What a weekend…much more relaxing than I was thinking it would be on Friday evening. I only ended up having one session with kids and youth (Sunday late afternoon) because Centro Esperanza is taking precautions this week: due to the presence of the H1N1 virus here in Peru, the majority of our workshops are on pause until next week. Most schools were out for two weeks of scheduled holidays after the Peruvian national holiday (July 28-9) and as a break between the two semesters, but some schools have already been closed for an extra week and will also be out this week because of H1N1. The universities, however, did reopen today as planned for their second semester.

Just to clarify: there are not many cases of swine flu in Chiclayo (most are in Lima), but precautions are being taken to help keep it that way.

Here is a picture from Sunday’s session: making art out of recycled materials that we pooled collectively. The box in the middle is going to be decorated and that is where we will store our art supplies.

Just before the session I had made the most of the afternoon sunshine, first sitting on the grass under a flowering tree in a little park behind my house. I am lucky to live in a district with many little parks in between the houses and paved roads. How peaceful it was outside on a Sunday afternoon when most families in the neighbourhood were either out visiting family or friends or taking siestas. There wasn’t even music playing (amazing!).

Then I decided to get to know my colourful neighbourhood a bit better, on foot. Despite this cold winter weather that everyone here is complaining about, it seems that the tropical flowers are quite happy to bloom 🙂

[I always smile when I see Nasturtiums because I used to marvel at how they once covered what seemed to my 10-yr-old self like a mini valley (really just a large sink hole) in my grandparents’ neighbourhood in Bermuda.]

Back to Chiclayo and wandering nearby my house…
I just couldn’t resist taking the following photo: three VW Beetles in my line of vision? Got to love Latin Americans’ ability to keep old cars running! And I did a spontaneous count after taking this photo: how many Beetles will I spot within the next 60 seconds…take your guess…

…eight more, in colours including red, gold, forest green and one custom paint job! And that is on a Sunday afternoon when the streets are quiet.