September 1st

Today began with the normal routine, some breakfast which was yet again bread which is actually really nice and they also served up some warm milky papaya juice. I thought "mmm papaya, let me taste that". The way i regretted it afterwards. It was actually disgusting. Milk and Fruit DO NOT mix unless its in a cereal or yogurt or perhaps a cold smoothie. But having it warm was just yuck! Anywaysssss, Me and Rachel went to Oropesa for the first time today. The town was really nice, very basic and very traditional. We mainly just went for a wander, but jasmin wanted to buy a razor, as she didnt know how to ask she asked if rachel could do the honours. So rachel asked and recieved some weird looks. It was only when we actually left the shop rachel realised she had asked "do you sell the thing to remove skin from your legs" instead of hair. LOL. Language will surely provide many laughs this year.



The orphanges dogs followed us down to oropesa which was really cute, they kept waiting for us as they went ahead and they followed us into town and the shops etc. As we went to the hardware shop we came across another dog, where two of our dogs decided to sniff and this poor little dog obviously felt scared and so growled. Which ended into a mass fight. With our dog leon almost ripping the dogs neck open. All we could do is stand and shout "basta basta" which means stop. Then we decided to get some rocks and throw it at our dogs which decided to stop the fight. The other dog seriously almost died and i am mentally scarred by seeing it. Our dogs came out with wounds as well, one had a slight puncture in his nose and lots of blood in his mouth which i orginially thought was from him getting hurt but alas no, it was the blood of the other dog. We went to the hardware store and got some paints to paint the new dining room the signiture azul wasi blue :).




After we came back we had lunch and begun painting the dining room again which we have no finished. It looks really nice although there are still spots to touch up where prof has been filling in the gaps between the windows and the wall with cement. Afterwards we played football with the boys, the boys are absolutely football crazy! They were definitly suprised to see that I could play, as they were expecting both rachel and I to just sit out. Boy were they wrong!

I also found out one of the boys Bautista the 17 year old, seems to have taken a liking to me LOL.. Rachel overheard them saying i was their love. And they tried to say something to me at dinner *yet again bread and tea* but my spanish is not yet that advanced to understand what they said lol

Thats all for today not too much. Tomorrow me and Rachel *who i now call Raquel* are going to cusco to get some stuff to do our room. We're going to plaster and concrete the walls and paint them yellow :). Get some fabrics, mirrors etc. All to make this room ours :)

September 2nd

Today me and Rachel decided to go down to Cusco to go shopping for our room and also to withdraw money as there are NO ATM's in Oropesa at all and no where accepts cards grrr. Anyways so me and Raquel hopped onto a bus from oropesa plaza to cusco for 1 sol the equivelant of 25p :D. We were told the bus journey would take around 30 minutes and then after 30 minutes had passed we still hadn't arrived to where we thought we should be. We thought we had passed it so I suggested getting off at the next stop as i saw a massive market.

First things first me and rachel had to find an ATM which is much harder then you think. There are banks that don't look like banks and places that look like banks that aren't banks. After walking up and down a few blocks we still couldn't find one so returned to where we began and realised there was one right where we first started. Typical Tanya moment!

So with our fanny packs *LOL* filled with cash we headed to the market and were searching for the things on our shopping list which included things like blankets, curtains, bed sheets, paint etc. We managed to get it all in this typical peruvian market. We were literally the only foreigners there and since I've arrived in cusco/oropesa I still have yet to see one other then the posh american twats that were boasting about staying in their 5* hotels in the airport lobby. Since it's so cold I decided to get myslef a blanket for my bed and got a MASSIVE llama wool blanket, which is very warm and very colourful. I managed to barter the price down to 30 sol which is equivelant to around £7. Can i hear somesone say bargain? LOL

The market also had some inside bit where they were generally selling vegetables and meat and we were met with an array of chicken feet, livers of all differnt animals, guts and blah blah blah all the icky things. What made me laugh though was a man casually cutting in half a pigs head for a customer. The meat and vegetables all looked very good though and were very cheap. Me and rachel even picked up a kilo of cheese for 14 sols =£3.

After our shopping trip Rachel and I were meant to get picked up by the director of Azul Wasi Alcides. However like the dingus I am I left my phone at home so we had to get on the bus with our 101 things. As we didnt know where the bus stop was to get home we got a taxi to the bus stop. The taxi driver was a PERV asking us "are we alone" "do we have family/friends here" "how old are we". Very creepy man who kept looking through his mirror at us. Once we had arrived in Oropesa me and Rachel went to the hardware store to get plaster, paint, sandpaper and brushes to get a start on our bedroom.

Once home it was time for lunch and we ate a cold meal with some weird things in it. I definatly was not a fan of this meal! I also found out the boys call me "Cappucino Amiga" or "Amiga Cappucinita" as they have never had a brown volunteer here before so Im quite a novelty. Also the fact that i have short hair adds to this. I Actually like the name, at least they chose something like cappucino and not Charcoal or Dark chocolate I would have got offended then LOL! I also found out one of the boys Bautista the 17 year old seems to have some sort of "crush" on me, rachel & Jasmine over heard the boys teasing him saying "where's your love" when I wasn't there yet LOL Funny. But I mean even in the peruvian andes at the top of the mountain I still can't turn all this off looooooool. Im joking guys Im not that bad haha!

Myself, Jasmine and Rachel also began fininshing off painting the dining room. Its almost finised which is good. Painting it Blue for Azul Wasi :) Tomorrow me and Rachel will begin painting and plastering our bedroom a nice warm yellow :). Soon it should hopefully start feeling a lot more homely.

At dinner today we celebrated Neptalis birthday. He's 16 today and Jasmin went out and got him a cake and card which was really nice he was so thankful and seemed so happy about it! Because of funds in the orphanage they don't generally celebrate birthdays here so it was definitley a nice suprise for him.

At dinner *bread an tea so its hard to call it dinner* we were playing with the boys and danny the 7 year old decided to chase us around with a beetle which in Quechea *The peruvian language* is called a "Koonya". The boys seemed extremely amused.

WHat i also found funny today which maybe i shouldn't have found funny was Balerio the other 7 year old stealing a handful of chalk from school today and the boys were playing 101 games with it including hopscotch. I guess you can take the kid from the street but the streets will always be a part of them ey.

Me & Rachel also made some personal targets today for what we want to gain out of each week etc just so we make sure we have something to work towards. This weeks target is to finish the bedroom :)

All for now lads. Asta Manana


September 3rd

Today started off with the same routie, bread, tea, chores and waving the boys off to school. Me and Rachel began stripping our bedroom, then started to concrete. The first epic fail of the day was when i got the wrong sand from outside for the concrete mix and only found out after mixing it up with water. It was just rocks swimming in muddy water LOL. Take 2. We seemed to have cemented everything quite successfully and then decided to move onto plastering. My bit of the wall started off very successfully but we soon found out how quickly the plaster mixture turns to rocks and yh it just failed from there on. Epic Fail number 2. COmmence the hacking off of the plaster. Of the wall which wasn't too bad we painted it white for the under coat.



Handyman Tan LOL

Alcides the director joined us for lunch today which was nice. The boys have so much respect for him and listen to his every word. Alcides had a few stern words for the boys which I didn't really understand too much of due to my lack of spanish but I got a little bit. After the boys stern talking Alcides lightened the mood by telling the boys that me and rachel were staying here for a whole year. The boys reactions were priceless and sooooo heart warming. They were saying "stay for 5 years""9 Years""1000 Years" ! So i guess they want us to stay then ! LOL It was a really good pick me up hearing that.





Me and Balerio

Played alot with the boys today, Karate with Balario who is obsessed with Karate kid after watching it on pirate of course and also Naruto. And then me and Rachel made our way back to our room where we were startled by a knock on the window. Only to find it was Iban who was knocking. We opened the window and he climbed through and helped us finish off painting the wall :)





Im tired now, night bitches xx


September 4th

Today just proved no 2 days at Azul Wasi are the same. Whilst there may be the same sort of routine, what happens is never the same! Today was saturday so we had the chicos here all day!!!

The day started relatively slowly, i woke up sooo early absolutley freezing! It seems that the hotter it is in the day time, the colder it is in the night time. Which is a bitch because I love my hot days, but absolutely despise my cold nights!!!!! So after waking up I realised i felt slightly ill so went back to sleep and got awoken for breakfast. Bread with FANNY!! Yes i said fanny, and i enjoy eating fanny. But no, I am no lesser ! LOL incase any of you were getting worried, Fanny is the brandname of the jam here loooool. It makes me laugh every time. Anyways, so yh today was a slow start, after breakfast me and rachel begun painting our room again, one wall is now yellow :). In between painting we got told to get ready as we were all to go to Oropesa Plaza to meet Alcides the director for lunch as there was no food in the orphanage. #

We went to this quiant little local resteraunt and the food was immense! We all sat around a table, and since Alcides was here we all prayed before we ate. It was funny because around the resteraunt they had tonnes of posters but there was one calender with the latin american equivelant of a page 3 girl, extremely curvacious. And the boys couldn't seem to take there eyes off her, especially 7 year old Belario! He was dropping soup out of his mouth as he was gawping so much. Alcides joked that you would never see a women like that walk through oropesa! The meal was really nice and we all left. As we were leaving Rachel was skipping with Belario through the door but seemed oblivious to the fact that the doorway was too small for her when normally walking through yet alone skipping. Add some airtime to the equation and you get a Rachel flat on her bum. It was possibly one of the most comical drops I have ever seen, like one that you would see in a cartoon. Rachel seems to get more and more accident prone, which is ironic because those that know me at home know that I am EXTREMELY accident prone and my family can vouch for me on that one as well. Rachel immersed from the dusty ground a little shaken and with a bloody nose. Alcides was worried for her and drove her back to the orphanage in his car. The boys were all really worried, and Balerio was tryin to re-enact what had just happened as he just didnt understand lol.

The walk back was fun, Iban and Belario were walking with me hand in hand and then we reached some trees and all the boys suddenly became amazon monkeys. Swinging from branch to branch and going higher and higher. We then all ran back to azul wasi so myself, jasmine and rachel could prepare for the fiesta jasmine had planned since she was leaving the orphanage on sunday. With 2 cakes, lots of crisps, chocolates, biscuits and fizzy drinks, the fiesta was definatly going to be a sugar fuelled event. And boy were we not dissapointed! I made a playlist on my laptop with reggaeton and some music from the peruvian charts and we were ready to go. We played musical chairs and pass the parcel which the kids all really enjoyed and they especially enjoyed eating the cakes! The rest of the evening was filled with playing "Chips" this peruvian game which they are all obsessed with, and lots of dancing. The girl and boy from next door joined us as well which was nice, the girl really enjoys dancing.





Me and Rachel went back to paint our room and we have now finished one wall, well by finished i mean sort've. We need to do a second coat of yellow. The wall behind my bed we are just trying to avoid as long as possible as it is just an absolute shambles, bits of wall are falling off and yh it just plain horrible. I'm gonna start plastering it tomorrow.

All in all today was the best day I've actually had in Peru so far. The kids are really starting to warm to me and they actually understand my spanish which is good! We actually can have conversations, all be it kind of basic but definatly passed "hola amiga" "Como Estas?". It was actually really touching when i got through to Wilmer, dannys older brother. Their mum is the cook in azul wasi and she lives here along with their little sister. However we have yet to meet the mum or the daughter as they are back visiting the home town. Wilmers dad died and left wilmers family on the streets and with no means of income, so Alcides the director of Azul Wasi took them in. Wilmer is generally quite quiet and keeps himself to himself especially with the volunteers as he has had to grow up so quickly. Yet all it took was a promise of some "chippys" and a high 5, and we were sitting down playing slaps. He was in a fit of laughter as he kept slapping me harder and harder. My hands were left red raw as were his but it was definatly worth it!!!


September 5th

Today not much happend at all other then Jasmin going. I done my first hand wash of clothes which I never expected to have to do in my life LOL! It was interesting to say the least. I woke up feeling relatively ill today with a sore throat so spent the majority of the day in bed watching films and stuff. Had another nice lunch, some fish this time so some actual substance to the food which is always good :)

September 6th

Today I woke up again feeling really crappppyy, managed to get my self awake enough to paint the second coat of yellow on the wall with Rachel, who in turn is also ill. After painting we had lunch and came back to the room where Rachel had a nap and i began to write this blog. After Rachel awoke we just stayed in the room watching films with a roll of tissues due to us having this disgusting flu. I guess its from our bodies adjusting to the differences in weather, lack of fruit and vegetables *not because i dont like them but the orphanage can rarely afford them* and the cold cold nights.

We managed to go through watching john tucker must die, the simpsons, meet the fockers and Super bad LOL!

It was really sweet when Profe the guy who looks after everyone here knocked on our door and brought us some bread and tea for dinner. Really really sweet.

I managed to fall asleep mid way through watching Super Bad

September 7th

Today i woke up and still felt crappy. Profe came and dropped us some more tea and brad for breakfast which was really nice. Rachel had a shower which she said was quite warm which was suprising because a few days before where I had a shower it was actually FREEZING. I was jumping in and out of the water trying to wash myself and keep myself clean and still warm. It was definitely a funny experience. Anyway so after Rachel had her shower she went down to Oropesa to pick up some Putty to fill in the holes in the wall. I stayed in bed ill, watched the rest of Superbad which i missed due to me falling asleep and then decided to have a shower. When i got in the showers the showers were NOT warm, nor luke warm, nor even slightly warm. Yet again they were bloody freezing. So i got to the point of me conditioning my hair and as i was just rinsing it out the showers went very weak. Then they turned off :|

I got a knock on the shower door *the showers by the way are outside as are the toilets* to say "No Agua amiga". The water tower has broken in the orphanage. NOT FUN
So i went to the other bathroom and used the sink to wash my face and i only just about managed to wash the exfoliater off my face when the water there stopped again.
Oh joy.

I retreated back to the room and watched an episode of roots as I waited for Rachel to return back from Oropesa. After 1 and a bit episodes Rachel came back with the putty and we began filling in the holes of the wall. This time it actually worked and I can gladly say there will be no epic fails with this :D.

At around 2pm some of the boys began to come back from school and I went out to say hi to Belario. He ran up and jumped on me giving me a hug and it was sooo cute. I've been feeling a bit homesick recently since ive been ill and that was definitly the pick me up i needed. It was such a small gesture but meant so much to me :)

Anastacia the cook *who is danny & wilmers mum* came back from her home town today with her daughter Carma Rose and its soo nice to have a feminine touch around the place. Carma rose is such a pretty and cute little girl. By the end of lunch i had won her over and she was jumping on my back, trying on my necklaces, sitting on my lap and playing hand clapping games :)

As we speak carma rosa and anastacia are in our room, Carma rosa is doing some colouring in for her homework.

Its time to get off writing this blog now, need to get back to some colouring. Tomorrow me and rachel are going to walk carma rosa to nursery which she was absolutley ecstatic about. Rachel and I are also going to sort out work in the nursery for 1 or 2 mornings a week which will be good. Not only will it help me further with my spanish but also introduce me and Rachel to more people as this orphanage is ever so secluded from everyone and everything!

Take care everyone and keep checking back for updates

For those that aren't on my facebook add me on Tanya Valerie Compas. I've uploaded a few picture albums for people to see. Hope all is well back in the UK

Simply Signed
Simply Compas xx