A brilliant day!

Meeting Adriana was an amazing experience! I was so pleased to be able to greet her in the traditional way with the Peruvian kiss and hug, which seemed to put her at ease. We swapped gifts - she had made me some beautiful things at her Compassion project and bought me a new hat - a chullo - too! Having also met her mother, Molli and her brother, Alejandro, who is 8 months old and absolutely adorable, we set off for the zoo. None of them had been to a zoo before and Adriana was really looking forward to seeing a giraffe, having only seen them in cartoons before.
We had lunch in KFC - something that Adriana's home town of Chimbote wouldn't have. It was really lovely as the staff at the counter took her name and called her over to pick up the order when it was ready.

After lunch we had a look round a department store - the likes of which Adriana has never seen and then we went to Wong's - a big supermarket that Adriana had heard of and wanted to go and look at. Chimbote only has very small shops so this was a real experience for her.

After a bit of window shopping, we then headed to a small entertainment park and had a ride on the dodgems and a small caterpillar rollercoaster together. We followed this with a churros, a sugary doughnut very popular here, though Adriana doesn't like them much as she finds them too sweet and had popcorn instead.

A taxi ride back to the Compassion office to pick up our gifts and then I went with them back to their hotel and said a very emotional goodbye. It is a real priviledge to be Adriana's madrina and today simply wasn't enough time to spend with her and her delightful family. I have been invited back to visit but they have insisted I come to Chimbote next time!

An absolutely amazing day!