Yesterday was the first full day of travel. We took some time and visited Chosica. This is a retreat centre that SU use to do local training for those who live in the Lima Area. I was especially pleased to attend what was the first of what we hope will be many training opportunities for the directors of the various Children's homes. As you can see from the pictures the centre is placed in wonderful surroundings.

From here we ventured on to the SU Deaf Centre where we met some amazing children. They were explaining to us that they are in conflict with the authorities over the methods used to train the children. It appears that in Peru the perceived wisdom is that sign language should not be taught to the deaf. All deaf children have been integrated into the normal schooling system no real provision has been made in the schools for the deaf children. They are expected to read the lips of the teacher. Of course this is very difficult as you can imagine many of these deaf children are simply lost in such a school.

The centre we visited uses sign language to help the children comminicate and are determined to change the way people think about this in government. I hope when I get back I can do something for this programme if nothing more than try to link them up with Donaldson's School in Linlithgow.

Here are some pictures of my visit: