Where the only thing to catch are fleas.
Where being hungry for most people forms part of daily living.
Where home is a shack. Now, imagine you choose to live in this place.
Sister Patricia McLaughlin, a Loreto Nun, has made this place her home. This is her Mission to Peru. Determined to succeed, as headmistress of the Fe y Alegria in Jicamarca, one kilometre outside Lima, she wants to give these children a chance in life and a future.

"These children will become teachers, carpenters, electricians, lawyers and doctors," she smiles with determination.
And why not! They are as bright as any other children anywhere in the world," she adds.

Sister Patricia has been a Loreto Nun for 25 years. 13 of those years were spent in Gibraltar at the Loreto Convent. For eight of them she was the headmistress of the school. Challenged by this mission to Peru she now believes this was her destiny all along. Her mission to Peru, though a shock at first at the realisation of the poverty-stricken area she was in, has actually strengthened her faith.

"What God talks about in the Gospels about the poor people. I see it. I know exactly what he is talking about now."

"I am glad I made the move, and I don't think I could come back to Europe. It was a major move. It is anyway just to uproot oneself and go to a country miles away, with a completely different culture and a language I could not speak. But now I can, and this is what I want to do. This is where everything was leading towards, and why I became a nun."

For her everything has fallen into place. She believes she first came to Gibraltar because she would need help for her mission. In fact the bulk of her support in setting up the school in Peru has come from Gibraltar, and she continues to get funds on a regular basis - not just from here but from the Sisters in Ireland, and from Australia.

As she talks about the children in the photographs (which she has taken herself since her arrival early last year), her attachment and commitment to her mission is obvious. She talks about them as if they were her family.

"This is where Marcus lives. I have great hopes for him. His parents have never been educated and they show it. They live in ignorance, in poverty but more than just poverty. Poverty brings ignorance, and this is what I want to get rid off. He will learn to read and write, he will learn how to treat his wife properly, he will learn to appreciate music, paint, draw and express himself. That's what Marcus needs. And that's what I can give him and all the children in my school."

Depression is not something she allows herself to contemplate anymore.
"It did depress me at the beginning. I used to look for something green. Something from Ireland or Gibraltar but there was nothing not even running water. But it's like everything in life. The human spirit gets used to anything."

She is used to being dirty. She is now used to having fleas. She admits that if anyone before her time in Peru had painted the picture she is now painting she would have said, 'Oh, no!', but she quickly adds.
"That's the life. I've got used to the bugs, I no longer have a bad stomach."

At the moment she is living just outside of the shanty-town but soon when the school building is completely ready she will move into the centre where all her students come from.
"Sanitation, running water and everything else will happen. We're okay," she says with resolve.

The people in the shanty town have no money to pay for medicines. They barely have food. They have been forgotten by the government.
"But they all have hope for the future."

Sister Patricia is one of two other sisters in this shanty town where the Jesuits have set up another Fe y Alergria school which is run by Sister Patricia the Loreto Nuns. These schools stretch-out all over South America.

The school was built from scratch. Equipment - tables, chairs and materials from the donations from Gibraltar. They are so poor, that if they want to get their children baptised, to do their First Holy Communion or Confirmed, they need to find a 'madrina'. But it is not easy. But yet they still live on the hope that it will happen.

"If you look at this picture of this girl, her uncle has just died of tuberculosis, and I am sure she has it, but she is smiling and she is happy. This child lives in the worst shack I have ever seen in my life. And this child her father beats her. Most of them have no fathers, and their mothers have to find work to feed them. For most the best they can find are jobs here and there, washing clothes for which they get one sole, the equivalent of 20p."

"The important thing is not to just give them everything. They have to have dignity. And so when they come to school they are provided with certain things but their uniforms are paid for by their parents. Even if it takes them a year for a £3 uniform they will pay for them, and this is also good for them. The parents help out in the school on a regular basis and participate in the activities. They helped us to set it up."

The Fe y Alegria School also has a nursery section where many of the children get fed.
"For many of these children this is the only bit of food they get in the entire day because there is none at home. Many are constantly hungry and they tell me and we cope as best we can. Their mothers are very young and they go out to work to maintain their families. Many of them are single mothers who just work to buy food for their children."

Sister Patricia has started a football team. Money from Gibraltar provided the football boots. The school has a choir. There is a library. At the moment it is just a Primary School but there are plans to start a Secondary school next year. At present the school caters for 140 children (40 in every class) but will eventually cater for over 1,000. Then there is the pastoral work and the workshops.

"It is thanks to the donations that I receive from here that this school has been able to develop. There is hope for these children. Without the support from the people here we could not have done what we have done in the past year. It would be impossible. And I have to thank the children in Loreto and everyone who have given us help."
Half the population of 26 million people in Peru live in desperate conditions.

Anyone wanting to support Sister Patricia can contact Sister Stella at the Loreto Convent on telephone 75781.