¡VIVA LA FIESTA!

La Aldea Infantil San Miguel is now 28 years old, and to celebrate there has been many fiestas this week. 

To start off there were disney characters, with dancing and games for the younger children one afternoon. It was a great way to spend the afternoon and the children had so much fun!

Then on Friday evening there was a lot of entertainment on, for all to watch, until the early hours of the morning. 

Some Dancing from the Kids

Singing from some of the older ones

Tradional Colombian dancing from Tias and Kids

Some Hip Hop dancing from the Kids too

A Traditional Band from the University

Even a Belly Dancer!

With such a variety of entertaiment it was great fun to watch and spend time with everyone, the children had clearly spent ours learning songs and dance routines and it was fantastic! They should all be very very proud of themselves! 

Then on Saturday a more traditional ceremony took place, with the children singing in the aldea church choir, a local priest coming in to give a practice and even some of the children were christened. It was lovely as many from outside the aldea came, including some potential parents to be (those thinking to adopt) and family of the children. 

Ariel found it rather difficult missing nap time...

Later on lunch was served and dancing occured, it was great to become really involved with the day, dance with the children, tias and other members of staff too. We felt super welcomed and it was great to practice some of our spanish too! 

El Pastel

Hannah Dancing

Peruvian Cerveza Tasting....Not too keen on the different cup sizes though!!!!

Overall the week has been a great way to celebrate the aldea and integrate with everyone, we even got a little shout out from the director in her speech!!

¡Viva La Fiesta!

Los Niños

For those not needing to constantly speak Spanish, and be told to do things via Spanish (9/10 I get it wrong!) Los Niños is ‘The Children’. So guess what this post is going to be about?

Tia Francis, Pepe, Milagros, Ariel, Yamile, Yumi, Luana, Hannah and one of the older girls

Meet my little ones, at the moment, whilst we’re still trying to grasp the lingo, we’re working in Casa 5 (house 5) which is the baby house, with three babies and 6 toddlers it’s pretty chaotic at all times so our help is really needed. In the first week I now know how to say ‘Chew ’ ‘Masticar’ which I must say around 2 million times per child per meal time, ‘Pasalo’ which I think means the same however we can’t find it in our dictionaries so it probably means ‘keep all the food in your mouth until you look like a hamster’ which would explain a lot!

Okay, so first up:

Yamile

This little cutie is the one who will take forever eating, forever on the potty, and forever doing anything she’s got to do, despite that her giggles are sounds of joy and her little smile is to die for.

On the Swings and at the Fiesta

Milagros

I think her picture sums her up quite well; her favourite pass time is to cry and point to whatever she wants, often to another toy that’s already being played with. Although she enjoys creating mayhem in the Jugartera (playroom) she is pretty well behaved and when she’s not being a grumpy bum she’s adorable.

On the Swings and at the Fiesta

Luana

Now here’s my little princess, the most well behaved 2 year old on the planet, she eats without being moaned at, does everything asked and only cries if she hurts herself! She also loves her cuddles and I’m pretty sure she’ll be a gymnast one day as she is incredibly flexible and often sits with her feet by her hair!

On the Swings and at the Fiesta

Carrot juice anyone?

Ariel

This crazy boy is hard to catch when he’s on a run for it and will never let go of anything (often bits of plastic or rubbish found on the floor), but is adorable when he runs up to you and throws himself on you to give you a cuddle.  

On the Swings and Getting Ready for the Fiesta

Yumi

The sweetest smile, but it still seems too suspicious to me, I’m sure he’s plotting something!! Yumi is incredibly well behaved but takes his time with everything, he is definitely a ‘slow and steady wins the race’ kinda kid, despite shouting ‘rapido’ during games he still plods along.

Playing Games

At the Fiesta

Pepé

Ahhh Pepé, now take your eye off of him for one moment and he’ll be gone, he’ll be running forever this boy will be and no one will catch him, I highly doubt it! He’s of course the cheekiest and naughtiest, but such a cutie pie when you can grab him for a 10 second cuddle!

At the Fiesta and in Casa 5

Piura

Piura, my home for a year...

As we leave the airport

The roads are no where near as crazy as Lima, but still scary

1 LOVE MOTOTAXIS!!!!

My Home!

Of course I had to show some photos of my little ones!!

Crazy Times fitting 4 of us in 1 MotoTaxi!

Little Baby Boy

Finally, my new room:

Super Wonky Mosquito Net

My ´Remind me of Home´walls. 

Lima

Lima, the capital of Peru.

After arriving in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday my adventure was even closer than ever. I spent a few days in Lima until flying out to my project in Piura on the Friday.

Lima was beautiful, so I thought I´d show you some photos:

Fruit Stall on the Side of the Road

The Park near our Hostel is home to Hundreds of Cats

Peruvian Beef Stir Fry 

Peruvian Scarves

Mirrors and Frames

Alpaca Fur Goods