Lima - first day

Our first day in Lima has been terrific. This is quite a city. Very big, sprawled out it seems and quite run down, but I love it! I think I´ve become used to quite a few things, such as chaotic driving and complete disregard for lanes, which are surprising my companions who´ve just flown in from England.

Today we went to visit a maximum security prison called Castro Castro. It was pretty grim but fascinating to see that they had a whole variety of workshops for the inmates, such as ceramics, art, literature, language classes and produce a lot of high quality products which they sell. They don´t yet run Alpha but are planning to after the conference. We could not believe that one of the inmates had made each of our team a mug with the Alpha logo painted on it and our names printed on the other side. I will treasure it!

It is so wonderful to see another South American city and I´m pleased to discover that I can still understand the Peruvian accent, although the pronounciation of a few words confuses me! It is also brilliant to be reunited with some of my old colleagues from Alpha. Tomorrow is the first day of the conference... I can´t wait.

For now I´m off to bed, so goodnight!