After a relatively quiet weekend in and around Pisco, I started the week with another cooking day. I have met a lot of interesting people during my time at PSF and it turned out one of the most recent members of the gang had appeared on everyones favourite after work show; Come Dine With Me (Series 2, episode 5). We decided to re-enact her gourmet Indian meal as best we could on our £55 for 60 peeps budget. This included an amazing chicken (and veg for the veggies) curry served along side onion rice, chapatis and onion bhajis which 1. I am now a pro at making and 2. I will never eat again knowing the quantities of oil required to make them. We also decided to get into costume (always one for fancy dress), make an Indian playlist to accompany our meal and make everyone earn their food by showing us their best Bollywood dance moves. Most volunteers seemed to embrace the whole 'jirate for your plate' theme although some more than others and one or two really boring ones refused to dance at all. They got extra small portions.

Unfortunately no days off this week so straight back to work on Tuesday. As the modular house project I had been working on had finished, I had to choose a new project to work on. Wanting to choose something I hadn't already experienced, I opted for the French Hospital project. This is an extension to a woman's clinic that PSF have been working on for 2 months. So far the foundations have been laid and the walls built. During my time working on the project, we managed to progress loads and poured the floor for the clinic as well as the final concrete colomn which will help hold up the roof. Despite an insy winsy fire that proved a slight set back, the work went relatively smoothly and we even got free lunches! I really enjoyed working on the hospital especially as there's always a big team there meaning its really social and the constant smell of chocolate from nearby chocolate factory was also a bonus.

Wednesday brought with it another cooking day (I hate the awkward silences at the morning meeting so cracked under the pressure when nobody else volunteered to cook). We opted for a mexican feast this time which included homemade tortillas (I put my chapati knowledge to good use!) fajita mix, guacamole, rice, salsa and even chocolate tiffin for dessert! I actually also ended up cooking on Friday too as it was my last full day at work and I wanted to spend it with my new found friends. We spent the day making homemade burgers and chips in an attempt to cure peoples hangovers from the 'Black and White' party the day before. The food went down a storm, even if it was a little late- who knew handmaking 70 portions of chips would take so long?! Although a job not opted for by many volunteers, I had a great time cooking for the troops, improving my meal portfolio and receiveing oil burns from deep fat frying the chips as a souvenir of my time in the PSF kitchen..

As mentioned, on Thursday we had a Black and White themed birthday party for Carolina who is the house manager at PSF. Every year as a present she receives a 'naked calendar' with shots of various male volunteers posing in Calendar Girl style pictures where their modesty is protected by a jack hammer or angle grinder. The calendar was amazing and it was quickly decided that a rival girls calendar should be shot in order to raise money for PSF. Without thinking I volunteered myself for October and after a bit of creative thinking, we chose Bollywood as the perfect location for our picture. After work one Saturday, myself and the four other Miss October's went down to the yard and looked for props we could pose with before stripping off. We did a couple of different shots: the first involved long pieces of wood that we all stood behind to cover our lady parts and the second was a bit more creative in that pallets, spirit levels and wheel barrels (one of which I was lying in) were involved! Once we got over the initial awkwardness of sucking in, pushing out and pouting the shoot was actually so much fun and will hopefully raise a lot of money for PSF! I look forward to seeing the final version (or do I....)

Volunteers are really encouraged to bring new project initiatives to PSF as well as any fun 'after hours' activites that can fund raise or just provide general entertainment for the volunteers. Chris, an American who moved to Oz to be with his love Sarah (and who potentially are the nicest, most fun couple in the world) is really involved with a film festival called Couchfest, set up by one of his best friends. The idea is that on the same day, a series of about 8 short films (less than 7 minutes) is shown in various locations around the world and viewers vote for their favourite. Chris was sent the disk of films by his buddy and at 7pm Saturday night we sat down with popcorn and pizza to watch the series or bizarre films which were a complete rollarcoaster of emotions. I cried, laughed, got squeamish and at times highly confused but overall the night was brill and it was cool to be part of something happening in all continents across the world. As Saturday was my last night, once we had placed our votes for our favourite films we took our places at the campfire with drinks in hands. Due to the birthday of another long termer, a few volunteers had headed off to the beach, taking the PSF speaker with them. Realising that a party is not a party without music, a couple of the volunteers headed out to the road to recruit a local tuk tuk which they then brought into the PSF house, connected their iPods to the tuk tuk's speaker and let the party take shape! We rewarded the tuk tuk driver with a couple of drinks (soft of course!) and about £10 for his trouble while we all danced around the tuk tuk, took pictures and enjoyed my last night at PSF. In true PSF fashion, we headed to Mystika for one last time where of course we ruled the dance floors and progressed our friendships with the men with guns.

Sunday came around all too quickly and after an amazing last night, it was so difficult to actually take in that I was leaving PSF after an incredible 5 weeks. I was excited about the next phase of my adventure but it was so hard saying bye to all the amazing people that I had met. It's weird how close you get to people so quickly at PSF and I have met many people who I know I will be friends with for a very long time. PSF is an amazing organisation and I can't recommend it enough if you are interested in volunteering (or even if you are just passing through Peru!) The energy, commitment, drive and passion the volunteers have is unbelievable and as a result every PSF volunteer is literally helping change lives. I will never ever forgot the memories I have made at PSF and without a doubt will go back in the future. "Para los ninos." Hasta pronto PSF...