Jonathan Pitt and the Incredibly Long Term

Phew! What a long and tiring term. 3 parents evenings in the last 3 weeks, a ten week term, 3 options evenings and multiple after school meetings on top all go to make me one officially knackered out teacher. The good news is that I still think that Tilly recognises me after I have hardly seen her over the past few weeks but then again I cant really tell as she just smiles at anyone and everyone anyway.
On their walk to the supermarket Tilly and Clare seem to have accumulated a group of random friends. The watchman on the corner is a regular (and he has to say hello as we pay him) but the others are a wonderful rag-tag group.
There is the old man at the bulding site who shouts at anyone making lude comments towards Clare, there is the lady with no teeth who takes a break from begging to shout out how 'Linda' (cute) Tilly is looking, there is the security guard from the fish restaurant that always stops to smile and talk to Tilly, there is the sweet store lady who runs over to say how smily Tilly is, there is the illegal DVD seller, the car parking man with the hunch back, the man who dresses like a woman and the Peruvian man that slurs his English as he asks us around for drinks becuase he has heard "English people love their beer". All these people get the same greeting - Tilly pulls off a huge smile and wiggles her legs incesantly. They love it and it all adds to the increasing group of people that stop Clare and Tilly on their travels around Lima.
The delay in writing the blog comes from the 3 month period without Internet and also the amount of work I am having to do in the Geography department. This week should see a turn around in the work (after I have finished my reports and coursework marking) and we finally have Internet thanks to the big dongle that we now have.
So chiao for now and hopefully the blogs will be back to becoming more regular again!

Tilly The Swimmer and Tilly the Traveller Part 2

Another long gap between posts but again, I think, a rather valid excuse. This time it has been lack of Internet (still!!!!) and organising past papers and 3 fieldtrips at work. Time has just slipped away but hopefully I still have all the memories of Rio imprinted firmly in my brain to include in the blog.
First however, I must mention the exciting news of Tilly's first swimming session. We went on a mission to find a pool that she could swim in and heard on the Peruvian grapevine (about as reliable as the Peruvian wine in produces) that there was one near school. We therefore headed straight over to look for the swimming pool. It was nowehere to be seen, there was no smell of chlorine nearby - a smell to which I am well atuned from my lifetime spent in or next to a pool - and there was no building with slides jutting out of the side or any sort of pebble dash or corrugated iron effect (as sported by many a British council pool). We were just about to give up when a securitry guard on a segway scooted past (I think that is the correct term for what you do on a segway) and I asked him where the pool was (of course not forgetting to add the International sign language movement for swimming as I spoke to him in my Spanglish). He seemed to understand and he told us where to go. Minutes later when we still had not found a building that looked anything like a pool, said segwayman came scooting back and took us straight to it. We stood outside and yet still we did not believe it was a pool.
It seems a theme in Peru that the more extravagant the building and the more posh the facilities, the more boring it should look from outside. On the way to school, when people pop out of their securitry fences to get the paper or the bread delivery you can see into their little gated world and witness the wonders of within. The more dull the outside, the more their wonderous world tends to impress. And so this gave us some hope for the pool. The outside looked like 2 up, 2 down house and Clare, I looked at each other wondering how a pool would fit into a terraced house (I am sure some tax dodging British person has tried to put one in their living room though).
We walked in and soon found that the place was like Doctor Who's tardis, it expanded backwards and became huge as you wlaked in. Not only was there a pool, there was 2! and for the first time in 4 months, there was actually a warm room in Lima. This boded well for the pool being warm too and one finger strategically placed in the water told us that it was soon to be swim time for Tilly.
We bathing suited her up, bought a rediculously expensive swimming cap (it was the opposite of British bars "If you dont have a cap, you're not getting in!") for her and then Clare and Tilly got in. Tilly loved it, Clare loved it and the camp Peruivan instructor seemed to love evrything in the whole world. I have never seen a 40 year old man sing and smile as much as this man. He is a human baby song hummer and he can sing a Spanish nuresery rhyme more camply than any other man alive! Stil, Tilly likes him, she smiles and because of that we are able to get her head under the water and build her confidence. There was another baby boy in the pool with Tilly who was swimming under the water and doing great and Clare had to hold back my competitive streak from trying to compete with him. "He's 11 months old!" Clare had to tell me, as I was wanting to beat him and show what Tilly could do. So I think it may have been for the best that Tilly's first session was with her mum and that steady progress was trhe order of the day rather than the dunking session I would have possible dealt out (it may have stopped the camp singing though).

Now back to Rio for the second Part of Tilly The Traveller:
Day two started well. We went down to the buffet breakfast with mouths watering at the prospect of bacon, waffles, eggs, cheeses galore and a selection of meat that would make dewhursts proud. But then as we went to walk into the restaurant one of the Sheraton Nazi Clone workers asked us which room number we were. 1009, I replied. “I am sorry Sir, you are not on the list!” You could see a smile emerge on her face as she was also thinking – if you are not on the list, you are not coming in!. Clare and I looked at each other and knew there was a mistake “I know I have paid for the breakfast” I said. She paused. How can he be this confident if he is not wearing a suit? You could see she was thinking. “are you with Taca airlines the lady asked”. “Yes we are!” was Clare’s swift response and before you could say Eggs Benedict we were sat in a table eating the Breakfast of The Gods.
On returning to our room, we soon saw that our reservation did not include breakfast (an oversight on my behalf after the Despegar debacle of two weeks previous). So we were no longer set to enjoy the breakfast of the Gods, we were back to normal riff-raff but without breakfast. We were below riff-raff, we were outcasts from breakfast time, forced to wonder the streets in search of food and coffee. However I will take this opportunity to thank Taca airlines for inadvertently covering the cost of our 50 dollar breakfast and I hope that nobody from the airline reads my blog and realizes the mistake!
We did however have our day mapped out. We were going to go to the statue of Christ and we were then going to return and use the pool and relax in the sun reading our hugely educational books (Lee Child and Michael Connolly).
We went to the desk to ask how much the trip to Jesus was. $100 dollars plus the cost of the tram (another $80). On that news, we went to the in hotel travel agent to see how much their trip was – another 200 dollar trip. OK then we decided to break Roughguide Rule number one again and take the bus (5 dollars for all 3 of us). This time we made sure we travelled in Tilly’s awake time and allowed the Little Miss Tilly to actually get some sleep in the daytime. This therefore meant a hugely delayed start but no more screaming and no looks of condemnation from the locals or Jesus! We got to the base of Jesus’s mound at about 3.00 after much bus delay and the walk to Copacabana beach. Great, we will have time to get up, get back and then go and sit by the pool.
But then a coach arrived full of tourists, then another and then another. Each coach emptied its loads of suit wearing business men from every nation of the world. It looked as though the United Nations was having a convention on top of Jesus’s mound. From the experience at the Sheraton, we knew the situation was hopeless. People in suits are Kings in Rio and us wearing our tatty clothes (following the rough guides rules of not looking rich) therefore had no chance! We looked like poor people and were duely treated as such when we were told that there would be a 2 hour wait for a tram up to Jesus. We had again been trumped by the men in suits and a 2 hour wait was our only hope. How would we kill 2 hours. By breaking Roughguide rule number 3 is how – go for a walk! We walked around the streets of Concovado fitting in with our tatty clothes and with Tilly there to keep us safe. Again we were looked at by dubious looking youths but mainly just to see our baby in a babycar and for them to comment on how cute (Lindo) she looks.
Not knowing where we were heading, we saw a little café that sold beers for 3 reals (a dollar) and headed straight for it. 2 beers please! Then another 2 and then another 2 please. I was not sure what Clare was going to have, but I was sorted. I am sure Jesus would approve when we see him later! We also found that this place was a hidden gem of a restaurant and they made the best Fillet Mignon sandwiches ever known to man! So rather than being mugged and robbed by breaking rule 3, we were fed, beered up and all ready to meet Christ.
Now if you have seen the statue on TV, been her in person or even just seen our photos on Fickr, it is clear that this is a sight worth seeing. The statue is impressive in itself as it soars mejestically above the vast city below but the views of the city itself are what make this trip exceptional. Trip to Rio (a lot of dollars), tram ride to the top (40 dollars), view from the top at sunset - priceless.
The sheer number of tourist could not spoil the view and the experience, the half hour wait for a tram back down could not spoil it and even Tilly crying like an air raid siren on our way back down on the tram could even not spoil the day.

I would recommend the experience to anyone and it meant that day 2 ended with excitement, looking forward to the trip to Sugar Loaf mountain the next day.

Oh, one final point - on the bus ride home Clare turned to me and said "was that a dead person?". Not being used to being asked this kind of question I just looked at her a bit confused and tried to see what she had witnessed out of the window but could not see anything. "I think it was," she said, "It was a body lying on the road with a sheet over it and with only the legs sticking out" she then continued by saying. The experience was at the same time as the camera exchange men were sat in front of us and gave us a very clear idea of the realities that lie very close to the surface in this city. The gunshots from the shanty town near our hotel then added to the enlightenment and gave us a nice chorus to which we fell softly to sleep ...... and then bolted upright and awake again at the next gun shot!

adios

Tilly (Machilda) Pitt in Rio: Part One

The evening flight to Rio meant that we had a day of killing time and trying to find somewhere that would change dollars into Argentinian Pesos (we soon found nowhere would). Clare had been spening days getting everything packed to perfection and realising that packing for a baby is a bloody hard job to do. Bottles- check, nappies- check, travel cot- check, dummy for the flight- check, water for formula milk- check, more bloody expensive formula milk- check....... the list goes on and on. Then she also packed for me (shirts- check, jeans- check, pants - check, socks- check, all done).and we were ready to go. A Taxi was flagged down outside our house, fair was agreed in my slowly improving Spanish and off we went in the normal Peruvian style (horn blaring, lane switching and at break neck speed). The flight was easy enough, Tilly slept when she could and, unlike British Airports, common sense prevails. We were given an extra seat for Tilly to sleep on, we were allowed to bring our own water onto the plane to make up the milk (rather than having to pre-book milk with Boots and taste any water to prove that it is not a chemicl bomb ingedient ((although surely a suicide bomber would happily drink chemicals to get them on the plane!!))and we also were put into a priority line for check-in making everything easier for everyone (especially a very stressed out dad). Normally, I am an image of calmness for travelling. I do not get rattled by the process, I am calm and know that getting stressed out (like most people at airports) does no good for anyone. However, now I have an extra little one to think about - I was the exact opposite. I became one of those stressed out travellers (I even made a woman from Taca airlines cry in Rio by shouting at her!). I do not know what has happened to me. I have turned into a typical middle aged British Traveller - may even start wearing comfy trousers to travel in soon and start wearing those socks to stop your veins popping mid-flight. I think it is one step away from ordering those sunglasses in the Sunday Mirror - The ones that fit over your normal glasses. Who knows, next week I may be ordering the plates with pictures of the queen on them to display on the walls of our house (I apologise to Peruvian readers who will have no idea what I am talking about at this point).
So we got to Rio having read the guide book from cover to cover over the course of the flight. There would surely be nothing about Rio that we would not know (including the 20 page section on how dangerous it is and how you are most likely to get mugged and robbed- NICE!). So after reading the book, Clare had joined me in a state of worry and stress and the holiday was off to a lovely relaxed start. Landing at the airport we were instantly scanning the building for people likely to mug us. We whispered to each other when people looked dodgy and acted like sectret agents trying to avoid being followed by slowing our walking speed, pretending to read our books and pointing at things in the distance to pretend we weren't pointing out a strange looking character. The Rio episode of Ross Kemp on gangs soon came flooding back into our memories and suddenly the city of our dreams was becoming a slightly different reality. However, we we quickly began breaking the Rules of the Roughguide as saving money seemed more sensible that keeping safe!?! Roughguide Rule number one - Use taxis as buses can be dangerous. So of course we heard the taxi quote and got straight into the queue for the bus. 40 minutres later and we were in Ipanema (1 hour and 30 minutes after that we were back in Ipanema and on a different bus as the first one did not go to the part of Ipanema we needed and instead took a detour through Rochina). Now anybody reading this that I taught Geography to should have heard of Rochina. It is the world's largest Shanty Town. 200,000 people packed tighly onto the hills of the mountains and home to two of the most dangerous gangs in Rio (and therefore the world). We however took our 4 month old daughter on a bus through it but came out safe and able to tell the tale. It seems that the key to the robbers and muggers is that they go for anyone looking lost, looking rich and not in a family group. Roughguide Rule number 2 - do not look wealthy. Therefore Clare did not wear her engagement ring and we did not take any clothes that had labels or names on them but none of this was the main reason we were safe. The main reason was Miss Tilly herself. 2 mean looking men got onto one bus and looked a little angry that we were blocking the back seats. You could see their heads thinking 'how can we look extra mean if we are not on the back seats'. But then they saw Tilly in her pushchair (or baby car as the Brazilians called it) and they both smiled. I felt the stress level subside slightly and I began to not think about the $1000 camera that I had in my bag. I needn't have worried too long as the men proceeded to show each other even more expensive cameras that they had clearly swiped off tourists over the course of the day. But rather than ask for ours, they instead smiled at Tilly and even helped us off the bus at our stop. Tilly to the Rescue.
The first bus journey eventually got us to our hotel and what a hotel it was. It had its own beach, 3 swimming pools, a view overlooking Leblon and Ipanema beaches and staff that were hugely helpful any time day and night. Oh, I should have added that they were hugely helpful any time day or night as long as you were wearing a suit!!! This hotel was amazing but the staff were so preoccupied with the people with huge money that the regular people were treated like scum on the bottom of their PRADA shoes. I may be exagerating slightly but when they saw that our room was not a Junior suite and only had 2 queen sized beds, they instantly knew that we were to be considered general riff-raff.
Despite having travelled all night. We knew we had to make the most of our first day so we soon walked into Ipanema, sat next to the beach and had our first Coco Verde (Coconots that the servers slice open for you and stick a straw in). I felt my stresses of end of term, airports and gangbang attacks start to subdue for the first time as we looked our over the clear blue Atlantic Ocean and felt the sun's rays hit our overly white bodies. It felt like we had never seen sun before as Clare had come straight from an English winter to the ever fogged up Lima. Rio's 26 degree winter was a million miles from the gloom of Peru's capital.
After this, we followed the Rough Guide's advice and got a taxi to Santa Teresa to ride the ancient tram system into the centre of the city. The tram was incredible, the views were amazing but then Tilly decided she didn't like it and started to scream and then scream and scream and scream and scream some more. The stress levels went up again, people were looking and there was nothing we could do. We were stuck on a tram now running through a dodgy part of Rio and we could not get off for another 10 minutes when we were due to reach the centre. It felt as though the eyes of Rio were all looking at us. You could hear tutts of dissaproval from everywhere. Who would bring a baby on a tram? we presumed they were saying in Portugese. I could have sworn at one point the statue of Christ himself even changed position to look down on us and tutt. But still she screamed. She had not slept properly and we were now paying the consequences. We could see the end, the station, the platform, safety. We prayed for it to come closer but we had to stop for another tram going the other way. NOOOOOOO! Still Tilly screamed and everyone looked away from the strange white people with the little baby. Finally the tram rolled to a stop and so did Tilly's crying. She had just been testing us. She was now fine, happy and laughing at her friends in the cot (the bright coloured toys that she seems to like more that her mum and dad!). But the best news was that it was over. Looking at the photos now, the tram ride and the views were amazing but during the trip all we could think about was getting off and getting Tilly calm.
We also had the added stress of just how much the taxi had been to get there (The Rough Guide said taxis were cheap but clearly the RoughGuide author was a very wealthy person) and so Rule number one was quickly thrown out of the window and buses were the new order of the day. Why pay 40 dollars when 3 dollars will do? and so we got a bus (all the buses also had disabled access so no more getting tilly out of her babycar and more importantly, no more screaming!!!!).
The bus was great, Tilly kept us safe and everybody we met was helpful, friendly and loved Miss Tilly. People smiled as we got on, men stopped to help us onto the bus, people picked up things we dropped as we struggled with the babycar and the people of Rio, rather than being violent and dangerous shone through as kind and thoughful folk.
We put Tilly to bed early that night to avoid a repetition of any crying outbursts and we read our books to help bring our first day to a nice relaxing close.

Tilly The Traveller

Firstly, I must apologise for how long it has been since my last blog entry. Three weeks of illness and then end of term Markham Madness led to no chance to write anything. Add to that the fact that the Internet at home stopped working, along with the laptop, my ipod and the XBOX and it has all been a bit of a technological nightmare. The ipode now sounds like a 1989 walkman complete with whirring tape effect and at times it even sounds like the tape is getting jammed. Only with an ipod you can't take out the tape and wind it back in with your finger - you are just stuck with a music player that won't play music.
With the cost of replacing electronic devices and of the ongoing $200 a month immunisation plan that is still going on - we decided to keep our holiday cheap and just go to Rio de Janeiro and Iguazu falls!!
We booked the holiday around one month ago and were amazed at how easy it was. An amazing website called Despegar.com was our route of booking and we would like you to remember that name as we will tell you now - NEVER USE IT!!! They confirmed our 5 day stay in Rio, they confirmed our flights to Rio and Iguazu and they confirmed our hotel in Iguazu. It was all simple and the emails were sent within the day. Wwe were sorted. Our stressful end to the term would all be worth it as now we were off to a place that we had only previously dreamed of going to. However, they then rang to ask for a deposit via telephone. Wierd, I thought, why would they want a deposit when I paid in full. I was at work and so said I would call back. I did call back and it took me 4 tries and 1 hour 30 to speak to anyone. They then said that they would call back in one hour. I waited, and waited and waited and nobody called back. Then, the next day everything was cancelled. So we tried again and this time went to their offices to pay.
'you cant pay at the offices, its an Internet company' we were told. So instead of taking our money in cash and in person - they sent us back to trying to pay by phone and then the next day they again cancelled all of our reservations.
By this time it was less than a week to go and so we booked our flights through a travel agent and then booked hotels through the ever reliable and decidedly non South American Expedia. So finally we were booked (it now cost A LOT more money but we were going and it was time for the holiday of a lifetime).
We would depart for Rio within 6 days and we would go to Iguazu falls and visit Argentina and Paraguay. All in all it would mean that Tilly The Traveller would have been in 6 countries within 4 months of her life!
Due to the Internet not working the full holiday undates will come in bit by bit but feel free to look at the Flickr photos in the meantime.
Chiao for now.

Tilly Pitt's New Adventures in Babysitting

Before I even start to pretend that anything else is on my mind, I have got to have a quick rant about England. Not the rugby team this time as we finally won - in spite of Johnson's inadequacies as a tactician and manager - they beat the Aussies and finally selected the awesome Ben Youngs at scrum half. No, I have to rant about the bloody footballers!!!!! How they can earn over £100,000 a week for not caring about their country, I have no idea. Its like they don't know I am out here being ridiculed by Peruvian kids for their uselessness, do they not care about me?I have to turn up to work and face a barrage of abuse from kids, I have to watch the matches in the common room with Peruvian staff laughing at me and the team and I have to walk around the streets with taxi drivers and street vendors laughing at the useless English team. They are turning the country into a place to be laughed at - but at least BP and British airways are doing their best to recify this!
Right rant over, oh apart from the fact that I had to miss most of the match yesterday as I was teaching. Now I know that I did not miss much but knowing that England are playing in the world cup and I am teaching 11 year old kids last lesson on a Friday (when they do not want to be there)is difficult. My frustration with watching the first 20 minutes was clearly taken out on the kids as my sharp response level went up to a ten. If I was doing this to miss the football, then they were going to work!!!
However, work the rest of the week was enjoyable. My S2 class (Justin Bieber and Fifi the invisible dog) finally seem to be getting ineterested in geography as well as random chit chat, my S3 class are working well and my P6 (year 7) class asked some impressive geography questions that meant I finally got to use my brain and have one of those lessons where you seem to navigate the whole of the wonderful world of geography in a 40 minute lesson. The highlight of the working week was going on yet another trip (I feel like I am out of school more than in it at the moment). This time the trip was to Macapaca or Packamacka or somewhere that sounded either like a character from In The Night Garden or a portable rain coat. I did find it funny that we were going on a trip to Packamaca and we would not need a rain coat as it is in the desert. It should be called, Don't Pack a macka (yes, I still tell awful jokes in my lessons and get even fewer laughs than I did at King Edwards). The best joke this week has been - what is the difference between Robert Green and Justin Bieber? ..... Justin Bieber knows how to drop his balls! But at least it is a British spillage that the Yanks are happy about!
The trip saw us go about 45 minutes from school and visit a site of Inca ruins. We carved Inca figures out of soap, we learnt how to make Quipu (ancient abacus), visited a racreated Ica settelment and drank Chica (fermented corn which has had its creation aided by adding saliva! nice!), got growled at by Peruvian hairless dogs and dug for ancient pottery in the sand. The day was not exactly full of learning for the kids but it was fun and gave you a good understanding of the life of the Incas. The digging for artifacts in the sand was at a location that looked perfect for an Indiana Jones film and was amazing how quickly you could find bits of pottery and plates from 700 years ago (although knowing this place, it is not beyond the possibility of the staff planting bits of pottery into the ground for the kids to find). The hairless dogs are a feature of the Peruvian urban and rural landscape and no matter how many times you see them. they never fail to shock you as to just how ugly a dog can be! The beautiful beagles that we see in the park outside our living room window just add to how ugly the bald dogs look, especially when they are seen in the packs that seem to control the night-time streets of Lima.
After the awfulness of the England match (last refernce I promise) it took me a while to get back to myself again but the thought of Clare and I getting to go out on our first date in almost 9 months was enough to lift me from my duldrums. We had booked a babysitter and at 6 oclock we met her at our house (now when I say 6, of course I mean 6 oclock Peruivan time, so more like 6:40). She was impressively late but had come recommended by teachers at the school so she got the benefit of the doubt. We gave her some quick instructions with Clare 'I am ok with this' Pitt, talking at ten to the dozen and hoping that the poor girl could actually understand everything that Clare 'I am clearly not ok with this' Pitt was telling her. The only thing that I am confident of is that Clare said very clearly and slowly that the babysitter would not have to feed Tilly and that we would be back by the time she needs her next feed. I then repeated the fact that Tilly would not need to be fed or changed (So even you readers should be clear of these insructions and also I can imagine that you know where this tale is heading). So mummy and daddy Pitt went out for a curry with friends from school and then went to a nice romantic pisco bar in Miraflores. Curry, alcohol and no pram - it all seemed strangely memorable, like we had done this sort of thing before. We had a vague memory of a life where this sort of thing happened quite regularly. It was lovely to have an evening to ourselves and we had a fantastic night but even with our slightly fuzzy heads from the pisco, we were both keen to get back to our beautiful daughter and make sure the babysitter was as good as the reviews seemed to suggest.
So we got in and there were feeding bottles in the sink and a changed nappy in the bin. Hmm, strange considering the insructions! Was everything Ok, we asked. Oh, yes was her reply. She woke up so I fed her and changed her. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! she had fed her, she had broken the routine, she had gone against the Gina Ford, baby Bible. We had had two weeks of sleep, we had Tilly more trained up that a North Korean footballer and she knew the drill. Now one night with a babysitter and we both saw our sleepless nights returning, we saw a crying Tilly Pitt at 3 and 4 and 5 in the morning coming back and we saw our settled evenings and 7 hours sleep per night being threatened by a babysitter. That night we put Tilly to bed both fearing the worst but the worst did not arise. Our little angel slept through, we woke at seven to feed her and she even went back to sleep after to allow us a lie in!
The day before had even been a day when Tilly had another of her bank busting immunisations. The prices still remain high despite promises that health care is cheap here. Cheap compared to what we keep thinking? Cheap compared to a Ferrari, cheap compared to a Rolex watch, cheap compared to a Tiffany ring but definitely not cheap when compared to free health care back in England! You would have to be an England footballer to find this cheap as they are paid so much to not even try - to walk around the pitch without a care in the world (last mention I promise). The clinica is called the Clinica of Good hope (bodes well), you want more than just hope, I want a trained doctor. Or maybe its just hope that it wont cost as much this time!
Anyway, the injection went well. Tilly was asleep and then woke with a start when the huge needle was inserted but half an hour of cuddling later and she was back to normal, sitting in front of the football (her favourite thing to do it seems) and watching Germany lose- always a good thing!

So that ends our adventures for another week and yet another exciting week in the land of the giant guniea pigs and humming birds (we saw one flying around the flower bed outside our living room window today). I think this week I may start doing what the kids here do and pretending I come from a different country. They all support any country that speaks Spanish as Peru did not qualify for the World Cup. Unfortunately if I follow the same rule it means supporting a team that speaks English and last time I checked Australa and New Zealand weren't exactly doing well in the cup either. Oh well, as their fans are probably also saying at least there is always rugby!

Adios

Andean adventures y La Copa Mondial

Tilly Pitt's fourth week in Peru has seen her witness the biggest build up to a world cup that I have ever known. The people her go mad for it (even though Peru were no where near qualifying!). The supermarkets are filled with world cup flags, posters, offers and games and the kids in school can only talk about the world cup and mainly how unfair it is that they cannot watch the football in lessons (I have to keep up the school policy even when every part of me would love to give in and put the football on!).
I was not going to write the blog today but after getting up at 5am to watch England versus Australia (in rugby rather than any football ((havent seen any of that yet as I have been at work!)) and whilst watching I have finally come to the conclusion that we are actually not very good. Johnson has not got a clue about how to coach rugby and we look like a bunch of headless chickens running around after some austarlian chickens that clearly have their heads securely and fully attached. I am therefore writing rather than getting very annoyed at the players and shouting obsecenities that would most likely wake up my wife, daughter and everyone else living within a two mile perimeter of the house (about 2 million people then!).
This week has not only been an odd one due to world cup madness but also because it has been patriot week. On Monday it has patriot day and the whole country honours the Peruvians that died in the great Chilean invasion of .... (dont know the year as the assembly was all in Spanish). It is a great idea to have such a patriotic day and the idea of honouring the dead and putting such an importance on the raising of the flag is something that only the BNP manage back at home but even with all the resonance and heartfelt sincerity being spoken by the speakers at school, I still found the whole experience highly surreal and a little bit hiralious. The entire school was standing on the filed watching the flag being raised and this flag raising was preceded by the school prefects pretending to be soldiers and standing to attention, they then raised the flag like the military and the raising was accompanied by the cheesiest music heard since I last turned off a Peruvian soap opera after the tears of laughter starting stinging my eyes and then (as always) it is folowed by the longest national anthem known to man. Now do not get me wrong, the national anthem is also one of the best I have ever heard. It is fun, it has an upbeat repetitive tune and lots of repeated words, but... it is very very long. And finally the best bit. Once the flag had been hoisted and the anthem finally sung, the Peruvian head (yes, there is a Peruvian Headmaster and a normal Headmaster (not that Peruvians are not normal I am just saying that there are two of them) shouted Viva La Peru! and every kid and memeber of staff then shouts "Viva!". It took me quite by suprise, the force, the ferocity and the Communism of it all.
Clare witnessed the same later in the week from our living room window. The local Patriot flag raising gathering was held in the park outside our house only this one was also host to armed soldiers, a huge flag, a big band and an even louder shouting of Viva!
The day after the flag raising assembly saw my second fieldtrip with Len. We went up to the start of The Andes in the middle of Peru (about a 2 hour drive from Lima) and what an eventful trip this was. The madness started within 10 minutes of starting off as we went to enter the main highway. The drive onto the highway was going slowly and we soon found out why. The slip road was being obstructed by a car driving the wrong way up it. This was the equivalent of the entry lane to the M5 and so this car had driven the wrong way down a motorway! And the funniest part was that when we drove past, I looked into the windows of the car and it was full with about seven family members of the driver and not one of them looked concerned, or worried or even like this was a strange or uncommon occurance for them. It was actually probably a much quicker way for them to get around as the other acriiageway was full of traffic, at least people get out of their way on this carriageway.
This country is filled with incredible landscapes and geography that whilst I understand the theory behind it, still seems incredible when witnessed in person. The geography today was shanty towns, huge mountains, massive landslides and the phenomenon of the weather getting clearler, less foggy and less cloudy as you drive to higher altitudes (The equivalent of driving up Snowdon and getting sunnier and warmer weather at the top rather than at the bottom -only we drove up to twice the height of Snowdon).
The mountains were impressive, the mountain villages were a mystery and again it was a trip that geographers and geography teachers in England could only dream of. The village of Mutacana where we ended up at is a geographical suicide village. It is in the path of two potentially catastophic landslides (Huaycos) or mudslides (Lloquias)and would be wiped out should one occur, oh and add to that the fact that this is a huge earthquake risk area!. The goverment do protect the areas but the people are not the target of these measures, only the railway and roads are really saved if a Huayco was to happen. The people would mainly be killed and this was made extra pertinent by just how amiable and nice these people were. Only walking into the village, we were met by kids coming out of playschool just to watch us walk past and wave to us "hola, gringo" was the main gist of their statements aimed at me. I was a celebrity for a day - the Blonde White man comes to town! In the village more kids came up to our group and when I went into a shop, I turned around to see that I had been followed in by 3 local kids who quikly ran off giggling when I said hello.
The impressiveness of the scenery and the combination of human and physical geography was not even spoilt by some of the kids answers; the idea of water moving uphill, the random guesses at geographical answers, the response of 'filtration' to any question asked. "Why do you keep saying the same word?" I asked "becasue it is usually the right answer" said one pupil, "I use vegetation as my random answer" said another - I give to you, The Elite Pupils of Peru!
I will sign off just as England somehow close to within 4 points of Australia - I have no idea how, I just know that the Aussies still don't know how to scrummage. And go off to settle into a weekend of sport (Rugby matches x 3, football matches x 6, grand prix x1, basketball NBA finals x 1 and baseball x 2). Te Amo ESPN!

Adios y vamos Inglaterra.

Eggheads Peruvian style

Clare and Tilly Pitt's third week in Lima saw the family settle down into the reality of life in Peru. No exciting trips to deserts, no fun filled evenings with trips to Barranco. No, week three saw us settling down in front of the TV at night and had Tilly waiting for dad to get home from work (or rather Clare doing all the baby stuff by the time dad got back from work or meetings or just generally marking).
The week did see some excriment, sorry I mean excitement, for Clare who somehow managed to get projectile poo on her face and in her hair! She had Tily in nappy changing position, laid back with legs in the air, only for Tilly to brew a big wet fart that flung a light brown/green fecal matter into her mother's face! Disgusting but very funny once Clare had smeered the mess from around her mouth.
The evenings have seen us watching more films than any other people in the world but when a copied DVD from the local DVD man costs only 4 soles (about £1) and the picture quality is perfect, there seems no reason to not get all the recent cinematic blockbusters to fill our evening viewing slots. It is either that or some awful US series on the WB channel or listening to awful music on MTV (Justin Bieber seems a favourite over here). I have just about managed to avoid Beiber Fever as it is called even though certain girls that I teach are obsessed with the floppy haired, girlie voiced, pre-pubesent singer. Although the fact that he has made it into the blog may actually show that I am coming down with the first symptoms of Bieber Fever!
The murder in Lima has been somewhat of an exciting addition to life in Miraflores (It has been covered by CNN but I do not know if the news made it over to Blighty ((or anyone else at KES for that matter!)). A US tourist (although they now seem very keen to state his Dutch origins) used a baseball bat to brutally murder a Peruvian lady in a local casino. The story has been all over the news and it was only today that I discovered that the casino and hotel in question is directly opposite Markham College. The Murder Casino is now a new destination on the tourist route of Miraflores and was also first on the list of places the S3 kids wanted to go to on their Miraflores investigation trip. This trip also saw the pupils approached by a wierdo that had them terrified until one of the girl seemed to belatedly realise that the man was not a wierdo and was in fact her Uncle! and saw us witness a motorcycle crash as well as featuring some actual geography on the trip out of school.
The trip was given a more surreal feel by the fact that I had knocked myself out the previous morning by walking into a wall in our house. The attractive arches that decorate the walls are also a deathrap for clumsy oafs to walk into and then slowly stagger about before collapsing into a heap on the floor. I can only assume that it must have looked painful as Clare came running over looking very concerned rather than laughing at me for being an idiot! I do however aknowledge the idioticness (yes I know it is not a word but this is my blog and so I can use whatever words I see fit) of walking into a wall. If it had been Clare claiming that she had walked into a wall I am sure that the police would have wanted to have words with me (although I do not think the Peruvian police really care about much really). My forehead now has a certain C.J.ness to it (no I dont look like the biggest pillock on TV, but I do look like a bit of an Egghead with the lump seeming to grow by the second like some sort of Tom and Jerry cartoon effect).
The rest of the week sees me on another fieldtrip with Len the geography Legend on Thursday and probably a few more DVDs whilst the Pitt family sit on the sofa.

My final comment of this post must be to mention the sad news of Old Joe's passing. The Old Father Time of the Reeve Kennels was sadly put to sleep today and so our thoughts are with John and Denise, especially John who has always had a special bond with Joe and I know will sorely miss one of his best friends. Rest in Peace Joseph.

Adios