Megan in the middle of the Mountains

Well I returned safe and sound after a 6 day conference to Misa Rumi on the Argentine/Bolivian Boarder. It was quite an experience to be honest! During the main conferences I taught 54 children in total, basically the Happy Hours that I mentioned before. Alot of Games, Songs and teachings which was really great. Although the children where soo shy as its a very traditional place so sometimes it felt like I was doing all the talking...no change there I suppose! One thing I don´t miss being back in the city is seeing your dinner being hunted and chopped up. I had to go with the culture so llama was for dinner all week, although when they said it was intestines stew I opted for the rice. Ok moving on, I experienced my first natural baptism. So about 200 loaded up in 4 dumper trucks and headed down to the river. It was a really class experience! Headed to Bolivia for a day and to be honest wasn´t very impressed. The streets were so dirty and it was sad to see the standard of living in some places. Made loads of new friends and am happy to be home again in Salta. Strange though as Cecy is away and Naomi is with her friend travelling so its nice to have the house to myself for a change. Back to work for now and waiting for Helen to arrive safely! Hope your all well, Megan xx

Chile continued...

Well, we had a blast to be honest! interesting few days! Well thing about the place where we went to, our cash cards didnt work so we rationed ourselves to pasta every evening and banana sandwiches. We decided to go on two wee trips, the second was to the geysers which was pretty class. we had a 4am start which was interesting as there was a power cut in the town. It was minus 13 when we got there so you can just imagine me looking like a snow man with my 9 layers!! Boy was i still cold. The town was totally gorgeous and we were very lucky to find such a lovely wee hostel! The people we met were totally lovely! we met brazilians, peruvians, americans, scottish you name it! The scottish couple we met were lovely and we found out that this was their third year of travelling, totally amazing stories. Wish them all the luck and hope they return to Sunny Salta soon! One day we hired bikes and headed off into the desert! you can just imagine, totally in the middle of no where and struggling the sun. Really good though and we finally made it home in good time for a rest in the hammocks! We had such a laugh in that place, the first night Naomi managed to flood the hostels kitchen. Of course she turned the tap on that said very brightly, DONT TOUCH and I managed to fall out of a hammock. Really feel like I have left a bit of my heart in Chile to be honest. Its a place where I would love to spend more time in!

Chau!! MJ xx

Day 1 - Chile

Naomi and I are in this gorgeous little town in the middle of the desert called San Pedro De Atacama! You can just picture it, white walls and 2000 people living here. Literally surrounded by nothing but its great! These 6 days are basically to renew our Visa´s and do some sight seeing. We went on this trip called Valle de la Luna, literally, valley of the moon. It was completely amazing. Literally looked like the surface of the moon, including sand dunes, valleys from limestone etc. you´ll just have to wait for the pictures! At the end of the trip you climb the big sand dune and watch the sunset. Really great day! Last night we went out with a few from the tour which was great and got to learn a little bit of portuguese! Just hiring a bike today to see abit more around the town and the old Inca ruins. should be great and have to get the old factor 50 on! Chau!!!

Chile

Just arrived in Chile about 2 hours ago after a very long bus journey. We had to go through the Passport control which generally was an experience and more stamps in the old passport! Staying in this lovely wee hostel and hope to see some of the sights around this wee town in the middle of the desert! will keep you informed on how it goes! Here for about 6 days so if you can not get hold of me, thats probably why! Just heading to buy food as Naomi and I are shattered and are tummys think our throats are cut! Chau!! xx

Spanish or English?

Oh it was so funny yesterday! I work in this pubilc secondary school and Sandra the lady I work with has told me to pretend I don´t speak a word of Spanish. well... Yesterday of course as teenage girls do, they where talking about me and laughing, just the normal thing about being foreign etc... Ha ha! I just couldn´t resist! I went over and whispered in her ear " I understand more than you think" in Spanish! Her face dropped, sadly didn´t have my camera! Brilliant, just couldn´t resist! I wonder how long it will take to get round the class that I speak Spanish....Opps

Wow what a month its been! been really busy and its been brilliant. Really begining to get to know the people i´m working with on a more personal level. Thankfully my english classes are going so far so good and the people are making so much progress. Kind of puts me to shame when i think of myself learning spanish! Heading to Bolivia very soon which should be gr8, just hoping its a different experience to my journey to Jujuy! It was rather funny, the other day I headed to Cecilia fathers house (papé) and I let him listen to the beatles on my ipod. There he was dancing around the living room and telling me to dance (mind you he was the only one who could hear the music). Brilliant, its times like these where you wish you have a video recorder! The other evening was a laugh, silly Megan. I got on the wrong bus and ended up in the mountains although it was quite an experience! The youth sessions on a saturday evening have been brilliant and are taking a new turn which the youth are enjoying. The Hora Feliz is always a bit of a laugh, either myself of Naomi end up singing and making a fool out of ourselves. The worst thing is that there are so many names to remember and very easy to offend by either making the name feminine or masucline by adding an A instead of and O. Cecilia is away at the moment in Mendoza so Jo, Naomi and I have been trusted in the house. Jo is leaving soon which will be sad but it also means David is heading to Ireland to work in the Cathedral! what an experience and he´ll be brilliant for the Cathedral! Finally, every tuesday evening I have organised a vollyball session with the youth as there isn´t much on for them during the week. Please just pray or think about this time, that it will be a time where they can enjoy themselves, where we can talkto the youth or just even that we get the right numbers!! Many thanks! Hope your all well! thinking of you!