Well today our work was broken up into two distinct parts, we spent our morning as we are typically spending them at the moment, working on the classrooms, lots of excellent decorating has taken place from the arty side of the group to really make the rooms look like classrooms and some excellent floor laying and plastering has made another room almost ready to go!
A big feature of today was walking around the barrio, this was the first time that we got to see the poverty and conditions up close and most of us found it tough going, the first thing that hits you is the sanitation, or lack of it. The smell is outrageous, the raw sewage just cooking in the sun is unbearable, all the food they are preparing in the sun is covered in flies and the area has no order to it, but the other thing that hits you is simply how positive and polite some people seem! There was no begging, no hassle, just waves and smiles from young children living in unbearably tough conditions.
We were invited into a local parishioners house where we saw the one room where she lives with her 4 daughters and 10 grandchildren, she cooks them two meals a day on around 15 soles (it's 4 to the pound) i found the conditions particularly tough and without trivialising the situation the closest I can compare it to is seeing those appeals in the middle of Red Nose Day, but again the kids were happy and what the church and father Joe Plumb do to support them is fantastic and really makes a difference.
The church, and it's classrooms we are building, are such a focal point of this community, we have had a dozen or so children every day help us, none stop, with draining tasks such as moving sand, rocks and they are constantly laughing and enjoying themselves! We really are energised by seeing these children so happy they are about to have this basic infrastructure in place.
We attended the inauguration mass for the church this afternoon and although the thought of a mass in a language you don't understand doesn't sound like fun it was actually really good to see the differences in our culture, yet the similarities in our religion. It was also good to see just how many people turned out, unless its Christmas I've never seen standing room only at a mass!
I've found myself getting rather annoyed as I've been hearing stories about the constant corruption in the city, an £800m sewage and clean water system was proposed, a full feasibility study had been implemented and it wouldn't have cost anyone in this country a single penny, but it was cancelled by the regional president because he wasn't offered anything personally. Its hugely frustrating to see what we are seeing knowing it was so close to being helped massively, if it wasn't for one mans greed!
But, we are doing something good, thats undeniable, and that's good to know!
We haven't done any work at the orphanage yet, we are due to go into the Amazon for a few days R&R tomorrow and Wednesday to Saturday the plan is to build in the mornings, and teach / work in the orphanage on a separate part of town in the afternoons and evenings.
On a personal note I'm really happy I'm on this trip and really would encourage everyone at St Johns reading this to come. It's not easy, it's hard graft, long hours and I'm 10,000km away from all my creature comforts, it will make you ask questions about your faith and the world we live in. But I'm sat after a long day which has left me mentally and physically exhausted with a much deserved beer feeling pretty good about what I've done today out here in Peru!
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