One Week in with minibeasts!

One Week in with minibeasts!
Monday 15th January 2006

I can{t believe only a week has gone, it feels like months and months ago, I still have bouts of missing everyone and my mini comforts but am getting used to a wired shower and fleas!
My first week has been very very entertaining....First of all I teach in the most dangerous part of Trujillo, everyone has a classroom, I have a hut with four black ducks, one pig and a chicken running around, and I must not forget the dozen of stray pavement specials that wonder in and out during the morning! (pavement special...is a dog or cat that is not a breed.) The floor is a sand dune, and my bus rarely comes, as not many go in that direction...the main title if you look quickly says slavery....but actually it is meant to read salavery...often the first a is not there. The others have 9 to 15 children and have a clean floor, cupboards and I won{t go on. I have 30! so much for a slight break of it all. But i love it. My children seem to be the best, maybe because there are so many. They really work hard and are so good. It{s amazing, they have nothing, live with hardly anything yet are really happy. and so good in a classroom! )these are supposed to be problem children in Peru terms...)My bus is held together with wooden boards and has the look of an old american school bus. It also has the thickest tyres you have ever seen to get over the sand dunes. Tends to topple more to one side now and again, but going as slowly as we do, I am sure we will only be slightly squashed should we actually fall over.
I have started taking a group of children for maths and writing...and art, and p.e. They are very gracious and even bring me my dictionary now if I don{t understand a word!

The bad news is I have been bitten everywhere, at first everyone thought they were fleas from my school, but no, they were creepie crawlies that were in my my cupboard and therefore in my clothes! So the only parts that have no bites are the uncovered bits...I was near tears as I saw myself become a resemblance of a chicken pox person! So our whole house has been fumigated and all my clothes have been washed in boiling water...what a mission. But no bites since, so am feeling slightly better.

Went to see the temple of the moon, amazing stuff, with a gay couple from the Lima branch, they were very entertaining. Am working as a tour guide tomorrow and getting paid for it! 20 dollars...great. They need someone who can speak english to take a bunch of americans from the port to the airport. Crazy hey. My conversation class in the evenings are great fun, they have learnt loads in one week, and are so eager to come, Everyday seems to be one more person...surely there is a limit.

Going to an aerobics class this afternoon, joing in with a different group, any spanish is good spanish I hope, plus all those ice creams and cakes need a bit of work.

Oh yes, am going sand boarding next weekend...how cool is that. Dunes that are 80 metres high! very excited.