Hi there peoples! Where to begin???

life in Peru is pretty hectic we spent the first three days in lima and were staying in a hostal I think a lot of people were glad to leave so that we could actually begin to do what we came out for which was to live and work in the community.

We arrived at Las Flores on Sunday and were introduced to our families. Me and another girl Keisha are staying with 4- soon to be 5- as the daughter is heavily pregnant and about to drop! They have all been really welcoming and sweet and our "mother" Juana is said to be the best cook in the village- I can vouch for this, she is a good cook although everything involves pasta, potatoes or rice, so I can see I am going to have to work hard on the building sight unless I want to come home a porker!

the village we are staying in is very small and they have a very good community spirit although the houses are small and made out of wood and metal they are well looked after and always kept clean. we are lucky to have hot running water and a flushing toilet as other homes further out from the village do not have luxuries such as this.

I like my family very much and hope that, once I learn more spanish we can develop a relationship because at the moment conversation is limited to "Si" and "¿Que tal?" and it feels wrong living in their house without being able to speak their language although my spanish GCSE is beginning to creep back slowly.

We begin work on building a school tomorow, we were given our training today on how to shovel sand which is more complicated then you might think. That will take place in the morning and then in the evening we are going to be doing activities with the kids like teaching english and arts crafts type things.

Anyway think there is probably more to say but I have just had a load of pasta and meat for lunch and could quite happily go to sleep!

Will write more soon,

Much Love,

Emma xxx