Unfortunately back in Peru

After the excitement of being back with Clare and Tilly,

the reality of coming back to work hits home with a thud. The flight dragged despite the movies and games and food and books. I tried to sleep but even after 48 hours without sleep, I still cannot fall asleep on a bloody plane.

It never helps that the person in front seems to think it is their God Given right to put their seat back no matter that it crushes the person's legs behind (ie mine). Or that the person sitting behind thinks its ok to put their coat over the arm rest of your seat or that every time they get up to go to the toilet they pull down on your seat, therefore sending your head flying backwards, only to let go and lead to some kind of catapult effect with your chair that sends you hurtling into the person's seat in front - that is still fully reclined despite the fact that they are a midget!!!!!!

Anyway. I finally got back to Lima only to be surrounded by Taxi drivers trying to force you into an overpriced 'tourist car'. When you then inform them that you want to go to your house rather than to a hotel, they make a quick retreat knowing that you know how much you should be paying for the trip. Although even the tourist prices were only $35 for a trip that can take an hour and a half so compared to UK prices, this is not so bad.

Then the traffic hits, the taxi driver weaves his way in and out of gaps too small and very quickly you realise that you are back in Lima!!!

Thank you to everyone that has sent cards, good wishes and presents for Tilly. Clare is in the process of sending thank you cards but she, unsurprisingly, has her hands quite full at the moment.

Leaving them to come back here was bloody difficult but Tilly did give me a going away present of pooing and weeing down the only T shirt I had brought with me, just before I got in the car. I know there will be a lot more of this and to be honest I am even missing the crying and nappy changing already - and I miss doing that for Tilly too!

Until the next post

Adios

Pitt family

The all new and updated Pitt family are doing fantastically well. The idea of getting regular sleep is already a fantasy but when you are awake at 3 in the morning with your beautiful daughter in your arms, you cannot even think about getting cranky or upset.

When she falls asleep on your chest and makes those little gurggling sounds that only babies know how to make, your heart just melts and you no longer care that you haven't slept in four days straight.

Tilly is absolutely beautiful (I know I am biased but I don't care) and she is getting more beautiful by the day.

Frank Lawton sent us an email with a poem attached a few months ago about the birth of your child and the poem has taken on extra resonance over the last few days (please excuse my artistic licence to edit the poem)

Tilly making her landing in the world

so hard she ploughed straight back into earth.

They caught her by the thread of her one breath

and pulled her up. They don't know how it held.

And so today I thank what higher will

brought us to here, to you and me and Clare

and now your lungs somehow out - revving

every engine in the Universe

all that trouble just to turn up dead

was all I thought that long night. Now the thread

is holding all of us: look at our new house

the white dot of your mother waving.

When he sent the email I did not fully understnd the full ramifications but after a night of waiting. After a night of Tilly being ready to be born and then deciding to drag herself back inside, for her heart to start beating slowly, for her heart to think about stopping and her the 'C' section to be called for. The thread of the poem suddenly became a reality, that thread was the all important factor as Tilly came from a weak heart beat to the amazingly strong baby she is today. This thread is now wrapped strongly around out new family and is like nothing I have ever felt before.

People talk about the idea of loving something more than you can possibly explain and that could not be more true. I have known this little girl for less than five days and yet the importance of her to both myself and Clare cannot be understated, cannot be put into words. I need the skills of the poet that Mr Lawton emailed to even come close but even he, I doubt, could properly sum up this occurance, this event, this amazing feeling.

Adios

Baby Tilly has arrived

18th March 2009.

I have become a dad. Clare has done fantastically well and we have a brand new healthy baby.

More information and pictures to come. Be prepared to get very bored of seeing pictures of our new baby girl.

Matilda 'Tilly'Pitt

D.O.B. - 18th March 2009

woo hoo!!!!!!!!!

adios

Legal resident of Peru

Last Thursday was the day I became a legal resident in Peru. I now have to have permission to leave the country and have got my fingerprints, eyes scanned and all my teeth checked just in case I am an international criminal.

However, the day was not as simple as turning up, filling in a form and then going home (of course not - this is Peru). Why take five minutes over something when you can take allday?!?

So, I got there early. It is in the centre of Lima (see central Lima blog entry) and so the drive in was particularly interesting but we managed to weave in between the traffic and turn left from the right hand of 3 lanes enough times to make good time. So we entered (myself and Javier (( see the nightmare of Lima cargo city for more information on Javier)) and everything went well. The queue was remarkably short and just when I was about to be served, Mr slick back cut in front of me. Now, he seems to not understand the English method of queueing. You can wait for ages, you can moan as much as you want but never cut in front of somebody else (you may be asked to leave the Theme Park!). So Mr Slickback - named this due to his slick back hair and pin striped suit (see image at the top). I would have called him Mr tiny feet but I only saw his amazingly tiny feet after about 15 minutes). Really, they were the smallest feet on a regular sized man that you have ever seen.

So anyway, Mr slickback cuts to the front of the queue 9they can tell me that its called a line all they want, I will still call it a queue) and proceeds to get served. And then his rent a girlfriend also cuts to the front and she also gets served and then his man-servant cuts to the front of the queue and he also gets served. All the while, I am slowly simmering inside and I hope that he could understand English as I would hate to think my rude comments went unheard.

So finally after Mr Slickback and his entourage all get there fingerprints done I get to the front only to be told I am not a valid citizen as I am just a tourist. When i showed the man all my paper work, my visa, my contract etc all he does is point to the screen 'el computer Hable no".

When I ask why, in my best Spanish, he cannot just change the input on the screen to working status, he just walked away from his desk. When he came back he blanked me and asked the person behind for their documents.

This then kick started Javier. It did not kick start him to do anything it just meant he stood around looking angry a little bit more than he usually does. So I go to another desk and try to get my information changed. El computer says no. I am told again. Again I ask why, and the lady just gets up from her desk and walks away (this seems a Peruvian way of avoiding conflict with the strange English man who is shouting at them). So i am left with nowhere to go. I speak to Javier in our normal mix of pigeon spanish and hand gestures and he says he will do something.

3 hours later Javier comes back. He points for me to go around the back of the counters and into a back office (am I going to be deported or have some sort of cavity serach?). He puts his fingers to his lips and says "shhhhhh""say nothing". Say nothing, I think, how can I say anything with my lack of Spanish? So we go into an office, where Javier promptly leaves and I am left with 2 old women both talking none stop Spanish at me.

I shrug my shoulders and follow Javier's instructions. Then one woman grabs my bag and looks through. She finds my reading book and starts pointing. I try to understand what she wants and it turns out that she thinks I am an english teacher and she wants English books. I tell her that I am a professuer of geographie but this does not dissuade her. She wants me to get her some english books. I say that I do not teach english but she writes down her email address and says that she will email the details. I know that Javier has already bribed these people and now they want someting off me too.

After this she says that the 3 day wait that is normal to change details can now be done instantly. éverything is ok, she tells me. I am relieved but also know that in a few days I will be expected to get some sort of English book for this crazy lady. Oh well, what is the English department for if not to take books from?

After this point, Javier's 3 hours worth of bribing kicks in and suddenly I become slickback man. I am taken to the front of the queue, I push in fromt of the bank queue, I get my photo taken instantly and my ID card is ready in 15 minutes. Being Mr Slickback was not too bad an experince (I just need a man servant and a pin striped suit now).

So now I am a Peruvian resident. I have a house, a bank account, an ID card and pretty soon I will be learning to drive like a mad man and using my horn more than any human being should do.

Adios

Earthquake drill

I kid you not. In 15 minutes we have an earthquake drill....... more info coming soon


The drill itself was not as exciting as I thought it would be. However it really is as simple as duck and cover. How exactly the desks will save the pupils from an earthquake, I have no idea but still we have to make them tuck up into a ball, get under their desk and cover their heads. Then once the bell stops we go out onto the field (presumably if the field is still in one piece) and check who is there.

It is a lot more dramatic than boring fire drills but you still get the same old boring teachers checking that everything is being done by the book. It is strange that in a country with no safety laws, teachers still find it necessary to make up the same pointless safety laws that they moan about back in England.

Then last Friday (on a day with shortened lessons and the loss of 2 other lessons) the powers that be call for another earthquake drill. I am now fully drilled on for an earthquake and on top of that, making your 6th form class get under the little desks is really very funny.

Adios

car crashes, houses and work

Finally started work and what a nightmare it has been. There are not enough geography teachers until the new one starts in three weeks (an old lady called Wendy!), they are looking to move away from laptops but haven't ordered enough textbooks and a list of other moans all at the same time as starting to run a department.

Right, moan overwith. I was getting a tad fed up with the school but then the kids turned up. I thought they were going to be hard pushed to live up to King Edward's pupil standards but they are really running the KES boys closely. The kids are polite, neatly dressed, conscientious and above all, make it enjoyable to turn up to work for. All the complaints are quickly forgotten and you just get right on back to the classroom.

The first week in actually teaching (preceded by two weeks of teacher training and INSETS!!!!) has been a duty week. Normally I would have a good teacher moan about duty week but there is something quite pleasant about patrolling the school when it is 30 degrees outside. This week's duty of sitting by the outdoor swimming pool has been particularly arduous!

Back to the INSETs. The first one was an 'expert' on being a form tutor. The fact that she had never stepped inside a classroom in her life did not matter - 'she had done a course in the US' was clearly her main qualification. I think that this course in Chicago was clearly full of people full of themselves. 'Children are like trees' ' let them grow and care for the fallen apples'. I am not even making this nonsense up!

'How do you feel about your own self' 'how does this activity make you feel'

My reply was something along the lines of 'this is nonsense there is no way we would have time for this' - by the time you have done the register, given out detentions, checed little Pedro's lost bag, checked what activities people have signed up for, checked uniform and checked homework planners, there is very little time to put down the fertiliser of love and watch the fruits blossom into a caring child'. Fortunatly, this lady was only in for half a day and then I am sure she went off to another school or maybe another course.

I have also moved into the house (photos above). Clare had a list of criteria that needed to be filled: local park (check x 4), outside space (check), roof terrace (check), 2 double bedrooms (check), a study/nursery (check), spanish type design (check), 2 bathrooms + an extra one for the maid (check), a bath (check). I managed to get everything apart from the pool. However we will only be a ten minute walk from school where there is a free heated outdoor pool for us to use!!!! I cannot wait to bring up mini Pitt in our spaciuos new home.

The only problem with the house came when I had to go to el banko with the landlordo. We drove there sharing quality conversation (with my pigeon spanish and his pigeon english), and then waited (a Peruvian passtime) for an hour to get served. Finally we got the money and although I needed to go to work ,which was around the corner, he insisted on driving. A nice gesture but when we stopped at the traffic lights, the car behind smashed into the back of us without even trying to brake. The look of terror in el landloro's eyes was horrifying but nobody was hurt apart from the bumper fell off.

I finally got into work to find the TV switched off (the only reason I was going in was becasue they have cable and I could watch the rugby!!!). So after a car crash I dont even get to watch England lose to Ireland (probably for the best as swearing in school is never a great thing to do in your first week).

Adios muchachos