EL CENSO (The Census)

These wee cuties are part of a march advertising the census. Marches are very popular here and are often used as advertising.

I got counted in the census on Sunday. It's the first census in ages and was quite a big deal. Everything was closed and everyone had to stay in their houses all day. The census people visited every house to interview the inhabitants. I'm excited that I'm gonna be a part of the statistics. It was quite basic, not quite so exhaustive as the questionnaires in New Zealand.

LAS MANGLARES Y LA PLAYA

Yes, I am picking the most picturesque photos I can just to make y'all sufficiently jealous.

We went on a tour of some of the local mangroves and beaches with a company that has its own private beach. There was no-one but us three foreigners and the guide. Very relaxing and just what we needed.

This is a pelican. (After finally managing to get a good photo of the whole (Rach, what's the collective noun for pelicans?) ...of pelicans taking off, I've decided that a whole...of pelicans is not actually that picturesque. But there were lots of them.

I could tell you more but it was just sitting around on the beach sunbathing and punting through the mangroves checking out the wildlife and such like, and you probably don't really wanna hear about it.

TREINTA (Thirty)

These are my cakes. There was lots of food and people and dancing and pressies and a piniata. All you need, really, for a party. It all made it quite difficult to deny the fact that I'm well and truly thirty now.

This is my little sis and our neighbour dancing festejo. They're very good. They seem to have this innate ability to shake in a way I can't seem to reproduce.

Thanks everyone for the greetings and packages from home. I really appreciated it and felt well-loved from all over the world. It helped to ease the blow of my collision with the 30 milestone.

LA LENGUA (The Language)

This post is in response to those who've been asking if my Spanish (commonly referred to as Castellano in these parts - there you go, that's one thing I've learned) is improving. The answer is...possibly. I think yes, but not as quickly as I'd like it to. ¨Poco a poco¨(little by little) they keep telling me. And little by little the desire to punch the next person that says ¨poco a poco¨is growing within me.

Some people manage to speak slowly for me and others don't. Sergio, my little brother, has a speech impediment, so that's extra confusing. His family laughs about the fact that when trying to say ´el carbon´ (a place that sells fried chicken) he says ´el cabron´ (a gay man). I've clearly been spending too much time with him because the other day I walked up to a moto driver and said ´el cabron, por favor´ much to the amusement of Sergio who ended up correcting me!

I may not be able to speak fluent Castellano before I leave but I can share with you some interesting jergas (slang) I've picked up:

• A Peruvian guy doesn't have a girlfriend, he has: una jerma (I think this is only really used between men and may not be complimentary) or una gorda (means 'fat' and is a term of endearment that is perfectly acceptable to use when talking to your girlfriend)
• A Peruvian chick doesn't have a boyfriend, she has: un gordo (means 'fat' for boys), un gil or gilberto, and my personal favourite, un machete
• Another word for gay is 'brocoli'
• Peruvians don't get married, they commit 'matrisuicida'.
• 'gordo/a' and 'flaco/a' ('fat' and 'thin') are used all the time as terms of endearment and as general descriptions of people, e.g. 'He's the fat man over there'. 'Negro' and 'negra' are also used all the time for black people or anyone with darker skin than the majority. Anyone with slightly paler skin or hair than normal (this includes locals) may be referred to as 'gringo/a' (white person).

ALGUNAS FOTOS DE MI TRABAJO (Some photos from my job)

MESA DE CONCERTACION (loosely translated it means 'table of co-operation')



Mesa is an organisation formed to combat poverty throughout Peru by encouraging co-operation between various community and government organisations. This meeting (held on Friday) included people from various government ministries (education, health, the police, local government), human rights groups, and a tourist agency. Representatives shared information about their various areas of expertise and their views of the societal problems of Tumbes. I think it's a great idea, and what I understood of it seemed very interesting. DISA (the district health board that I work for) and Mesa work together quite a lot.

(Yes, it is a boring photo. I've taken a lot of photos of meetings that really all appear the same to me and grate against my journalistic sensibilities cos they're so static, but my bosses seem to consider them important.)

Anyway, the chick in the middle with the microphone is my boss, La Señora Aniana. The head of Mesa is the guy in the pink shirt (Evistar). He's talking to the President of Tumbes.

This is the President of Tumbes. I had to include this photo cos he just looks so sincere and passionate. Take a close look at his eyes if you can, they're very determined. He had quite an intense aspect throughout the whole meeting. I'm not sure how he kept it up.

UNA CAMINATA (Physical activity thingy)

Check this out - Physical Education in Peru includes dancing. How cool is that?! This photo is from a programme for school students that runs on Saturday mornings in various towns in the Tumbes region. I went to this one in San Juan de Virgen last Saturday. The games seemed remarkably familiar.