Yesterday we completed our normal morning routine with so much ease. We got up and walked to our bus stop, just as one of the smaller mini busses, with spare seats (!!!) pulled up and we hopped on.

Obviously it was a much nicer journey up the mountains and we arrived at El Kinder early and not feeling sick! A good start to the day.
The children’s day began with marching practice, which they’re getting used to now. There’s a few children who still refuse and sit in the corner or have to be dragged round by me or Juliet but apart from that, and under the promise of prizes for the best marcher, they all stomped round in a circle swinging their legs and arms high. In the class room, after id finally finished all of my paper folding, I got given a new stack today, I helped the children in my class design their ideal garden. It had to be beautiful and with a lot of colours and while a lot of them struggled to even draw a flower, I went round adding my touch to everyone’s work. (Most people requested butterflies with cool colours and designs). I spent most of the time with a little boy called Migiel, who at 4 years old is the youngest in the class and also doesn’t really know anything that’s going on in class, or what they’re talking about but woos the teacher by giving her hugs often when he’s put on the spot. We made his drawing absolutely fabulous, full of colour, butterflies and lots of flowers.

Soon all the children were posing for photographs with their work.

Today was a bit different in the sense that while all the children ate their usual breakfast of milk and biscuits, the teachers also brought out some special food – vegetable tortilla that they’d just made in the kitchen. They then brought out plates of food for Juliet and I, rice, tortilla and salad and then afterwards along with the teachers we went into one of the class rooms and had some coca tea, and while the children played and we chatted over tea, time passed and soon the school day was up.

After a quick lunch, obviously in Basilica, Juliet and I ran some errands including buying milk and toothpaste, all very fun before heading to the house to relax for a bit.
That afternoon/evening, we went to El Museo Del Pisco, the Pisco museum to do a Pisco tasting and have dinner. Pisco is a liqueur founded in Peru and only made in Chile and Peru. It’s made with grapes but is clear and very very strong. Although the tasting was fun and we learnt all about the fermentation process and the different ways it can be made, we couldn’t have more than a tiny sip of our straight Pisco without wincing. We did however, both agree on our favourite, and obviously it was the most expensive.

The staff soon realised that the straight pisco was way too strong for us both and made our remains into cocktails instead! (Well that’s what they said… They actually used new Pisco but heyho we weren’t being charged so we weren’t complaining!) and both of our cocktails were delicious. Juliet’s was a cosmopolitan with pisco and mine was pisco, passion fruit and ginger ale.

We then had a delicious meal before heading home, watching Clash of the Titans and going to sleep… Or so we thought…
At 3.45am we were woken up by the doorbell ringing constantly, as if an annoying child was trying to be seriously seriously annoying. Furious at our housemates for forgetting their key again and being so, well, annoying, Juliet and I stormed downstairs and outside to let them in. Only to open the door and find an American girl standing there saying sorry she’s not looking for us she’s looking for our housemates. We were so angry, she’s the girl that always comes home with them, shouting and talking so loudly and waking us up most nights however this had taken it to a new level. We told her we didn’t think that they were in and she asked if she could check and marched through the door. Obviously having just woken up and it being 4am Juliet and I were not impressed and told her exactly what we thought of her and the whole situation. She told us she “knew all about the rules” (that she’s actually not allowed in our house, guests aren’t, let alone to stay over) and marched into our two house mates room, woke one of them up and then the two of them went into the kitchen, and while he whispered saying shhh, she had a full blown conversation / argument with him in full volume American accent – SO ANNOYING. It was half 4 and they still hadn’t shut up so Juliet and I went out to the kitchen, he apologised but the noise didn’t stop and soon I screamed, from my bed, WILL YOU PLEASE BE QUIET and the house was silent again. Unfortunately Juliet and I were very awake by this point and literally didn’t go back to sleep… So two very tired volunteers are off to work this morning… And two house mates will be getting a big talking to this afternoon.