Painting!!

(left) The group of girls who helped me paint. (right)This is Lucas, he is deaf, dumb and has HIV but he is the sweetest little boy and he loved painting with us! behing is the flower mural we painted today.

I'll start with the bad news....I have an eye infection! It's not the end of the world but it is pretty uncomfortable and it is red and puffy so I don't look very attractive! I managed to get some drops though so it should be gone soon. I had an amazing weekend though; I organised a group of 10 of us to paint the orphanage which I work in. It took a while to negotiate the paint colours and prices but we finally manage to stagger to the orphanage with 15 litres of paint. When we arrived the children got very over excited and it was a miracle that paint didn't end up everywhere! All the kids wanted to join in so it was pretty chaotic but we managed to paint a huge map of the world on one wall in the entrance and a couple of other walls outside and inside which makes such a huge difference because the place was so dirty and dull and now it looks so much more fun and alive. My friend Daisy and I went back today (Sunday) to clean up and ended up painting another 5 or 6 walls with the left over paint! We painted the outside of the house green and painted another mural with big flowers on it. It was tiring work but so worth it! The orphanage looks so much better and the children had such a great time painting! Tomorrow I am going to get the children to draw flags from each country to stick on the map.

I can't believe I only have a week left here, the time has flown by. It is really exciting planning the next part of my trip though. I am travelling with a girl called Emily from Holand and a boy called Will from England which I am so excited about. We are going to Mendoza on Monday then we will make our way North to Salta, Tucuman and Jujuy. That's the plan! I will try and update this as much as I can when I'm travelling depending on how much access to the internet I have.

Hope you are all well, lots of love to everyone!

Hola again!!

Sooooo....I am still loving working at the orphanage and last week I felt like I was able to do alot more and the kids are getting to know me now so I really love it!  I have been making endless paper planes and blowing countless bubbles as well as taking the kids to the park and generally showing them attention and love which they otherwise don´t get.  There are lots of new people in my residence so lots of new friends!  Night life in BA is still amazing although I have a bit of a cold so might tone it down a bit!  I am still finding new areas of the city that I love which is amazing and I only have a week and a half left here!  can´t believe how quickly time is going.

Mum and Dad arrived on Friday and are leaving tomorrow morning.  It has been really nice having them here as I was able to show them the sights and in return they bought me some pretty nice meals which as a backpacker I am not quite able to afford!  On Saturday I gave them the grand tour of the city and on Sunday we popped across the River Plate to Uruguay for the day.  We went to a little town called Colonia which is very pretty but as Dad summed it up, two days in colonia would be a day and a half too long!  So we explored the historic town, had some lunch and headed home.  On Monday we went up to Iguazu falls which is a 2 hour flight away.  We went straight to the Brazillian side to get a phenomenal over view of the falls which completely blew me away.  Today we went to the Argentinian side and went on a boat which took us under one of the falls where we got absolutely drenched but soon dried off in the 37 degree heat!  The falls are absolutely incredible and it was great to be able to see them with Mum and Dad.  I think they had a great time over here and were chuffed with 3 countries in 5 days!

I am really looking forward to properly traveling now but I am going to try and do as much as I can for the orphanage in the next week and half.  Planning on painting the house with a group of friends but I have to get that organised!  Spanish still going well, I enjoyed translating for Mum and Dad and felt pretty smug saying they were tourists but I live in the city!

Hope everyone is well, xxxxxxxxxxxx

Me and gaucho Toni!

The president's speech (right outside our house!)

Me and Rachel on a horse ride in San Antonio

Hola!!

I've had another fantastic week, I love being at this new residence as there are always people around and things to do. I started my project on Wednesday which is in a town called Beccar just outside of BA which is a great break from the city. I go in the afternoons by train and stay until early evening. The two orphanages I am working at are completely different. One has 15 little children from a 1 year old baby to a 10 year old (both girls and boys) and the other has 7 teenage girls. I just organise games and actvities to do with the kids and I help the older ones with their english and homework. It is amazing to see how happy these kids are with the really tiny amount that they have. Its great to be able to help out and its perfect for my spanish!

Other than that I have still been exploring the city and meeting lots more people which has been great. On sunday a friend and I went to San Antonio de Areco which is a sleepy cowboy town with ranches and a huge lake a 2 hour bus journey from BA. It was so nice to escape the city for the day and great to drive through the vast Pampas region. The gaucho culture is amazing and it is refreshing to see how simply they live.

I hope everyone is having a great time wherever they are in the world
xxxxxxx

Oh my god I have been here a month! Cant believe it! This week has been amaying! I had my first salsa club experience which I absolutely loved! Still perserveering with the tango but finding it a bit tricky! I have moved in to a new residence as I have finished my sapnish course. The spanish is going ok but it is difficult to practice as most of my friends here are from all over the world so we dont speak in spanish to each other. I am starting my project with the HIV orphanage tomorrow which I am really excited about. My new residence is in Congresso which is right in the centre of the city. This morning I was woken up by huge protests and parades outside as the president was giving a speach. I got to see and shake hands with the president which was pretty cool! It is amazing how politically active everyone is here, makes a change from england! I feel like I live in Buenos Aires now which is great as I can really get into the culture and life here.

Still loving every minute here and cant believe I still have 6 months to go! amazing!

Hope everyone is well, keep in touch xxxxxxxxxxx