Better Boy and Rugged Garden

Michael is much better today. He has got his bounce back and is playing and being naughty. I love it. It is always worrying when he is ill and fever especially, we kept and eye on his temperature and it never got really high like last time he was ill. I am really glad we bought a thermometer, it's been really reassuring. He isn't eating much yet but is clearly better by the minute.



He did surprise me in the middle of the worst bit of his illness. Obviously he has been very thirsty, what with loosing liquids at the top and bottom ends and so we have been giving him as much to drink as he will take. We have even gone back to using a baby cup with a lid and spout to feed him so he doesn't dribble it on his clothes and have to be changed so often. I was giving him he rehydration drink, little by little to be careful and in one of his breathers Mike just grabbed the cup with both hands took it to his mouth and downed the rest of it without pausing. Usually we have a whole power battle as Michael wants me to give him drinks and will hide his hands behind his back to make me hold the cup for him. He never wants to tip his head back to make the drink pour properly. He pushes and pushes forwards making it very hard to get the drink to him. This time he did none of that, he did everything perfectly. So it seems Michael is more capable than he makes out.

We bought a big rug to go on the bedroom floor which we have been cleaning in the garden. Michael and Rocio love to play there on sunny afternoons

Sunblock, Miguel's Birthday and sickness

Michael has started to get a bit sunburnt on his cheeks so we bought sun block for him I think it is factor 5000.



We went to our friend Miguel's birthday party. Here he is with his Mum and Dad



We had a good time there with talking, laughter and big pieces of cake but I'm sorry to say the most memorable part for me was Michael's projectile vomiting. He has only rarely been sick in his life but he really seems to have got the hang of it. It really came out like a fountain, all over my jumper. The poor thing looked a bit surprised and we went home early. Mike is quite ill and he was sick three more times in the evening and three more times in the morning (I'm running out of clean clothes) before we took him to the doctor's. No messing about this time. We have learnt from our previous experiences when Mike was ill and we went straight to the private doctor and spent 30 Soles or about 7 pounds on a consultation. The good doctor gave us a prescription for about 4 different medicines, three of which we still had (in date) from last time and now Mike is back on a medicine routine, morning noon and night.Here he is taking his rehydration medicine, which he loves



He is not nearly as ill as he was last time and seems to be getting slowly better. No more sickness and he continues to feed well and drink a lot. He is a bit weak and sleepy but wakes up and plays when he can.

Chocolate Face and hair cut

Rocio is getting on very well in her Food Industry course. She has made marmalade, Manjar, butter, yoghurt cakes and other things and brought them home for me.
Michael particularly liked the chocolate fudge.
Every little boy should have a chocolate face photo published on the web I think.



You can see however how long Michael's hair was getting and how sweaty he gets. SO we decided to give him a hair cut. We tried to hold him still in the garden whilst I attacked him with my shaver. He wasn't scared of the shaver but he caused a lot of fuss because I wouldn't give him a go with it.





He ended up quite smart apart from the bit where I had the shaver on the wrong setting and shaved a bald patch on the side of his head (Ooops) and you can see the spot he has always had on the top of his head much more now.

New student and Wedding

Michael often goes with Rocio to her Food Industry classes. The teachers don't mind and the other students really like him there I think.I don't really know what they get up to there as I'm never with them but the teacher has said Michael is like a new student.





The other big event recently was cousin Luis' wedding to Fortu (Fortunata?). Here he is with his new bride
You can see my Uncle Adam's orchestra in the background, the one that played at my wedding. They were only one of the two orchestras playing for the event.



They hired a huge space for the party which looks quite empty here as all the guests were lined up around the edges. Rocio, Bob and I went along and despite me suffering from more and more tooth ache and Bob getting heat stroke and having to go home early I think we had a fine time. After all the formal wlatzing and the amazing present giving ceremony (So much furniture being danced around the arena, twice, before being presented to the waiting couple.) they go into the seriuous drinking and dancing. The event turned into something like a rock concert except with the two orchestras providing the music, sometimes with a singer. There was a sea of broken glass on the floor from many many broken beer bottles, a huge crowd of people, many more than had been at the formal waltzing.



Unfortunately Rocio's camera phone went flat, a constant problem these days, so I didn't get many photos or videos. I am really sorry I didn't video the young girl, maybe 10 years old who sang with the orchestra backing her in front of the crowd on the huge stage. She was wonderful and very confident.
We went to a neighbours house for the after party where there was more beer drinking and coca leaf chewing. I only took part in the chewing. I've chewed coca a few times her in Peru but it's not really for me. This time though with my tooth ache getting much worse I was chewing for medicinal purposes, honest. If you chew coca with something called jipto (Might be the wrong spelling I've never seen it written) then your lips can go a bit numb. So I was putting the chewed leaves on my sore tooth, which worked very well, better than the pain killers I had been taking all day. I still can't say I noticed any stimulant effect though, coffee is a much stronger drug.
Michael was having a great time. We were all dancing Santiago, the next of the yearly round of traditional festivals and music and dance which will start on Michael's birthday in July. Michael was in my arms bouncing and punching the air and "huapiendo" or perhaps in English, Whooping, just as you are supposed to do.



He danced and sang and danced and sang and suddenly fell asleep. Nothing disturbed him then until we had already gone home.



It think Michael already has a strong grasp of Peruvian culture.

Huaytapallana

This will be another blog with little about Michael in it.
So here's a bonus picture of the wonderful boy who still loves whacking things with his big white stick.



Bob is getting very near the end of his time in Peru now. He has about 2 weeks until we go to Lima to put him on a plane for Europe. So we have to get some real tourism done now. We decided that going up the local hills around Huancayo wasn't enough for us and we needed more altitude and a glacier.
We booked a tour with a group and a local guide to visit Huaytapallana. This is about 20 Km from Huancayo and a lot higher up. I remember being quite ill when we arrived in Huancayo and even when I was better it was difficult to breathe here. Now I feel fine. In fact I am much fitter and more active here than I ever am in England. I have no problem running when I want to now. So I felt Bob and I were ready for going up higher.
We met the group and guide early in the morning and I bought a warm hat and we set off in the minibus for the drive up to "Virgen de las nieves" The Virgin of the Snows, a small trout restaurant and the highest you can go by vehicle.
Here's Bob looking ready for action.



Here we parked up and the guide led us up the first and steepest climb of the day. I'm sure he does this on purpose as he doesn't get to choose who goes on the tours he has to accept whoever the travel agents book fir him. By the time we got to the top of the climb we had already lost some of the group who had realised that walking at altitude is hard. They would spend all day in the restaurant waiting for us. We did still have one lady with us who had come straight from sea level in Lima and had no warm clothes and quite high heeled boots on. She decided to wait for us at the top of the first climb but go no further. Her two boys carried on with us.
At the top of the first climb is the ceremony site and our first view of the glacier and snow caps.



We were told by the guide that the site is used by three different types of people for pagan rituals. Brujos (witches) Chamanes (Shamans) and Layas (Don't know a translation for this.) The Brujos come to do magic, cast spells and things like that and there are very very few of them (Though there are thousands in Lima apparently), the Chamanes come to do healing ceremonies and try to cure the sick and the Layas are intermediaries between humans and nature and come to pay respects to nature and the mountains. He said we should not confuse the three distinct types of people but we should not disrespect anyone we found there no matter what their beliefs. We did in fact fid a group of people there doing a ceremony they included two saxophone players and a violinist. Huancayo does seem to be the centre for saxophone music for Peru. It was wonderful to hear the saxophones echoing around the mountains and the violin player was great. I did have a word with him, his name is Aurelio and he would be willing to teach me violin. I have his address and I'll try to arrange something soon.
We went on down and up and up and down and up an UP. Past beautiful mineral filled lakes



Every step getting less and less to breathe. Despite being acclimatised to Huancayo at 3270 meters 10,700 feet we were all (except the guide) struggling hard here at around 5000 meters 16,400 feet and still going up. After much pain and beautiful views we got to the foot of the glacier where we posed with the wall of ice.



and the guide set up ropes for us to scale the side and get ourselves on top.Here's Bob in perhaps his hardest moments. Not that I suffered any less



I did have a moment climbing the first rope where I reached my limits and perhaps was about to pass out. I didn't really know where I was and I was trying to call the guide for help but couldn't think of the words. I made it though and the top of the glacier is just so beautiful. We were told we were at about 5150 meters or 16,900 feet above sea level, this coincidentally is the height of Everest base camp in Tibet. A personal record for me. The peak of the mountain was still above us and it is possible to book a two day tour with mountain guide and climbing equipment to get to the very peak. You climb to the glacier one day and camp overnight (-20 centigrade perhaps -4 Fahrenheit) and get up a t 2 in the morning to climb to see sunrise from the peak. I haven't yet decided to do it.
We sat around the snowman thoughtfully made for us by someone else





and I ate the food I had been fantasising about all day. Fruit juice, avocado, spicy crisps, cheese sandwiches and chocolate. Again like on our previous climb one of the best meals of my life. We took our photos around the snowman and thought about climbing higher where the glacier tilts up onto the mountain side so we could slide down. Really there was no way I was capable at that time so we set off for the long walk down again. Everyone was tired on the way down and getting very slow. Apart that is from the bits where you could slide!



The two small boys were very tired and the guide helped them as much as he could. Bob and I were tired but both felt that it was better for us to plod on than keep stopping for rests. We went off ahead and had huge rests at the top of the climbs waiting for the others. We could hear the musicians in the ceremony still playing as we approached them again. We were going to go back to meet them again when we found the woman who had said she would wait for us. She had decided not to wait but to follow us, had wandered off the path and tried to climb the wrong mountain on her own, she had fallen "a mountain of times" as she said and was stuck. Bob valiantly went to rescue her and was left her on the path waiting for the guide to catch up. There was no way I was going to carry her off the mountain.
At the ceremony site we were just in time to catch the last notes of the music for the ceremony



and we watched the saxophone players go off down the mountain still playing. We sat and waited for all the others to arrive and then went down to the restaurant meeting a Llama on the way



In the restaurant Bob had the trout he had ordered and we met the musician again in the restaurant and sat with them to eat. I was feeling awful by this time and could barely finish my food. I was desperate to get back in the bus and get back to a normal altitude. I took my pain killers for my screeching headache and waited. Eventually we all dozed in the bus on the way back to reality.

Bad Birthday Party

Rocio Mike and I went to a birthday party for one of Rocio's friend's one year old girl. It started out very nice really. We were in her house with lots of other parents and their children. Also our friend Flor was there. She is a blind lady who sells candles and sweets and other things outside the cathedral here in Huancayo. There were lots of sweets and biscuits to eat and lots of talking and Michael was crawling round the room visiting everyone. He's such a charmer.

Then the clown arrived with a huge sound system and set up and put on LOUD dance music and shouted though his microphone to get the kids organised for his show. At one point Michael was crawling on the floor and the clown walked backwards and nearly trod on Mike's hands. I rescued him in time of course but I didn't appreciate the clown telling me to "Watch out watch out watch out!" Rather I guess he ought to be aware of little children in his job.
Michael was quite interested in what the clown was doing but got completely ignored by him. The games and talking were all to the older boys and girls.



The clowns show consisted mostly of getting the children to dance to the music one after another so they could be judged and then getting them to fetch items he called out from their mothers, ear rings, hand bags, high heeled shoes etc. These he refused to give back until the mothers danced to him to fetch them. He of course chose the sexy music for them to dance to.
Here he is...




Then he held a sexy dance contest for the mothers after checking which of them were single and saved he favourite mother till last for a special dance with him. The children were by this time forgotten and
wandered off (Luckily as it turned out).

The boring show and pounding music were putting Rocio and Mike and I to sleep so we snoozed on the settee as the show went on with some magic that involved children, flames and a plastic bottle of pure alcohol. I wasn't paying much attention until the child dropped the bottle and we suddenly had the whole of the floor in front of us on fire. The child's hands were briefly on fire as I remember and there was no way for Rocio, Michael, Flor or myself to get off the settee for the flames. There seemed to be moments when the floor was covered with flames and moments when it was just the bottle burning and I was panicking but thinking of throwing my coat over the bottle. That was when the stupid clown would kick the burning melting bottle of alcohol and the floor of flames would return. He did that several times, I don't know why. I found myself trying to keep between the flames and Rocio with Michael but I don't know what I was thinking I would do really, perhaps wave my arms at the flames until they went away.
Eventually they bottle went out and the clowns show went on! The music had never been turned off and he just continued singing along with silly songs. I couldn't believe that he made no comment about nearly burning us (My shoes are in fact a little burnt) and no-one stopped him, broke and bones or even threw him out.
We left then and my only regret about that is we didn't check that Flor was all right.
And what would have happened if the floor of the room had still had a group of children sitting on it as it had been just a few minutes before? I'm still in shock and I'm still very angry about this.
I am so sorry we bothered to go. My wife and my little boy deserve better. They should never be in such a dangerous place.

Immunisations and little boys

We took Michael to the local health post recently to have him weighed and measured. We are constantly being told that he is under weight or over weight or whatever. Eventually it gets worrying. It is part of the culture here to give unwanted and unneeded advice to parents. Women in the street will often tell me that my baby is cold or suffering from flu or falling or whatever occurs to them. All of this advice is in the form of direct orders to me which I always take badly. I don't respond well to strangers in the street shouting "Put his hat on he's really cold" especially when he isn't. But it doesn't end and so eventually we took him for and official weighing. At the health post we confused them a little as I don't think they had ever had foreigners registering their children before and they couldn't quite understand that I don't have a Peruvian ID card, but they were very kind and we got it sorted out.
Next problem was they really wanted Michael's health records, which he has but of course they are in English. So they were a bit upset that he had never had any health care, although of course he has, and that he has never had any immunisations although of course he has. Still medical language in both countries is almost the same so we managed to translate Michael's immunisation records and compare the UK plan with the Peruvian plan and put him on track for his booster shots in a couple of months time.
Whilst waiting to go and get him weighed we sat on benches outside and met a mother and her little boy Benjamin waiting for their health check. Benjamin was like another little Michael and they got on well together in a "Fighting over a nail in the bench" sort of way. Nothing like Michael plays with little girls, his cousin Kerly for example but all fun for them both.
Can you tell which is which?



So we got him officially wieghed and put his records on his British and Peruvian weight and height charts and what a surprise he is well within the healthy zone by Peruvian standards and almost exactly average for his age by British standards. So nothing to worry about.