Day 9: Huancayo and children's songs

Juliana took me to two places this morning. The first was the playschool where Sasha volunteers - this is hidden away in the market place, so you have to walk through the stalls and among piles of rotting fruit at the back of the market to get there. At this point you reach some stairs, and upstairs there's the playschool (the building's quite nice once you get inside) divided into age groups. Sasha's with the 3-4 year olds, so we went to watch for a bit. The children are so adorable! They played for a bit, then they were made to get into lines and, like a train, go to the dining room where they'd get their free breakfast after a few songs. It was so lovely to watch! And a little strange hearing the children's songs, some of which I'd heard when I was little.

Afterwards, Juliana took me to the orphanage again - there we waited for Gonzalez, and chatted to two ofthe boys. One of them, Victor, is 24, and strictly speaking has left by now, but since he has learning difficulties he's kept on to work in the garden. Juliana explained that once the boys reached 18, there was no more help for them from the government - the orphanage does what they can to help, for example they're supporting the boy who paints in considering university, and they let Victor work there. When Gonzalez arrived, he took us to the school 15 minutes away where the boys and some of the local children go - the school is currently in the form of long tables and chairs, with canvas sheeting separating each year group. They're hoping to move into a new building in July, but until then this is all they can get. Juliana then said that this week we'll take over the notebooks and pencils that people have donated. It was quite inspiring to see the children doing their work, though, despite not being in a proper building.

I went back for a lunch of potatoes, rice and chicken in a yellow-pepper sauce (Hilda did tell me the name, but I can't remember it right now), then after a quick spell in the internet cafe (there's one opposite the supermarket which has skype, so I haunt this one now) I went back to Juliana's house. We went into town and met up with Sasha, and went with her as she bought storybooks and dolls for the playschool, then Juliana went to work and Sasha and I went back. I stayed at Juliana's a while longer talking to her mum, who's very sweet (I'd only met her briefly on my last visit), and sharpening pencils to give as donations (I thought that the youngsters would refer sharpened pencils). Soon I saw that it was getting dark, so I took a bus back - I stayed for a while talking to Hilda over a cup of coca tea, then I went straight to bed.

Juliana and I now have a plan as to what I'll do: starting tomorrow, in the mornings I'll go to the playschool (Sasha leaves us on Wednesday morning, so I'll take over from her) and in the afternoon I'll be a general dogsbody, helping Juliana with admin stuff such as sorting out the donations. This should be good!