Peru – The final morning

I’m sitting at the breakfast table of the volunteer house on my last morning here in Peru.  Once again, I’m the first one awake and enjoying the unique tranquillity of personal space in our quarters, but I’m not alone – the new house manager, Mariel, has definitely risen to the early-morning challenge and we usually share an hour or so before the rest of the house meanders downstairs from their slumbers.

Still, on this particular morning, I’m pretty sure my body would prefer I joined the crowd’s body clocks.  Last night was my farewell at our little local bar (ironically enough, called the “Amsterdam”), and a Peruvian despedida with tequila, ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie!’ chants and surprisingly coherent bilingual speeches doesn’t gel perfectly with an emotional early morning.

It’s a strange day.  In 24 hours I’ll be in a very nice apartment in Windsor, London, with the excellent company of Manuel and Brigitta, good food, easy touristing and general lifestyle comforts that have been absent in my life for quite a while.  But, without wanting to sound annoyingly philosophical, Peru seems to have gone a long way towards changing my priorities.

But this is not the post for reflections – I’ll do that when I’ve got a bit more time and had a bit more sleep.  For sure, though, this farewell is far more emotional than I thought it would be.  I’ve moved around a lot, visited a lot of countries and said a lot of goodbyes, but this is somehow different.  I guess this is because of the uniqueness of this place, because of the work, and because of the kids.  And, couped together in this tiny house in this invisible shanty little town, I got to share the experience with a handful of amazing people from around the world.

It’s such a cliché at this point to say how amazing everyone in the house is, but it’s turning into quite the 24 hours for clichés.  Suffice to say, now as I prepare to leave, everyone in the house has crystallised from a volunteer collective into ten incredible individuals, each bringing a unique personality and complementary skills to the group.

But although all very different, they all share a similar mindset when it comes to generosity, selflessness, a positive view of the world and a desire to help.  It’s them who I’ll miss the most, and it’s because of them I’m, unusually, a little soppy.

But enough of that – here’s a couple of photos from the final day and night.  And I shouldn’t get nostalgic too soon; with my luck from this trip, making it on a plane without muggings volcanoes or hospitals is no sure thing.