Hola everyone,

It's only my second blog, but I feel I've been here quite awhile! It's my third week in Lima now and I am staying with a family, who has been so kind to let me stay with them as long as I wish. David has gone to the south of Peru to do some work for a mining company and will be back in Lima in 1-3 weeks. I'm hoping he can take me to Satipo when he comes back. The problem with going to Satipo now is that the road to get there has washed away and as previously mentioned it can rain until March. If he can't take me I can probably go with the guy who runs the school, Humberto, or be driven by a driver.

At first living in Lima was slightly depressing. David worked all the time and there quite frankly isn't much to do here. The traffic is terrible and I don't know a lot of people. Living with the family has improved my state of mind quite a bit. There are two small kids: Eduardo who is 4 and Agueda who is 6 and has to learn English (great practice for teaching at the school in Mazamari!). I share a room with Sonia who is 15 and comes from Madagascar and speaks Spanish and French. The mum is from Madagascar and the dad is Argentinian and speaks English - a rather globalised and language dynamic family! The kids are very lively and energetic and the food is great (homemade juice every morning, Quinoa, sweet patatoes, maize and the sweetest mangoes I've ever had!) :-) Moreover they have a little gym and an indoors pool shared with the other people from the apartment - what more could you ask for?

Today I had my first Spanish lesson at a school nearby. It's only two hours a day in the morning so I have the rest of the afternoon to go out, play with the kids, swim or read books. It was nice to go to the school and meet some new people as I don't have anyone to go out with yet!

In some ways Lima is quite an amazing place. I've lived in two different places, both of which are very wealthy. There are fancy shopping centers, Starbucks and Italian restaurants on one side of the street and right across from that you'll see small children polishing rich business men's leather shoes for 1 Nuevo Soles (about 2kr) and indigenous Quechua women in their faded ponchos rummaging the dirty dustbins for plastic bottles. So it's a bit of a culture shock even though I have traveled before, but I think it's different now because I'm on my own.

So I've got 3-4 weeks in Lima learning Spanish and living with a nice family until I can hopefully get off to Satipo. I am starting to enjoy Lima more now that I've got lots of things to do, but at the same time am excited about getting out of the city and living in the jungle with parrots and monkeys! (And hopefully not too many mosquitoes!)

'Stay positive and think of the out-come' is what I think to myself when "being on my own" gets a bit tough.

I'm always glad to receive a mail about what you're doing!

With love,

Jessica