Week 3

The first PC Trainee Birthday!! I need to learn how to make these cakes!

Aji de Gallina. My favorite dish! Chicken in yellow aji sauce , served on rice and potatoes (of course)!Yellow Aji peppers...the seeds are spicy, but the rest is not!My Oregano Plant!

This week and a half was really interesting.

ACTIVITIES:

We went to Lima on Friday (an hour ride on the “combi” bus through crazy traffic). Luckily the Peace Corps rented a whole combi just for us, then we took taxi’s home. We went to China Town to eat chinese food, called “Chifa”, which is very popular here, for some reason. I will tell you that it is no different than in the US. Then we took taxi’s to Miraflores which is the “nice” district, asking people random questions about the city. We walked to the mall on the beach, but it wasn’t as exciting as I hoped, because Lima is super cloudy and COLD right now. Also, I went to the bathroom in the nicest KFC I have ever seen in my life!!

Saturday we went (again on the rented combi) to the Agraria which is a university for agriculture. We learned about trees, planted some beets, and got to take a plant home. I chose Oregano because it can be used, obviously, in sauces (I’m thinking of making Lasagna for my host family) and it can be made into tea for stomach discomfort and to help the ladies with their PMS pains…!

FOOD:

So, I’m definitely not lacking for food here. I’m always pretty full and I usually kind of wonder if I’ll acutually be able to eat at the next meal. Like today, I ate lunch at a friends house and her mom served me a huge piece of cake before lunch, a huge serving of rice and this hot veggie salad she made with lime mayonnaise (all the mayo has Lime in it and is delicious) …then more salad to “help me finish off the rice”…I thought I would explode!!!! A blessing, indeed! I’ve had some other really great food this week. The first is like a chili relleno, with ground beef, egg and raisins. So good!! Then my mama taught me how to make my favorite Peruvian dish…Aji de Gallina!!! Pronounced a-HEE de Guy-EE-na. Aji is a yellow pepper that is not spicy, it is made into a sauce with milk, water, cumin and the Gallina is shredded chicken breast. I was so excited! It was my favorite at Sabor Latino restaurant in Birmingham, and now I know how to make it myself! (Photo above)

I’ve had some delicious sweets, too. Alfajores are my new favorite cookies. I tried to make them in the US, but the real thing is incredible here! Like a sugar cookie sandwich, with dulce de leche in the middle. I also bought a chocolate covered donut. With real, melt in your mouth chocolate…like a chocolate bar was melted, poured just right over the top then hardened back into a chocolate bar, on a soft donut with a subtle cinnamon flavor….oooohh yeah!!

I also bought peanuts to make peanut butter- I found a recipe in a PC Volunteer cookbook. PBJ is not a common phenomenon here, at all, and I kind of miss it already!

FUN STUFF:

The first birthday of our group was celebrated on Monday. It was pretty cool, b/c we chipped in and bought a cake (see photo) and other of us arranged for Mariachi’s to come serenade the birthday-boy! Picture this: we are all sitting in the main room listening to a depressing talk about HIV/AIDS from our medical officer. After about an hour, it's the end of the day, just when we are starting to squirm in our seats with restlessness, in comes a trumpet blasting Rancheros de Mexico and 4 Mariachis, completely decked out in their flashy traditional Mexican Mariachi suits! It was awesome, and a much needed reprieve! (photos above)