After the much awaited
arrival of the Wood for construction our last week at Villa Maria saw the
construction of a new classroom for the school. Six days of hard work involving
sawing, drilling, sanding, varnishing and painting (and thankfully no major DIY
disasters) resulted in the completion of the walls and door of the classroom.
The boys provided some much needed entertainment with their sexy builders dance
(I’m sure the video will be on YouTube soon if it isn’t already on there!).
Hannah starred in a construction themed video of the Cyndi Lauper classic
“Girls just want to have fun” – complete with a mallet as a microphone! Lastly
Liv managed to look like Bob the Builder, a Nazi machine gunner and a London
builder when kitted up in a hard hat, baseball cap and goggles , holding the
drill. There was also a water fight after Monday’s construction with no one
avoiding getting wet!

We performed at our
last Sunday show. The girls danced to Toxic with their very own Britney (Ola!)
and the boys provided a strip tease finale with their version of single ladies
(involving copious amounts of mascara, bikini tops and a bin bag dress). It was
an eventful week for the Entertainment team who had to endure an epic trek up a
really steep hill whilst carrying cinema equipment – poor Jimmy somehow managed
to get a huge speaker up the hill and back down again despite his broken thumb.
Unfortunately due to technical difficulties (4 dvds failing to work or being in
the wrong language!) Pato and Jimmy had to return there on Monday for a second
attempt at cinema night.

Meanwhile the team
celebrated Camilla’s birthday which included a variety of dances and costumes
by Camilla and after much persuasion from Alejandro a bollywood dance by Jaiya,
as well as lots of birthday cake and a viewing of Lucho’s videos and photos of
the group.

The week rapidly drew
to a close with Jimmy delighting in answering all our questions about the
expedition phase with the words ‘ask Greg’ and a huge grin on his face. We had
the luxury of some child free swimming sessions – well not quite child free –
and Liv was peed on by a toddler much to Jimmy’s disgust. The week ended with
frantic cleaning, packing and laundry runs followed by a meal with the school
staff. Lucho was kind enough to cook the meal, creating a rather strange cold
tuna, potato, veg and rice combo.

Afterwards the
sensible people went to bed in preparation for a 9am departure whilst everyone
else enjoyed 2 sol bottles of pisco – yes Sam pisco is alcoholic! It is safe to
say the following morning got off to a slow start. We bid an emotional farewell
to Pato, Alejandro, Martha, Lucho and Danillo and their families promising to
return in the near future. We finally left over an hour later than scheduled
and managed to find our way to the hostel in Lima (located at Calle Bolognesi
not spaghetti road!). And then the Expedition Phase began…