While admist an impressive stretch of birthdays (Saturday was that of a 10-year-old student of mine from last year, Yessenia, who has an incredible and welcoming family; Sunday the lunch for our school psychologist, whose actual birthday is today; and yesterday we celebrated with an ex-JV volunteer who has been down here for awhile with her husband, J. P., who was a Peruvian volunteer a few years ago) a fun Peruvian cultural experience surprised me yesterday.
When I arrived at school, the fourth grade teacher came looking for me and began to ask me about my schedule. Uh, oh, I thought, she was going to ask me to take over her class today. I don´t mind helping out a collegue at all, but this particular class can be a bit movido (all over the place), especially when their regular teacher is out or their schedule is thrown for a loop. Any anxiety, however, was for naught, as she asked me if I wanted to be the judge for a contest.
I jumped at the opportunity - I love interacting and being involved with my students in non-teaching (or rather, non-class hour) activities. This particular contest turned out to be better than I could imagine as the teacher had done a contest with the class for Day of the Potato, which had come and gone this past Saturday with little fanfare in my life (too many birthdays, I guess).
When I arrived for the event just before lunch, I was stunned to see that each student (32 in total) had prepared a dish made in some way with potatoes. The culinary variety (almost assuredly prepared by the parents in probably 95% of the cases - one or two unintentionally funny students even mistakeningly said something along the lines of ¨my mother fried the potatoes¨ when we asked how they prepared it) included different types of pastel de papa http://imagenes.mailxmail.com/cursos/imagenes/5/3/pastel-de-carne-y-papas_24935_1_1.jpg, papa rellena http://peru-recipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/papa-rellena-stuffed-potato.jpg, causa https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqlnnJU4NMbw-fLQTu4qOJlxhNn3lea96vRaj0M2jvG2BtUeISpbPFIOP4-vXy94i7AgmoBnq4eX3_1LQ-7jLoS4iNAy-GX0X9R8wvMiGuU5wwWXg4hzXPxuIuHexxKZlTf1vkgy4g3Inf/s400/causa-peruvian-cuisine-01.jpg, and many more.
As the judge, I listened first to a short explanation of why the potato rocks as the nutritional base for any meal (so many varieties and so many vitamins!). Then I had to judge each student in three categories: presentation, exposition and flavor. I sampled each and every plate. Oh, to be a food critic! Though in all honest, I don´t have the palate for it and yesterday I think I gave almost everyone at least a 5 out of 7 in flavor because I was too happy and enjoying myself.
The two joint winners turned out to be the first and last dishes, which were a papa rellena prepared with much detail by the daughter of the school cook (hmmmmmm, surprise surprise) and a pastel de papa that went along with its rocotto relleno (which is one of my infrequently eaten, but favorite dishes down here....). Also, as more than half of life down here focuses on food (those Peruvians love their food and are quite proud of it as I have noted before), I of course went from judging this contest straight to lunch.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
The Return
I want to say that I survived, but this year´s Mes de Mision experience was a lot more enjoyable and easy-going than last year. Obviously, every year many factors are unique to that year (the situation with the food, the type of work being accomplished, the students, etc) and the change from a Cristo Rey, the-kids-should-suffer mentality to a Miguel Pro, allow-the-kids-to-develop-and-mature-in-a-new-service-oriented enviornment both impacted the last month.
Basically, we spent the month pulling out Santa María (a type of weed that somewhat oddly has a holy name), cleaning and feeding goats, working with corn (weeding, harvesting, planting), and playing a lot of sports (from the small field soccer to volleyball to knock out - a wonderful, basketball-like game that we taught the Peruvians). We still had to deal with some of what I have come to see as the usual issues down here in southern Peru. At times, the government officials would tell us there was work, but never send transportation for us. At others, they would not communicate amongst themselves and we would be left hanging in the wind. Additionally, the lack of planning - although I have come to be better at simply being spontaneous, which us volunteers feel is a staple of the part of Peruvian culture that we have experienced down here - also wore on me a bit. I oversaw our finances and held on to all the money (which at the beginning meant carrying around the equivalent of over 1500 dollars in a fannypack all day and night) and my attempts to budget or organize this were expecially difficult with the lack of planning.
At the core of the experience, however, are the students and their personal development. This group of kids was especially respectful, fun-loving, and amiable. There were highs (one night, I was sitting alone in a corner of the school writing in my journal and a group of them came running over to sit around me and tell ghost stories) and there were lows (one kid spent an entire day pouting after I became very frustrated with his lack of participation in the catechesis class we led and told him sternly that he needed to get involved) as are to be expected.
There were many moments of laughter (one student loved throwing out random phrases in English and from time to time would ask me, ¨teacher, are you hungry?¨ when he saw me frustrated. He, of course, meant to ask me if I was angry, but with the silent h in Spanish, it came out in a way that always made me smile) and good bonding with my fellow volunteers and with the students (a hour-long, late night discussion about multiple universes over secretly-popped popcorn comes to mind). There was a lot of the same music (the kids loved to hear me terribly try to sing along to this song without knowing the words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IEG3z7Ze3I. But let´s be honest, it is called ¨My Beautiful Girl¨ and is by Chino and Nacho, how could it now be wonderful to sing along to?) and some really good and greasy food (all the usual Peruvian cuisine of Arroz Chaufa - fried rice with hot dog bits - Ají de Gallina, Papa Rellena, Porotos, Lentejas, Chicharon de Pollo, Saltado, etc.).
Even though the passed in a much smoother way than last year, I still need time and space to process it and reflect. Next week, I will be going on a five-day silent retreat in which I plan to think a lot about the last month and begin to plan the steps I want to take for next December/January, when my time down here comes to a close. I promise there will be pictures and more thoughts to come!
Basically, we spent the month pulling out Santa María (a type of weed that somewhat oddly has a holy name), cleaning and feeding goats, working with corn (weeding, harvesting, planting), and playing a lot of sports (from the small field soccer to volleyball to knock out - a wonderful, basketball-like game that we taught the Peruvians). We still had to deal with some of what I have come to see as the usual issues down here in southern Peru. At times, the government officials would tell us there was work, but never send transportation for us. At others, they would not communicate amongst themselves and we would be left hanging in the wind. Additionally, the lack of planning - although I have come to be better at simply being spontaneous, which us volunteers feel is a staple of the part of Peruvian culture that we have experienced down here - also wore on me a bit. I oversaw our finances and held on to all the money (which at the beginning meant carrying around the equivalent of over 1500 dollars in a fannypack all day and night) and my attempts to budget or organize this were expecially difficult with the lack of planning.
At the core of the experience, however, are the students and their personal development. This group of kids was especially respectful, fun-loving, and amiable. There were highs (one night, I was sitting alone in a corner of the school writing in my journal and a group of them came running over to sit around me and tell ghost stories) and there were lows (one kid spent an entire day pouting after I became very frustrated with his lack of participation in the catechesis class we led and told him sternly that he needed to get involved) as are to be expected.
There were many moments of laughter (one student loved throwing out random phrases in English and from time to time would ask me, ¨teacher, are you hungry?¨ when he saw me frustrated. He, of course, meant to ask me if I was angry, but with the silent h in Spanish, it came out in a way that always made me smile) and good bonding with my fellow volunteers and with the students (a hour-long, late night discussion about multiple universes over secretly-popped popcorn comes to mind). There was a lot of the same music (the kids loved to hear me terribly try to sing along to this song without knowing the words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IEG3z7Ze3I. But let´s be honest, it is called ¨My Beautiful Girl¨ and is by Chino and Nacho, how could it now be wonderful to sing along to?) and some really good and greasy food (all the usual Peruvian cuisine of Arroz Chaufa - fried rice with hot dog bits - Ají de Gallina, Papa Rellena, Porotos, Lentejas, Chicharon de Pollo, Saltado, etc.).
Even though the passed in a much smoother way than last year, I still need time and space to process it and reflect. Next week, I will be going on a five-day silent retreat in which I plan to think a lot about the last month and begin to plan the steps I want to take for next December/January, when my time down here comes to a close. I promise there will be pictures and more thoughts to come!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Bautismo and more food
The old volunteer at the site I will be teaching became a double godfather this past weekend. It was a pretty interesting experience all around - from the fact that it was a mass baptism of 10-12 people ranging all ages, to the fact that the priest arrived late, to the way he had to ask for volunteers from the audience to do the readings on the spot. On a random side note, the lack of timeliness and the way I am mocked for mine is starting to get to me at times. I have to find a way to adapt or work around this aspect of life here - its so different than what I am used to.
But all in all, it was pretty incredible - this humble, poorer family clearly was very happy and excited by the event. They invited me, Brad, and my host family - who came to support Brad since they know him well - to dinner at their place afterwards. They of course gave us these giant portions of choclo (the type of corn they have a lot of down here), big potatoes that came from the highlands and were indeed more delicious, and chicken. It was one of those tough situations where they clearly served themselves less, but as a guest, you are almost madated and it does make them happy when you finish it all off. We talked for a couple of hours and they come from the highlands and basically are just good people trying to get by. The father is away all week working at the beach and was lamenting that he didn´t have any friends there and how life is just kind of passing him by. I will need to make sure to stop by from time to time on Sundays or to invite them over - their openness and hospitality were just touching, and I think very common in the sierra.
On another food note, I had cuy (Guinea Pig) on Sunday and it was served spread eagle and fried (also with big potatoes and choclo). We had it at this nice touristy restaurant, though you still go at it with your fingers and inevitably make a mess. Also, you eat everything - and I mean everything. Probably strangest part of the meal for me was riping the testicles off of the little body and dousing it with some of the hot sauce in order to make myself brave enough to try it. But all in all, it was a tasty and awesome experience. I probably should have saved the head for posterity´s sake, but I did take pictures and will get those up online at some point.
But all in all, it was pretty incredible - this humble, poorer family clearly was very happy and excited by the event. They invited me, Brad, and my host family - who came to support Brad since they know him well - to dinner at their place afterwards. They of course gave us these giant portions of choclo (the type of corn they have a lot of down here), big potatoes that came from the highlands and were indeed more delicious, and chicken. It was one of those tough situations where they clearly served themselves less, but as a guest, you are almost madated and it does make them happy when you finish it all off. We talked for a couple of hours and they come from the highlands and basically are just good people trying to get by. The father is away all week working at the beach and was lamenting that he didn´t have any friends there and how life is just kind of passing him by. I will need to make sure to stop by from time to time on Sundays or to invite them over - their openness and hospitality were just touching, and I think very common in the sierra.
On another food note, I had cuy (Guinea Pig) on Sunday and it was served spread eagle and fried (also with big potatoes and choclo). We had it at this nice touristy restaurant, though you still go at it with your fingers and inevitably make a mess. Also, you eat everything - and I mean everything. Probably strangest part of the meal for me was riping the testicles off of the little body and dousing it with some of the hot sauce in order to make myself brave enough to try it. But all in all, it was a tasty and awesome experience. I probably should have saved the head for posterity´s sake, but I did take pictures and will get those up online at some point.
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