First Art Para Niños Workshop

Pachacutec By Night

Chief-tastic

Some of the group spent the weekend in Lima. All the cool kids however, had a wild saturday night at the chief's casa for his son's birthday. Feliz cumpleaños Stefano.

Remember that time we went up a mountain...

Everyone wants a piece of the art geeks. BOOM.

Poster making session for our workshops (I'm on arts and crafts - shock), which start next week.

Some of my remedial friends tried to whip up a sports poster. Don´t judge them by their efforts please.

Dog. Drain. Bin Man.

Buildy McBuilderson

Also ventured to Ventanilla, that seems to be of very little relevance in my journal.

Me Casa

It actually looks pretty snazzy on this photo, get in.

Mercado

Pachacutec Massive

I´m very rarely lost for words, but the drive to Pachacutec hit me like a sledgehammer to the face. 5 milllion people live like this in Lima alone. Sounds like a pretty big number, believe me you have no idea.

My homestay family are awesome. Due to my limited (non-existant) spanish I have learnt very little about them but they humor our remidial language skills and feed us well, so I love them. Had my first bucket wash this morning.. not too shabby.

Hola, me llamo Chris.

I have discovered that this is the extent of my Spanish and this is a slight inconvenience.

Second day in Perizzle and it feels like an absolute lifetime. The filght was grim but in the grand scheme of things also very insignificant. Currently staying in a hostel in Barranco, which is the bohemian district of Lima, sweet as a cashew nut.

Spent the past 2 days either in orientation, eating potatoes and rice or playing the most intense games of spoons in the history of the world - both vicious and violent, nothing says bonding like scrapping over cutlery.

Spent our last night on the freezing cold beach playing rounders in the dark. Rebels. Tomorrow we roll on out to Pachacutec. Bring it.

Street Art

Wicked as fuck.

Least Organised Person I Ever Did See.

Here's some wise words for you:

If you've got a 9am coach, probs don't leave the packing 'til midnight on said eve.

I really haven't been taking this seriously - it feels slightly ludicrous to entertain the the whole idea, it's fairly surreal. So I left it.. Never. Leave. It. Pack a month in advance if it makes you feel better just don't ever do this.

Here's The Thing..

I appreciate that the day before everything kicks off is not the ideal time to start this blog, but anything else would have suggested that I am in somewhat prepared for this whole thing - which I am most definitely not.

My name is Christine Gauntley and, as part of Platform2, I will be spending my summer in Peru.

This blog will be home to my musings, my revelations and any (inevitable) breakdowns encountered over the next 10 weeks.

- Enjoy.