Breakfast with the Ambassador

Yesterday the British Ambassador to Peru, James Dauris, visited the school to take the secondary school assembly and answer the questions of the some of the 4th and 5th year students.  He spoke of the economic problems facing the United Kingdom at the moment and ongoing trouble with Argentina over ownership of "Las Malvinas" or the Falkland Islands as well as the celebrations for the Queen's diamond jubilee and the Olympic games 2012 due to start soon in UK.  The students had some good and very mature questions and the visit seemed to have gone very well.  It was the Ambassador's first visit to Colegio San Andres and a great honour for the school as it prepares to celebrate its 95th anniversary on the 13th June 2012.  The school has long established links to the UK and especially to Scotland.  On the 13th June 1917 the Anglo-Peruano was founded by Scottish missionaries to provide accommodation for the elite in Lima.  95 years on and having faced financial problems that threatened to close the school and having survived a world war and many different headmasters, the Anglo-Peruano is now called Colegio San Andres (Saint Andrew's School) after the patron saint of Scotland and has grown in size to 750 pupils from all areas of the city of Lima and from all backgrounds.  It still holds firmly to its christian founding principles and is a steady shining light in a city with much poverty and unrest.  Next week we celebrate the anniversary of the school with celebratory parties and meals as well as speeches from former pupils and a photo display of the school through the ages.  Hopefully San Andres will still be here 95 years from now still providing a christian education for the children of Lima.

After the Ambassador's assembly I, being one of the few British staff members of the school, was invited to have breakfast with the director of the school and the ambassador as well as a lovely Scottish lady who has been a teacher in the school for many many years and the school chaplain!  We shared a lovely breakfast and chatted about British foreign policy (don't mention the Falklands said Clive, the headmaster!) and the Queen's diamond jubilee as well as British influence in Peru and Latin America in general.  It was quite a privilege to have breakfast with an ambassador and although I hadn't really a clue what to say and tried hard not to show my ignorance I really enjoyed the experience.  It's not everyday you get to have breakfast with the British Ambassador!