Here's my first entry on the Compassion Peru blog - better late than never....

Am struck by the roller coaster of feelings I have gone through over the last three weeks or so. First there was the trepidation at the thought of getting food poisoning or malaria or Lord knows what else.

But then on our first day visiting the child survival project, there was the quite overwhelming experience of being met in a depressing shanty town by a line of children smiling and waving balloons. And what a roar of welcome we heard at the bigger projects! And then there was the contrast between the optimism seen in the projects and the grim reality of the children's impoverished home circumstances.

This week, the upset tum is gradually returning to normal, the joy of having clean running water is no longer so novel, and in SW London there is no poverty to be seen on the Peruvian scale.

But I have missed sharing fascinating experiences with the good friends I made on this very memorable trip to Peru. And maybe I have missed even more seeing the happiness on the faces of the children. They seemed genuinely thrilled to bits to see us, and were so full of their dreams for the future.

One would have thought that with their comparatively great wealth, the commuters and supermarket shoppers I have seen this week in London ought to be pretty happy with their lot. But none of them seem outwardly as happy as the children in Peru. And certainly no one has inspired me quite as much as young Jason did - the little boy whose behaviour so impressed his father that he determined to turn away from alcoholism.

Isn't it surprising what one picks up from a trip amongst the shanty towns in Peru?

Ann