I am very excited to be on my way to Piura, a region on the north coast of Perú close to Ecuador. I´ll be on a bus all night during the 14 hour trip. This is the part of PC training called Field-Based Training (FBT), where we meet up with current volunteers to get a better idea of what we´re supposed to be doing for the next two years. I´ll be in Piura for a week, including Halloween. I don´t think it´s celebrated here very much, so everyone make sure to eat some pumpkin pie and go trick-or-treating in my honor. When we all return from our various FBT´s, we´re going to have a Halloween costume party. Don´t know what I´ll be yet.
This morning I cooked for my host family for the first time. I chose pancakes, a simple recipe that anyone can follow. The only problem lies in accessing the ingredients. Or should I say, in explaining what I need in Spanish. There´s no Bisquick here. I found a recipe on the internet. I found 500 of them in fact. I used this one: Equal parts milk to flour, an egg, some sugar, salt, oil, and baking powder plus baking soda. Well...how does one say baking soda or baking flour in Spanish. I thought I had it figured out until I realized mama bought me yeast. Hmmm. Confused as usual, I add a pinch. I´m not making bread here, don´t want it to rise. So alas, there is no fluff in my pancakes.
Without maple syrup, I decide to buy strawberries and powdered sugar. My host brother and I are walking all around the market, asking for a kind of sugar my brother doesn´t even know what it´s called. Luckily for me, I eat a lot of sweets and baked pastries. I explain to him that it is the kind of sugar on top of ¨Alfahores,¨ one of my favorite cookies filled with dulce de leche. We finally found it. So this morning I find that mama has already turned my bag of strawberries into marmalade. Thank god. Definitely don´t know how I was planning on doing that.
Tha pancakes were a hit. Fresh strawberry marmalade with a nice sprinkling of powdered sugar. Eveybody asked for seconds and thirds. Oh, I forgot to mention that when I woke up, mama´s extended family had arrived in the wee hours of the night. Add 5 more people to breakfast, and the pressure is on. I just laugh, because I should know by now to expect the unexpected.
After breakfast, I went to the roof to watch my cousin chase a rooster. Being a little slow, it takes 3 or 4 tries before I understand we´re going to kill it. I ask a million and one questions, but don´t understand the answer until I see mama wielding her knife, cut the throat, and catch the blood in a large pot. (Hey mama, can´t you use a different pot? I wash my underwear in that one!) Not kidding.
That rooster for lunch was delicious. Just a few hours ago it was running around, making a racous at all hours of the night. That´s the key, don´t make friends with the animals you´re about to eat. Maybe I shouldn´t have been petting and naming all the guinea pigs on the roof...
It´s all good. My tolerance for everything is astonishing. For instance, I decided I don´t need to shower today. I don´t think I smell, although I really can´t pinpoint the last day I showered. 2 days ago, 3? Don´t know, don´t care. And the funny thing is that it´s not as if I´m just sitting around not sweating. Running, dancing in discotecas, walking up a crazy-long hill every day...not phased. It definitely makes laundry day easier when I have to wash 3 pair of underwear instead of 7. Too much information? Welcome to the Peace Corps.
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