Holiday and Kids Camp

Hola!

Well well well..so much to write. Firstly though.. I can't believe how many complaints I get about a non-updated blog considering none of you ever comment on it. For all I know I´m writing to myself. Well, not just myself.. (hi andy). And Kasim! Yes, you! Hannah's told me what you said. Haha!! Funny..


I´m pretty much just home from 2 weeks holiday and I'm off on Monday - it´'s a tough life this. Seriously though I am working. The second week of 'holiday' was with work so it doesn't really count cause I definately do not feel rested after it, but more about that later. I´ll start with the real holiday..



We left last Saturday night on our main holiday of the trip (we get 2 weeks off in the 4 month trip). We´'d had a pretty bad week previous of sickness, exhaustion and there was a strong sense of nobody wants to go away this week, but we needed to cross the border for our visas sake so had no choice. We got the overnight bus (7 hrs) to the Bolivian capital La Paz which got us in at around 6am to the terminal. In Bolivia you can't book any travelling tickets in advance, only on the day of travel. So arriving in La Paz we booked tickets on an 8.30am bus to Copacabana so we went and had hot choc in a cafe in the bus station to wait. Long story short, HannahW's rucksac got stolen. Luckily her passport was in her handbag but she lost all her clothes, wash stuff, some money, camera (with awesome pics), and just everything you'd take on a weeks holiday! It was terrible. Her and HannahSR had to go report it etc so we had to cancel our tickets and buy later ones for Copacabana. HannahW handled the situation soo well, she was a star. She actually commented that 'the guy who took it obviously needs the stuff more than me' and she proceeded to pray for him later in our team time - how awesome is this chick?!


In Copacabana we booked into a hotel. It was nice enough but we got ripped off big time by the price. Though of course it was the first time we'd booked a hotel so we didn´t know any better at this stage. We stayed here 2 nights. My first impression was 'I dont like this place I wanna go home'. This mindset quickly changed and now I´d honestly saw I love it! I´d go back for sure. It´s very small and very touristy. I hardly saw 10 locals the wholoe time, it´s full of gringo backpackers and hippies selling jewellery. Lots of cafes and funky restaurants. One place pretty much became our home we ate there so much but we just loved it. One night we met 2 guys who were travelling and had just in fact met each other that day so we had a good laugh with them over dinner. It was great to meet strangers and hear their experiences and stories from their travels. Pete, one of the guys reminded me sooo much of you! He looked like you, had a similar sense of humour and just the way he talked and everything. You didn't come across an Aussie named Grassie on your trip??haha Oh and since I'm addressing you, Pete.. I have a photo of us Harrisons at Colin n Shaz's wedding party in my bible and the girls at my old centre saw it and they all loved you!lol


So, Copacabana is on the Bolivia side of Lake Titicaca. We went out one afternoon in little pedal swan boats (not unlike those at Bangor's pickie park!). It was awesome. There was a moment of realisation that 'wow..I´m on a pedal swan having a great laugh with HannahW in the middle of lake Titicaca just before sunset'.. pure bliss, it was such a feeling of happiness and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be here. We took a boat trip out to La Isla del Sol which is a beautiful island in the lake. We spent a night there. Emma was quite sick my this stage and she spent most of the time here in bed, poor girl, and Heather had spent a whole day sick in bed in Copacabana. We saw the most spectacular views on isla del sol. It was just beautiful - we saw a sunset over the lake, then got up for sunrise the next morning - fantastic. But the most amazing sight was the stars. I'm really not very into star gazing or anything, I mean I always like looking at stars but I don't get overly excited or know any constalations or anything, but when I looked up and saw what I saw on Isla del Sol it literallt took my breath away. I was speechless! The sky was crystal clear and covered with millions of stars all over, I actually saw my first every shooting star here. I'll never forget that sight. It was phenominal.


Trout is a very big dish around the lake, so in Copacabana and Isla del Sol we all enjoyed lots of trout dinners! It was really good.


Without being able to book things in advance we only had a rough schedule we were trying to follow for the weeks holiday. We had planned to spend a night or 2 in La Paz but none of us had any desire whatsoever to spend more time there than absolutely necessary - perhaps just because of the bad first impression of arrving in the early hours and having the bag stolen. It seemed strange that we didn't like it cause everyone keeps telling us how lovely it is etc. I guess we didn't see very much of it, maybe there is a better side to it. But anyway, so we decided to not spend any nights in La Paz and instead we went back to Copacabana for another night! There's an excellent restaurant that has a movie room. It's free to use you just have to buy food so we watched Evan Almighty and ordered pizzas!

We left the next morning for Puno, Peru. We didn't really want to go to Peru but we needed to leave Bolivia and return to get a tourist visa on the way back in. I hated Puno. We all did really! Karen McCoy what were you thinking!? lol She told me how pretty and lovely it was.. mentirosa!haha we'll have fun talking Spanish when I get home muhaha! Anyway yeh we spent a night in Puno. It wasn't bad we found a nice cheap hostel and a good place where we got to try Alpaca for dinner. Then we slept and left. We thankfully did get tourist visas on the way back into Bolivia no problem but only 30day ones and we wanted 90days! So we went to the immigration office in La Paz and got them extended for free, no problems. So that's me sorted with my visa for my extension as well which is good. One less thing to worry about!


It was an eventful holiday. I really enjoyed it, lots, but it had it's dramas, sicknesses and stresses. It felt good to be home on the Friday night and it meant we had the whole weekend to rest. Which was needed!


Saturday was spent shoppig with HannahW to replace her lost belongings. We had a lovley day. Nice lunch, and found some nice shops - which is super hard here - all the shops are like Quiz only worse!! Dave Barbon (the name's growing on me) invited us all round for a BBQ at his house in the evening. We chatted, ate and watched a movie. On Sunday we went to the English service, stayed for th Spanish music then had lunch in a lovely Chinese restaurant. We went back to the Portuguese service in th evening which was the funniest time ever..those Brasilians are hilarious, crazy. But that's a story for when I come home. I dunno who reads this blog!lol As usual we went to the Cine Center after for food. It was Bart's last night. He's gone now it's so sad. He's not coming back either, he's just left and is going to continue studying in Brasil! So we saw a movie with him and said our goodbyes while holding the tears back. Bart is a fantasic guy. Kind, friendly, supportive, funny, really looked our for us and was like our big brother while he was here. He will be greatly missed.

On Monday it was all change. Emma swapped centres with Heather and HannahW swapped with me. So, Heather and I had our first day at Trabajadoras. It was great. Very different to the houses we'd worked at up until now as it's working with younger kids - the children of women working on the street. It's more a preventative thing I think, cause if the kids weren't at this centre they would likely be out with their mums on the street.It's school holidays here at the moment so there were no structured activities. We just played with the girls all day, chatting to them, getting to know them a bit. As a grand finale to the schoool holiday programme Mosoj Yan took the girls on a gran campamento! A camp to Chipare. Heather and I had only been at the centre a few hours when the staff asked us to come along on the campamento! Honeslty I didn't want to at first - I don't know the kids, I don't know the staff and I've never been camping before. It was a recipe for a horrible few days surely. But I came around to the idea and decided it would be a good opportunity to overcome all those reasons I just mentioned. Afteral, I jumped on a plane to Bolivia for 4 months out of the blue.. why not take a group of 60 Spanish speaking kids I don't know to camp in the Bolivian jungle?



So we arrived at the centre at the usual time and it was a very laid back - holiday atmosphere. The kids were very chatty and friendly and happily came to talk to us which made me feel better. They like me.. phew! haha The staff, too, are lovely but they were busy getting prepared and so we didn't speak to them much. There are 2 other volunteers at Trabajadoras at the minute. A German guy called Cristoph and an Argentinian girl called Luidmila. They don't speak English but can understandn it and I think Cristoph knows more than he lets on. The first day they didn't seem very friendly toward us but we chatted a bit more this time. They're nice. Although they don't seem to understand that we don't know much Spanish cos they talk so fast to us and it's difficcult to carry a conversation. Then there's Julie. She's been here for just 2 weeks, from North America. She'll be helping at Albergue, my old centre, but she came to help out on camp too. I really like her she's cool. She hopes to work with Galdys, the psychologist at Albergue to introduce music therapy with the girls and also more exercie things such as aerobics etc. I was glad she came on camp it meant that we had a translator if needed! She speaks good Spanish. When they arrived, Luidmila told us about an injection she'd got to protecft against these bugs that bite you and lay eggs under your skin! So yeh straight away Julie, Heather and I went to the nearest pharmacy to get the jab before we left!!lol I hope it worked cos my legs are covered with bites from the camp..! They were actually terrible. I had to go to the chemist and get cream for them yesterday cause they were still itchy and sore. When I tell people they just say 'yea.. that's Chipare!' haha


We hired a bus to take us on the 5 hour journey. It was about a 40 seater bus I reckon with over 60 people on it. The kids were 3 to two seats and volunteers stood or sat in the aisle. It was boiling hot and the kids were hyper - add in a rather crazy bus driver and that was quite a journey! After about 2-3 hours some kids squished tp to give me a seat. But by this time I was tired, sweaty and hungry and so understanding all the kids around me talking to me was difficult!



This trip lasted from Tuesday to Friday. The best way to describe it would be challenging and moulding. I say moulding because it really was a life changing time. No spectacular moments of change but I mean I did feel pushed to my limits at times. And I came through it all. I'll not go into the details of it now but i faced challenges and overcame them, I was well proud of myself. Generally I'm a quitter. Just ask my mum! But I perservered through a lot of stuff and came out the better for it. One tough thing about this centre is that I understand more Spanish than Heather and so I put myself under pressure, maybe unnecessarily, to understand for the both of us what the staff and kids are saying. It's good though, I like the pressure and responsibility.



I think going on this campemento was a really good boost for my Spanish. There was a moment of realisation of how far I've come when walking back from the lake one day. I was walking with Heather and a girl came along and grabbed my arm to walk with her. So I ended up walking with this girl for at least 15mins and had a good conversation the whole time. It's encouraging to think that when I arrived here I knew 'hola' and now Im having long conversations with 12 yr old Bolivian street girls. She says when she's older she wants to work with street girls because she loves Mosoj Yan and how they've helped her. Isn't that incredible?!



On thursday afternoon was the highlight of the trip. Chipare is famous for monkeys. That's all the kids talked about - monos, monos, monos. There are lots of animal parks in Chipare that have lots of monkeys. We'd been told by anyone who's been that it's fantastic and they climb on you and everything! The park we went to was tiny and to be honest I was a little disappointed. To be fair though I think we just went to the cheapest park - 60 kids to pay for is a lot. I've no doubt thqat all I've heard is true but I didn't get to see that being with the group of kids! When we arrived at the park we got stripped of everything - bags, jewellery, camera etc.. I soon saw why when a little cheeky chimp sneaked up on Luidmiola and snatched her ice lolly right outv of her hand and then went and sat on a car roof tov eat uit only a few metres away! lol it was sooo funny. The kids loved it. Apart from that the monkeys didn't interact too much and we only saw a few. A couple were actually tied to trees on very short ropes so that they could always be seen. There was a parrot place and in their tiny cages the parrots were also tied to their perches. The most shocking, however, was that there were 2 men with a brown bear. It was on a lead and was obviously veryheavily sedated or something. They sort of dragged it around the park by the lead.

The other afternoon was spent at the lake. In the mornings Christoph and Luidmila led team games. There were 3 teams of mixed ages from 6-18yrs. It was nice, and surprising, to see how well the age groups mixed together and got on. The older girls looked after the youngers and the youngers really lookedc up to their peers. I imagine in a similar group of British kids they would create a divide in ages straight away and not mix with the others. It's maybe like this here because of the huge emphasis on family and that multiple generations remain very close. It was really good to introduce the older girls to responsibilty as well. The teams would lose points if any of them were late for breakfast etc so the older girls would help the younger ones get ready, making sure they brushed their teeth etc..

Thankfully we didn't sleep in tents. The place we stayed was as basic as it gets though. It's the property of a Quechuen Christian couple which also has a church being built on it. No beds, no furniture, nothing. There were 3 sections of the big room cordoned off into rooms for the 3 teams of kids. The staff and volunteers had to sleep on the concrete landing outside the rooms. It was freeeeezing at night time. Roasting during the day, almost unbearable. The building was open with some walls missing here and there which didn't help the temperature at night. The toilets were the most disgusting I've ever used, literally. They were squats outside. I can't even tell you any more about them I just don't want to remember them. All I'll say is that they were too close to the outdoor food perperation area. It was horrible. The flies and eugh no more. Moving on..

On Thrusday night the volunteers ( Christoph, Luidmila, Julie, Heather and I) did a mime. You all know how much I don'tv like acting and dramas but I absolutely loved doing this one. I originally volunteered myself to be the ticking clock in this story but then I got so into it that I wanted a bigger role and so swapped! I surprised myself by how much I got into it and enjoyed myself.

So yeah, this week I pushed past so many struggles and brick walls and gave everything my best shot and I feel all the better for it. I love this experience! It was a great way to introduce myself and get to know the girls.

A couple of extra musings from camp..
I think I saw an eagle soaring while on the bus on the way, so Andy if you coupld check that out for me, are there eagles in south america?? haha I dunno. Might have been a big bird but it was pretty incredible whatever it was! Also, I saw soo many log trucks! Going in both directions! Passing each other!! haha just for all you Brian Regan fans.. Another one.. at my old centre where I worked with HannahSR there is a toddler called Nicole who is 2 and a half yrs. HannahSR cut her finger and Nic saw it and brought her over beside a tree where she ripped off some leaves and wrapped them around it! She actually instinctly thought - get some leeeaves! No joke. It was hilarioous and I tried to explain this to HannahSR but Brian Regan was lost on her. I think I'd have needed Goo (or sorry is it Graham now?) to help me with the impression!

Sorry for the time taken for this post to be posted, I've been writing it for literally 2 weeks! Just didn't have time to finish it so kept returning to it.

Thanks for reading.. now you can comment :o)
Chao x