I'm back from Mentushari today to the city Huancayo. I have had a great time in the jungle and have lots of good memories. What I don't have is any photos or videos of our time there as some scumbag stole our camera when we went out to the town Mazamari a week or so ago. This is really hard for us as it had all the photos and videos of Michael on it almost since he was born and I haven’t been able to back them up anywhere since being in Peru as I haven't yet got the hard drive working that I brought with me. So apart from the few photos uploaded here I have lost everything from Peru. There were some wonderful videos which cannot be replaced and anyway I hate to think of someone else having all those photos of us and our boy. Some things are very private.
We did all we could to recover the camera, including putting radio adverts on four different radio stations offering to give the thieves (or whoever innocently bought he camera from them) the charger for the camera, if only we could have back the memory card with the images. I know it's not fair to give the thieves even more than they took but we want that memory card back. All to no result though I'm afraid.
This means of course a huge gap in the photo a day for my boy and without the images it is so hard to remember what we did each day.
I'll try to continue by going back to using Rocio’s phone camera but this is a big blow to my enthusiasm. I guess Michael deserves better than me giving up on this so I'll go on with it. I like to this of him reading it in years to come. Sorry Michael, I'll be more careful about thieves in future.
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Saturday, 17 March 2012
No News
We are in Mentushari now in the rain forest.
There is no mobile phone coverage and no internet, not even a land line public phone in the village. So I´ve not been blogging for a while. Also we don´t have a laptop with us to make notes each day, so perhaps this is where Michael´s blog a day finishes. I continue to take at least one photo a day of my wonderful boy and he contiues to learn and grow and perhaps when we return to civilisation I´ll make the effort to go back and fill in the missing days but I don´t knwo when that will be.
We are all well, Michael is having a great time and it´s like another country from Huancayo. We have eaten a lot of different fruits, mended the road after a landslide and built a new shower. We haven´t drunk any genuine Peruvian coffee yet but it won´t be long as it´s out drying in the sun as I write.....
There is no mobile phone coverage and no internet, not even a land line public phone in the village. So I´ve not been blogging for a while. Also we don´t have a laptop with us to make notes each day, so perhaps this is where Michael´s blog a day finishes. I continue to take at least one photo a day of my wonderful boy and he contiues to learn and grow and perhaps when we return to civilisation I´ll make the effort to go back and fill in the missing days but I don´t knwo when that will be.
We are all well, Michael is having a great time and it´s like another country from Huancayo. We have eaten a lot of different fruits, mended the road after a landslide and built a new shower. We haven´t drunk any genuine Peruvian coffee yet but it won´t be long as it´s out drying in the sun as I write.....
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Day 247 4/3/12 Picinic
Sun 4th
We woke up today not really knowing what to do and eventually Bob and I decide to try to fix the door bell. It’s a long way from the street, down an alley and across the yard to the main house so without a bell people need to bang the metal street door very hard to get our attention. The bell is mains electricity powered and with our new found confidence from the sockets yesterday Bob and I soon had it all taken apart and we cleaned the rust off the electrical parts inside and put it back together. It works fine now and we feel proud.
Just as we were finishing Sara and Gloria from the houses next door came round with a plan to go for a picnic. It was a bit rainy but we decided to go for it as you never can predict the weather here with any accuracy and we made the right decision as it turned out as it hardly rained at all through the afternoon. We squashed nine of us, including baby Valentina, our food and Valentina baby buggy into a taxi and went off to a recreation ground next to the Mantaro River.
Here’s Bob avoiding sunburn by wearing a traditional Huancayo hat....and his hoody
Once there Rocio and I sat and chatted whilst Bob got dragged into playing volley ball and Football. Michael made his usually rounds and was very happy. The only problem was that the tables to sit at were right next to the volleyball courts and Rocio was hit hard by the ball three times and had a bad headache. To finish our food in peace, and to save Michael from getting hit too, we went away from the ball games to some little benches under tilting tin roofs, which was much better except that we found they actually belonged to the restaurant next door and we were hassled to go and buy something there if we wanted to use the benches. Here are Rocio and Paolita on the benches
We have a good time sitting on the benches eating whilst Bob played football and were packing up ready to go home as the rain started in earnest. Michael was a tired and happy boy and predictable fell asleep in the manta as soon as we set off for home.
We woke up today not really knowing what to do and eventually Bob and I decide to try to fix the door bell. It’s a long way from the street, down an alley and across the yard to the main house so without a bell people need to bang the metal street door very hard to get our attention. The bell is mains electricity powered and with our new found confidence from the sockets yesterday Bob and I soon had it all taken apart and we cleaned the rust off the electrical parts inside and put it back together. It works fine now and we feel proud.
Just as we were finishing Sara and Gloria from the houses next door came round with a plan to go for a picnic. It was a bit rainy but we decided to go for it as you never can predict the weather here with any accuracy and we made the right decision as it turned out as it hardly rained at all through the afternoon. We squashed nine of us, including baby Valentina, our food and Valentina baby buggy into a taxi and went off to a recreation ground next to the Mantaro River.
Here’s Bob avoiding sunburn by wearing a traditional Huancayo hat....and his hoody
Once there Rocio and I sat and chatted whilst Bob got dragged into playing volley ball and Football. Michael made his usually rounds and was very happy. The only problem was that the tables to sit at were right next to the volleyball courts and Rocio was hit hard by the ball three times and had a bad headache. To finish our food in peace, and to save Michael from getting hit too, we went away from the ball games to some little benches under tilting tin roofs, which was much better except that we found they actually belonged to the restaurant next door and we were hassled to go and buy something there if we wanted to use the benches. Here are Rocio and Paolita on the benches
We have a good time sitting on the benches eating whilst Bob played football and were packing up ready to go home as the rain started in earnest. Michael was a tired and happy boy and predictable fell asleep in the manta as soon as we set off for home.
Day 246 3/3/12 Rice Pudding
Sat 3rd
We had rice pudding for breakfast, a real treat. Michael loved it and ate loads. He really loves his food that boy. We have bought a packet of chocolaty cereal for him. It looks like breakfast cereal to me and we give Michael these one by one as bribes to keep him happy during nappy changes or whenever.
Here’s Michael enjoying a bread roll sat on mum’s lap. More and more he likes to eat these on his own, just him and his only tooth gnawing away.
Michael and Rocio fell asleep in the settee in the afternoon but after Rocio nearly fell off they went to sleep in the bed instead. This was ruined too by loud fireworks going off. We think these are fired up into rain clouds in the hope of forcing them to dump their rain early before they damage the crops in the fields around Huancayo. They are really loud and woke Rocio but strangely not Michael.
Then we went to the local ferrereria. Despite the name these shops don’t usually sell ferrets they are like good old fashioned iron mongers. There are hundreds of these around Huancayo and they are amazingly useful places, always cluttered and confusing but rammed full of useful stuff for making or mending anything. The friendly and helpful man there sold us four double power socket and screws and tools to fit them with and all for mush cheaper than the ferreteria we visited in the city centre.
Bob and I went round and fitted the sockets without electrocuting ourselves which was good fun and we also mended the shower door which was falling off its nailed on hinges. We did such a good job of the door hinge that it now falls open on its own and became a real danger for anyone especially Rocio going upstairs. So we had to go back to the ferreteria for a new latch to hold it closed.
We had rice pudding for breakfast, a real treat. Michael loved it and ate loads. He really loves his food that boy. We have bought a packet of chocolaty cereal for him. It looks like breakfast cereal to me and we give Michael these one by one as bribes to keep him happy during nappy changes or whenever.
Here’s Michael enjoying a bread roll sat on mum’s lap. More and more he likes to eat these on his own, just him and his only tooth gnawing away.
Michael and Rocio fell asleep in the settee in the afternoon but after Rocio nearly fell off they went to sleep in the bed instead. This was ruined too by loud fireworks going off. We think these are fired up into rain clouds in the hope of forcing them to dump their rain early before they damage the crops in the fields around Huancayo. They are really loud and woke Rocio but strangely not Michael.
Then we went to the local ferrereria. Despite the name these shops don’t usually sell ferrets they are like good old fashioned iron mongers. There are hundreds of these around Huancayo and they are amazingly useful places, always cluttered and confusing but rammed full of useful stuff for making or mending anything. The friendly and helpful man there sold us four double power socket and screws and tools to fit them with and all for mush cheaper than the ferreteria we visited in the city centre.
Bob and I went round and fitted the sockets without electrocuting ourselves which was good fun and we also mended the shower door which was falling off its nailed on hinges. We did such a good job of the door hinge that it now falls open on its own and became a real danger for anyone especially Rocio going upstairs. So we had to go back to the ferreteria for a new latch to hold it closed.
DAY 245 2/3/12 Martha
Fri 2nd
Here’s a closeup of Michael where you can see his first tooth peeking out of his bottom gum
We went to visit Martha, Rocio’s teacher from when she was at school. It was great to see her again she is a good friend to Rocio and was great to work with when we were doing voluntary work for the blind in Peru last time we were here.
Bob especially liked being in her house as her son has a Wii, the first games machine he has played since Jean defeated him in internet games. Bob and Martha’s son Andrew sat and played various Wii games whilst Rocio’s and Martha and I caught up on all the news. Martha made us all feel very welcome and gave us nice food and lovely coffee too. Michael was his charming best and I think Martha was impressed with him. Here they are getting along fine together.
He was showing off and getting himself passed around everyone. We’re very proud of out happy confident little boy. At the glass table we had to take his spoon off him as he was banging it on the table and singing, quite happily but in danger of breaking the table. We gave him a plastic lid and he continued noisily.
Martha also gave us the Braille printer that I bought through The Andean Outreach Programme, which I had never actually seen as it didn’t arrive in Peru until after I had left for England. Sorry to say it has never yet been used as there has been no-one to set it up. It’s a bit of an old machine and needs a parallel port on the computer to feed it, something that most modern machines just don’t have. I’m confident I can get it going thought if I have to buy and old computer just to run it.
In the evening Bob and I did some hat repair work. This consisted of pulling hundreds of little ends of cotton out of hats that mum has ripped the ribbons off and washed. It’s fiddly work but necessary. Mum still doesn’t want to let Bob or me do and of the hard work on the hats. One of the stages involves boiling the hats, pulling then soaking and hot out of the water and stretching them by hand into the required shape. This is scalding and tiring for the hands and mum won’t even let us try.
Here’s a closeup of Michael where you can see his first tooth peeking out of his bottom gum
We went to visit Martha, Rocio’s teacher from when she was at school. It was great to see her again she is a good friend to Rocio and was great to work with when we were doing voluntary work for the blind in Peru last time we were here.
Bob especially liked being in her house as her son has a Wii, the first games machine he has played since Jean defeated him in internet games. Bob and Martha’s son Andrew sat and played various Wii games whilst Rocio’s and Martha and I caught up on all the news. Martha made us all feel very welcome and gave us nice food and lovely coffee too. Michael was his charming best and I think Martha was impressed with him. Here they are getting along fine together.
He was showing off and getting himself passed around everyone. We’re very proud of out happy confident little boy. At the glass table we had to take his spoon off him as he was banging it on the table and singing, quite happily but in danger of breaking the table. We gave him a plastic lid and he continued noisily.
Martha also gave us the Braille printer that I bought through The Andean Outreach Programme, which I had never actually seen as it didn’t arrive in Peru until after I had left for England. Sorry to say it has never yet been used as there has been no-one to set it up. It’s a bit of an old machine and needs a parallel port on the computer to feed it, something that most modern machines just don’t have. I’m confident I can get it going thought if I have to buy and old computer just to run it.
In the evening Bob and I did some hat repair work. This consisted of pulling hundreds of little ends of cotton out of hats that mum has ripped the ribbons off and washed. It’s fiddly work but necessary. Mum still doesn’t want to let Bob or me do and of the hard work on the hats. One of the stages involves boiling the hats, pulling then soaking and hot out of the water and stretching them by hand into the required shape. This is scalding and tiring for the hands and mum won’t even let us try.
Day 244 1/3/12 Sleepy
Thurs 1st
Michael is very very well, bouncing with health. We didn’t go to Spallanga today as we often do on Thursdays which was a good decision as it was raining most of the day and we don’t want Michael to get ill again. Rocio and Michael spent the day playing and sleeping in the house whilst Bob and I found jobs to do.
Here is Michael demonstrating his ability to sleep like a baby
And here he is refreshed and ready for action
Nestor came with some of the glass to put in the windows. There is a shortage of clear glass so we mostly did the pattern glass and we’ll dot eh others when we can. Pity we pulled all the cracked glass out and now the house is more drafty than before.
Michael is very very well, bouncing with health. We didn’t go to Spallanga today as we often do on Thursdays which was a good decision as it was raining most of the day and we don’t want Michael to get ill again. Rocio and Michael spent the day playing and sleeping in the house whilst Bob and I found jobs to do.
Here is Michael demonstrating his ability to sleep like a baby
And here he is refreshed and ready for action
Nestor came with some of the glass to put in the windows. There is a shortage of clear glass so we mostly did the pattern glass and we’ll dot eh others when we can. Pity we pulled all the cracked glass out and now the house is more drafty than before.
Day 243 29/2/12 Odd Jobs
Wed 29th
Bob and I are keeping busy doing various jobs around the house these days. Today we went around looking for cracked windows to replace. Each window in the house is made up of several smaller glasses and quite a few need replacing. We made up a list of glass to buy, all different strange shapes and sizes and we’ll get Rocio’s brother Nestor to buy them so we don’t get charged the “Gringo Price” for them.
Michael continues to be well. He is full of energy and enthusiasm and shows no signs of illness now.
Here he is making meal times lively with his enthusiasm for food, people and banging things hard ont he table.
He is just as keen on getting involved in everything as he was before his illness and just as impatient as he was too. He still cries and shouts and holds his eyes closed if you feed him too slowly. Of course when he does that he can’t see if you have some more food for him and he makes a whole silly battle of it. Still I’m glad he likes his food.
Bob and I are keeping busy doing various jobs around the house these days. Today we went around looking for cracked windows to replace. Each window in the house is made up of several smaller glasses and quite a few need replacing. We made up a list of glass to buy, all different strange shapes and sizes and we’ll get Rocio’s brother Nestor to buy them so we don’t get charged the “Gringo Price” for them.
Michael continues to be well. He is full of energy and enthusiasm and shows no signs of illness now.
Here he is making meal times lively with his enthusiasm for food, people and banging things hard ont he table.
He is just as keen on getting involved in everything as he was before his illness and just as impatient as he was too. He still cries and shouts and holds his eyes closed if you feed him too slowly. Of course when he does that he can’t see if you have some more food for him and he makes a whole silly battle of it. Still I’m glad he likes his food.
Day 242 28/2/12 Bath Time
Tues 28th
Michael was really upset a couple of times during the night. He woke up shouting and crying. I think he is still teething. He has one tooth showing at the bottom and others you can feel at the top at the front when he chews on you, and I think more coming perhaps at the sides. Poor boy, it must be really painful for him.
We didn’t see Bob for breakfast as he was called away to breakfast at the neighbours’ Aunt Yola’s. We had bread, avocado and coffee. For me it was almost a perfect breakfast and we were sorry Bob missed out.
Here is Nestor looking after Michael at breakfast time.
Here I am posing with Michael in the Bambino sling we bought in Peterborough seemingly a lifetime ago.
It was a lovely warm day today, not raining or scorching so we gave Michael his first bath in about a week. He really hasn’t been well enough until now but today he loved it. He splashed away in the plastic tub Rocio bough for him and was quite upset when we took him out. Michael went into town on Mum’s back when she went to buy supplies for the hat making business. He was very happy with her and she says he didn’t cry at all.
Meanwhile Rocio Bob and I went to the telephone shop to see about getting internet in the house. This all looks fine we just have to wait about a week for connection. I think it’s like a dial up modem connection; at least it goes down the same wire as the telephone so I don’t think it will be very fast at all. Still when we borrowed Gloria’s internet connection it was just about capable of two way video call on Skype.
Rocio, Bob and I played around in the house and relaxed when we got home. It was strange not to have Michael around for so long but it was also a relief from the constant worry about him recently. Here is Bob posing on the steps he has come to make his own.
Michael was really upset a couple of times during the night. He woke up shouting and crying. I think he is still teething. He has one tooth showing at the bottom and others you can feel at the top at the front when he chews on you, and I think more coming perhaps at the sides. Poor boy, it must be really painful for him.
We didn’t see Bob for breakfast as he was called away to breakfast at the neighbours’ Aunt Yola’s. We had bread, avocado and coffee. For me it was almost a perfect breakfast and we were sorry Bob missed out.
Here is Nestor looking after Michael at breakfast time.
Here I am posing with Michael in the Bambino sling we bought in Peterborough seemingly a lifetime ago.
It was a lovely warm day today, not raining or scorching so we gave Michael his first bath in about a week. He really hasn’t been well enough until now but today he loved it. He splashed away in the plastic tub Rocio bough for him and was quite upset when we took him out. Michael went into town on Mum’s back when she went to buy supplies for the hat making business. He was very happy with her and she says he didn’t cry at all.
Meanwhile Rocio Bob and I went to the telephone shop to see about getting internet in the house. This all looks fine we just have to wait about a week for connection. I think it’s like a dial up modem connection; at least it goes down the same wire as the telephone so I don’t think it will be very fast at all. Still when we borrowed Gloria’s internet connection it was just about capable of two way video call on Skype.
Rocio, Bob and I played around in the house and relaxed when we got home. It was strange not to have Michael around for so long but it was also a relief from the constant worry about him recently. Here is Bob posing on the steps he has come to make his own.
Day 241 27/2/12 No dancing
Mon 27th
Michael was fine again today, very happy and lively. We are still worried about him and watching him closely of course. We got ourselves ready and went off to Huayucachi again to see Mum at the market; we were expecting to see more Huaylarsh dancing there. Mum as usual immediately went off when we got there and came back with several different plates of food for Rocio, Bob, Michael and me. Rocio had a savoury dish but I had Mazamora, the sweet fruity tasting jelly made from red corn. It’s a bit like eating a plate full of fruity jam.
Here are Michael, his Uncle Nestor and Cousin Jean all on one setee.
Michael had fun with the people and ate a bit of everyone’s food.
We found out that the dancing was not exactly in the same town and somehow messed up the arrangements to go to see it so we missed out. Still there will be more soon and there are always different dances to see. Rocio bought me a great DVD of traditional Huancayo violin music and I’m studying it now. My violin playing is getting better and I’m eager to learn local styles and tunes.
Michael was fine again today, very happy and lively. We are still worried about him and watching him closely of course. We got ourselves ready and went off to Huayucachi again to see Mum at the market; we were expecting to see more Huaylarsh dancing there. Mum as usual immediately went off when we got there and came back with several different plates of food for Rocio, Bob, Michael and me. Rocio had a savoury dish but I had Mazamora, the sweet fruity tasting jelly made from red corn. It’s a bit like eating a plate full of fruity jam.
Here are Michael, his Uncle Nestor and Cousin Jean all on one setee.
Michael had fun with the people and ate a bit of everyone’s food.
We found out that the dancing was not exactly in the same town and somehow messed up the arrangements to go to see it so we missed out. Still there will be more soon and there are always different dances to see. Rocio bought me a great DVD of traditional Huancayo violin music and I’m studying it now. My violin playing is getting better and I’m eager to learn local styles and tunes.
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