Hello, thought i´d give it a rest for a few days i did try and write something yesterday but really did not feel like it. We´d had two really stressfull shifts in which i´d got kicked, spat on had many kids have tantrums and to top it all of i got bitten on the arm! Someone might think i´m not good with kids! think i will pick animals next time!

Pictured above is Aarti a volunteer who´s here for the second time, we´d just been out to dinner and on our way back we brought a pinyata for the kids. So yesterday we went to wallmart ( yes it´s all kitted out for the yanks here, they have starbucks, macdonalds and kfc too!) and brouhgt pinyata sweet set so hopefully that will take out some of the kids fustration and wont end in tears!

The refuge seems to be going through a tough time at the moment. One of the workers has put barbed wire on the fences as some of the older girls were climbing over them when they weren´t suppose to, but instead of keeping them out it´s made them more determined to climb the fences and it now feels like these kids are in prison instead of a safe home. There are gates to the grass area, the kitchen, the bedrooms that are always locked so the children have one area to play in which feels like a prison to me too and it´s having such an impact on everyone. apparently it use to be quite nice working here but i cant see it, it just seems sad. The annoying thing is it´s run by the Madres (nuns) which dont interact with the kids instead they sit up in their rooms all day. Needless to say i didn´t do my shift today, my aim is to come back refreshed but think i´m going to need another holiday after this, at least i´m not thinking about my own problems!

So i think what i might do is do my shift this week and go with Aarti to Maxtalan and the copper canyon then come back here for a day and fly home! It´s carnival time here so will take advantage of that!

On wednesday i´m going with Kate to San Sebastian to see how they make tequila and coffee so looking forward to that.

Will no doubt put photos on here so keep checking it out!

lots of love to everyone xxxx Ruthie xxxx