other teachers for a coffee. It was nice to chat with them, practicing my spanish and their english.
Thursday was the party at the kinder garden and also the day we completed the mural. All the teachers were so kind and gave us presents. We also gave them some stuff for the children. They also made us lunch (a massive plate of pasta and potatoes). We all left feeling emotional and incredibly full!
On Friday we went to the Central Jungle, which meant waking up at 5:30am. We drove for 2-3 hours along a windy mountainous road, which my motion sickness did not agree with. When we arrived it was humid and sunny. We walked for about 40 minutes to a stunning waterfall, lead by our trusty guide, a dog that was following us.
After we had lunch and then headed to the Papa Michi Tribe. They danced for us, dressed us up in their traditional dress and painted our faces.
After visiting the Tribe, we made our way to the butterfly museum. It was very pretty and I was able to take lots of photos.
After a long day, we returned home and then packed our things to begin our journey to Cusco. It was an amazing two weeks, in a beautiful town filled with beautiful people. I am so grateful to have had such a wonderful experience and I know I will cherish the memories that I made there.
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