So i am feeling better than i was yesterday, i think i my worst and i guess it can only get better now. The girls have been so sweet and blessing me and hoping i recover quickly. They have been bringing their coats over to me and putting them on me, and pretending they have a magic wand to make me all better.
Today i woke up early as usual and was still very ill, i didn’t have much of a voice and was pretty painful to talk but i was given a hot herbal drink, it seemed to have helped a little. Soon enough i was sitting with the girls that don’t go to school and playing with them. I had a few more Quechua lessons but clearly they know i struggle with languages as she keeps teaching me the same 2 lines being, ‘how are you?’, ‘what is you name?’ although we did go through the parts of the face.
So whilst the older girls were at school i spent some time with the niñas before taking a stroll in the sun. Its still very windy but over here if you want any heat you have to stand outside in the sun, which is what i did but also took a walk around the block. I have to say this was not one of my best decisions as there are a lot of pet dogs here in Cusco and having been told they don’t even sniff at you, i had my run-in with 2 of them. I walked past the dogs house and it suddenly came running out, at which point i didn’t know whether to run or stop or just keep walking. I did speed up a little but not too fast and as i turned around i saw it sat there, barking at me as if to say “and never come round here again”! So after that experience i then had another which started to follow me, no one really offers to help move it away and i had to walk in a zig zag just to try and avoid it coming closer, funnily it worked and i was free of dog number 2.
Back at home, i was asked to visit one the volunteers in hospital. She was staying at the boys orphanage so i went to visit her, she is only 17yrs old and i though 19 was young but i guess a lot of these volunteers use the children home as a place to be able to go travelling. I have noticed that most of them come here for a week or 2 and go off travelling and then some come back for a couple weeks, others just carry on home. She may have suffered from altitude sickness and i lifted her mood a little as she was quite lonely in the hospital. An hour went by and i had to leave as i didn’t particularly want to spend my time in a hospital when i am feeling pretty ill myself.
I went back to the girls home and they were having lunch so i sat with them and chatted to them best way i could. It is amazing how they think because i have been here over a week, that i understand the language, so they speak to me and tell me exactly what is going on, what they have been up to and asking about how i am. When they say something i don’t understand, which is most of it and i say ‘no comprende’, they say the exact same thing to me only a lot slower, and point at their lips so i read them and understand. I then do not have the heart to say i don’t understand again and just say ‘si’ or ‘bien’ (yes or good) and they give me a nod of approval. It is very funny and it certainly makes me laugh how they talk to me like I’m 5yrs old, especially when i am sat on their little chairs and then they are taller than me, so they will bend over to be more my height and then talk to me and nod as if to say ‘i hope you understand’ and then say ‘bien’ when they finish.
This evening i went out and brought new kitchen knives for the mamita’s, they have been using old knives and even when i help prepare food and help to cut up the vegetables, i feel i have damaged one side of my arm at the end it. Sometimes the older girls help prepare food too and i just thought if they continue to use these knives and they have been using them for quite some time, they could do some serious damage to themselves, so whilst i am here and i can, i went and brought new knives for them and hopefully it won’t be so painful to chop things up. I also bought them all donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts and as expected they went down swimmingly and they were so thankful and kept hugging me and kissing and smiling. I only have 4days so really need to the most out of spoiling these kids and for 25 donuts it cost me a little over £4, to me it was really cheap, but to them you would have thought i had spent a fortune.
My time here gets shorter and shorter and the more i think about it i do get rather emotional, i didn’t think i would get so attached to the chicas and i was warned of this, but it is hard not to feel so close to them. I have tried to ween them into knowing i am only here for a few more days and daily they ask how long i am here for in the hope i say a few more months and when i say 5days they put on a sad face and just hug me so tightly.
I have become very fond of these girls, more so because they are babies and they really need all the support they can get. From reading and writing to daily chores and being taken out once in a while, i am so glad i have been able to do something for them first hand, yes it is not easy and the living conditions are very difficult but when i think of how much i have helped in this little time i have been here, standing in the kitchen and helping prepare the food with mamita in freezing conditions, washing the dishes and washing the veg in freezing cold water, a constant freezing draft running through the place, it has been quite the experience so far and i am so glad i have been given the opportunity to help and if given the chance i would not think twice about coming back to visit these children.
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