Monday 21st September

Have been at the school for a week now! Each day we do a little palava with the calender with everyone reading out what day it is and the weather etc and today I did it (well pointed at the words and spoke really slowly while the children repeated after me!) After lining the kids up in height order and spending about an hour doing the calendar, we line the kids up again to go to the loo and again to wash their hands. They then all have a snack which is normally soup (i eat this when it looks nice which is about half the time) and go out to play in the park downstairs. They then come back upstairs for some "work" which is normally cutting and sticking and then are lined up in height order to go home! There are two classes both reception year and then i think they move to a proper school round the corner. Downstairs is the nursery. When we arrive (and the teacher and nun are lining up children) me and Izzy (the other English volunteer at the school) have to stand by the door and make sure no one escapes as there is always one who crys when their mums leave (for most its their first week of school). After work i always buy these little lolly things which are only 25 cents and are really nice. This means i have change for the bus.
In the afternoons im at the orphanage which im finding a bit harder although was much better today. most of the other volunteers are from America and with a mormon organisation!
Monday tuesday and wednesday nights ive started salsa lessons, with possibly the veinest man alive! He mainly prances about looking in the mirror doing dance moves which are actualy quite embarrasing.. but hes happy so never mind!
This weekend we all went to a small town called Gualaceo, where the host family of one girls have two houses. One is fairly basic but ok and one is just a small room with no running water.. we decided to camp outside the small one in tents! I dont normally like tents but with 7 of us it was really fun. We had dinner and lunch in a market place, which during the day was a bit dull but had a really nice atmosphere in the evening with lots of ladys sitting behind pots and pans selling food, and randomly a guy juggling! The others ate guinea pig but it made me feel a bit sick so i just ate 3 differnt potatoe dishes which were all very nice! Also had a drink which is hot milk with cinnamon and i think pepper corns in which was very cosy!
On Sunday we headed off into the mountains to go fishing. It had rained the night before and we had to climb a hill to get to the lake. I went ahead thinking it would be nice to get to the top and laugh at the others still struggling up, but after getting half way up and incredibly muddy they decided we should come back another time, so my shoes were completely full of mud for nothing while some of the others hadnt even started to climb- joke was on me really!
We went instead to another lake nearby. I wasnt a natural fisher unlike some of the others and when i caught one squealed and refused to touch it! The whole thing only cost one dollar and included the people there cooking the fish for us and serving it with rice and salad, we all felt very in touch with nature and was the nicest fish I´ve had! Getting there was also very fun as we had a taxi with a trailor bit on the back which we all sat in, it was so good its worth the bruises on my back from being bashed about so much! The road was very bumpy!