Day 28: Huancayo/Concepcion and concert

In the morning I went to the hairdressers, and 3 hours later walked out with slightly shorter partly-curled hair (the curls have now fallen out, but such is life). I stopped by John and Danny's on the way back - Juliana was there too, so we chatted until midday. Then we three volunteers walked into town and I bought a watch, then got a bus back for lunch at Hilda's.

After lunch, we'd arranged to meet up outside Juliana's house to go to Concepcion. I asked Yesy if Juan Jose could come too, so he came along. Jesse didn't come in the end because he felt ill, so only five of us went. After waiting for a while on the streetcorner for the bus, we ended up catching a taxi. Juan Jose and I ended up squished in the front seat for the half hour drive to Concepcion, but there was at least some lovely mountain scenery out of the window.

When we got to Concepcion, we waited a while for another taxi, which took us up to where there was a giant statue of the Virgin Mary. It was absolutely beautiful, we walked around and climbed up to the top of the statue, coming out of the top of her head. From there the view of the mountains was just stunning. We climbed down and saw small figurines of a battle fought here when the Spaniards came, then took a taxi back to Huancayo.

In the evening I went with John and Danny to the internet cafe, then John stayed there a while longer while Danny and I went out for coffee and juice respectively (the fruit juice with beetroot tasted as good as ever). Then all of us volunteers went round to Juliana's, and from there walked to the Plaza de Armas. There was a concert there, protesting against the planned construction of a mine in the glacier Huaytapallana (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Salvemos-el-Huaytapallana/181917309322), so we stayed for a while to watch. After that Juliana took us to a pub where a live band sang in English - that was good fun. I had a drink containing pisco sour (a national type of alcohol), lemon and aniseed tea - even though there wasn't much pisco sour in the drink, it was strong enough to result in me going red and constantly swaying to the music. Then Danny, Juliana and I got a plate of yuca to share, that was great. We left about two hours later - by the time my taxi got back to Hilda's it was nearly midnight, so I locked up as quietly as I could and went straight to sleep.

Day 27: Huancayo and "God is love"

I woke up feeling quite sad that today would be the last time I'd be with my littlies. We had a wonderful day though - first we played with jigsaws, then wooden bricks, then some of them rushed up to show me their toys and give me hugs. Then after breakfast, some special visitors came and we sang songs about how God is love, then they collected up all the yellow toys in their classroom, then a yellow glove puppet told us that God loves us very much. Then we had our next lesson of the day, rectangles, and played matching games of all the shapes we'd learned that week. Then came lunch, and after that Jenny went to talk to some of the parents while we stayed in the dining room and watched the Teletubbies. I spent most of the time with at least one child on my lap, and I was quite sad when the day ended. Edwin and Jenny had made me a card, and inside were printed all of the children's names. That was lovely! Ah, I'll miss my littlies.

In the afternoon I met up with Jesse and Jenny, and we mentioned the possibility of going to Concepcion the next day. Then we went round to see Danny (John was out), and the four of us visited Parque de la Identitad. That was good fun. On the way back we stopped by the shopping centre so Danny could get money out, then took a taxi back to Juliana's. The taxi driver took us by a complete different route, and I wondered for a moment if he was going to rob us, then he tried to drop us off on a different streetcorner. So I told him no, and gave him directions as to exactly how to get to Juliana's from where we were. I very much hope that this doesn't happen to the new volunteers while they don't know their whereabouts so well!

When Juliana came back from work, the other volunteers went out to eat, and Juliana and I went to run some errands in town. Afterwards, the two of us went out for broaster chicken (kind-of like southern fried chicken?) before heading back to our houses. That was a fun evening.

Day 26: Huancayo and hail

Today's shape of the day was the triangle. And a very important shape it is. I found myself thinking about the Grand High Triangle Lover from Sesame Street (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l_sN0P89S4&feature=player_detailpage), and wondered what he'd think of today's activities. We pegged up triangles on a skipping rope, then drew triangles in red crayon and punched holes in them with dead biros. Then in the afternoon Juliana came to film me with the kids - we did jigsaws, played with trains, and one of the boys put a ring of toys around my neck and said that I was a princess. How we laughed!

I had lunch at Nelly's house - it was great seeing her and the maid Dina again, who I hadn't seen since I was there two years ago. We ate with Nelly's father, then we went up to the rooftop. It was so strange seeing the room where I'd stayed before. It was really sunny, so Nelly brought me up a chair, and I stayed there for a while soaking up the sun. Then Hector came back from his office, so I went to say hi to him. Two minutes later, we saw that it was raining, so Nelly and I dashed to collect the clothes from the rooftop. Two minutes after that, hailstones the size of my thumbnail were falling. It was quite remarkable to watch. I stayed there a while waiting for the two new volunteers who were due to arrive at Nelly's that afternoon - an hour after they were due to arrive, I gave up and wandered to the internet cafe.

In the evening I went to Juliana's house - there I chatted with John, a volunteer who arrived on Tuesday (Daniel and I met him briefly before we went to Hualhuas yesterday), then we went to pick up the volunteers from Nelly's house. They're a couple, Jesse and Jenny, so we chatted on the way back to Juliana's. There Juliana's mum made a dinner of causa and some fruit salad for us all - me, John, Jesse, Jenny, Oscar, Sonia, and a new volunteer called Danny who also arrived today. It was Sonia's last day - tomorrow she and Oscar are off to Huaraz, then she'll go home while Oscar comes back - so we said goodbye. I said goodbye to Oscar too, since he'll come back when I'm already in Lima. It was a great evening chatting, then we all went back to our houses.

Day 25: Huancayo/Hualhuas and squares

Today we learned about squares. Unlike circles, squares have four corners, and four sides. Pretty much the same games as yesterday were played - some of the younger ones brought up circles instead of squares, which wasn't surprising. Then came the children's task of ripping paper up into little squares, and I'd stick them inside a big square, one square per group. This was much more successful - my little group of five all wanted to stick on the squares themselves, so with the proviso that I'd be the only one putting glue on the paper, I had no issue with this. We were all very proud of our square. Then came lunch (a few tears, a few refusals to eat, a few threats to sit at the 2 year olds' table), then an afternoon of jumping, building houses (I'm the official house-builder and jump-facilitator), cutting nails, doing up shoelaces, and brushing hair and teeth. The children leave the playschool very clean.

In the afternoon Juliana had said that her friend Daniel would take me to Hualhuas, a place known for its wool products. So Daniel and I set off - it was great chatting to him, and I had a nice afternoon. It was about a 45 minute journey by bus, which took us into more rural areas - I saw some pigs and cows munching grass on a train track, and we were fairly close to the mountains when we got off the bus. We looked around the artesans' market, then found a place where they sold alpaca wool, then walked around the town square for a bit before heading back.

I'd arranged to go to the cinema with Yesy and Juan Jose in the evening, but when I got there half an hour late, they weren't there. I called Yesy, no reply. I wandered around the shopping centre for a while, eventually she called me while I was munching some KFC - she was inside the cinema now, a horror film was about to start, would I be joining them? I'm not the hugest fan of horror films, so I said I'd see them back at the house. I wandered about town for a little, bought some churros, then got on a bus to Juliana's (I'd left my shopping from Hualhuas there earlier). I chatted to her mum for a while, then Juliana and Nelly turned up, and the four of us chatted until it got dark. Juliana's mum made us a dessert of peaches in jelly, she says that during Holy Week it's custom to eat this dessert in her hometown of Tarma. Then when it was dark, I grabbed my shopping, then headed back to Hilda's.

Day 24. Huancayo and circles

This morning we learned about circles. Circles are round, like wheels, they have no corners. So the littlies played a game of finding circles in the room - a few of them got confused and brought over their books or toys, others decided that batting together two squares was good enough. Bless! Then they drew over a circle in crayon, then rolled up tissue paper into balls and gave them to me to glue onto the circles. Well, that was the plan - the result was mainly strips of paper being glued on, some of the littlies getting glue on their faces, and I ended up with some in my hair. I still don't quite know how that happened...

In the afternoon I went round Juliana's - we chatted for a while, then I helped her translate a few things, then she said that Nelly, the woman whose house I'd stayed in two years ago, was still in Huancayo. So of course, I went over to visit. It was lovely seeing her again! We chatted over grapes and coca tea, then I went with her as she ran some errands in town. Then back to the house for a 'lonche' (afternoon-tea?) of bread rolls and manjarblanco. We had a lovely time, and she invited me over for lunch on Thursday. Then I hopped on a bus back to Hilda's - I managed to miss my stop while the conductor was getting my change, so I ended up in another part of Pio Pata. Fairly interesting, I just crossed the road and took a bus in the other direction until I knew where I was and could walk back. I'll probably explore that other end of Pio Pata another day.

Day 23: Huancayo and my littlies

It was so wonderful seeing the littlies again, I'd missed them since Thursday! We crawled and jumped and coloured in and sorted toys into piles of yellow, green and blue. The day's activity was parts of the body - stretch the arm, wave the leg, show your middle finger (that one always makes me laugh). Ah, my littlies! After they ate their lunch, we went upstairs to the playground. Health and safety would have a field day here: concrete floor, relatively low wall. But the children were happy playing in the sun; chasing, going on the slide, on the seesaw (although little Allison fell off and cried).

After lunch, I did a bit of work at Juliana's, then internetted (I've somewhat given up on the idea of getting my coursework done here, it's kind of hard to concentrate on writing a report when there're trucks hurtling past every few seconds) then at 5pm met up with Mum's friend Doria. We had a great evening, We went for milkshake and cake in town (she invited me) and we chatted for a good hour and a half or so, until we saw it was getting dark. Then she put me on a bus, and I headed back to my house. I chatted for a while to Hilda's mum, who tells such wonderful long stories, then went for a relatively early night.

Day 22: Huancayo and elections

In a way it feels like I've been in Peru for less time than three weeks, and in a way it feels like I've been here for longer.

I went for a walk in the morning, just around town. It was fairly sunny, but I was still wrapped up warmly since I don't want to risk getting ill again. Then I met up with Yesy and Juliana for lunch in a seafood place - I dislike seafood as a rule, so I got ceviche (raw fish left to cook in lemon juice - it's quite nice, if very lemony). The three of us then went to visit Oscar and Sonia for a bit, then back to Juliana's to watch the prelim results of the presidential elections.

As Hilda later explained to me, voting closes at midday, and the results of the polls are shown at 4pm (not the actual results, although Yesy said that there's a very small margin of error). If nobody gets more than 50% of the vote, then a furhter election is held later on between the two most popular candidates. So... in early June, it'll come down to an election between Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13027410)

In the evening I went out with Juliana and her friend Daniel - we ate hot dog and chips - 'salchipapas', it's called over here. On a side note, did I mention how cheap food is here? A good plate of salchipapas (I couldn't finish them all) in a cafe in the shopping centre cost the equivalent of 1.75 pounds or so. After dinner, we saw Rio in the cinema, that was good fun. We smuggled in drinks (strictly speaking we can't bring in food from outside of the cinema - there are attendants to check bags for food and cameras, but so far I've been lucky), at one point in the film mine fizzed out of the bottle and the people in the neighbouring seats turned to stare - joyous... other than that, I really did have a great evening.

We came across Hilda and Yesy while trying to get a taxi back, so the five of us got a taxi together - Juliana and Daniel got off outside Oscar and Sonia's, then the rest of us made our way back to the house.