Going to the jungle

Yesterday I was being told by eleven year old Anderson about the advantages of sleeping in the cemetery. Apparently the worst thing is that the grass is all wet when you wake up, which seems like a small sacrifice considering. He takes it all in his stride. He´s a lovely wee boy who just loves to chat.

He´s well cared for now here in Elim and seems very happy. Today he read the story of Moses for me in Spanish, just to give him some reading practice. Moses ended up in a basket but was rescued fortunately, and the rescuers seem quite nice and gave his mum a job I think, looking after the baby.

His pal is called Lalo, though I keep saying Lola; you and your song Mr Davies. Lalo´s reading is not quite so good, in fact its appallingly poor, but we try to practice. He loves memory games and always seems to win at matching pairs. I know what you´re thinking, but it sure beats telling old folk how little is left in the kitty for them.

Anderson was telling me about how him and Lalo ran away to find work in the gold mines in the jungle,so that they would become rich. This is a long way away, the plane takes three hours and then some more trekking after that. But they made it a few kilometres out of Cusco. They eventually got tired and hungry and decided to turn back. Not quite sure how the story ends but they were rescued and brought back. I don´t think they have any further plans for similar trips.

I go to Elim every morning for about three or four hours until I have to leave for my Spanish class. I was helping the boys sift some maize the other day. I´m not sure I knew exactly what was what to be honest. Maybe it had something to do with the wheat and the chaff thingee. Maize is a very common plant in these parts and has been in use since well before the Spaniards came and took it back to Europe.

All the boys have their own responsibilities. Today Junior was doing the washing for all the boys, which was loads. He has a machine but prefers to do the rinsing by hand. He told me this was better but his reasoning was beyond me. Maybe it saves power or something.

We are all looking forward to a concert on Friday night in which all the kids are taking part. I will go back to Elim after my Spanish class so that we can all go together.

I don´t understand why but my blood pressure is doing great this year and I´m having no problems with the altitude. Amazing. What about Adebayor? Silly bugger.