Today was a normal day in Occoruro, at least by what we have been doing over the past two weeks. We were going to start digging the holes for the micro rellenos, but once we got to Occoruro, we learned that some of the families still didn’t have curtains on their alacenas. As a result, we spent the entire day working on finishing up these curtains. Starting tomorrow, we will start to build the micro rellenos and the coops for the guinea pigs and chickens.
After working in Occoruro, I had a relatively normal rest of the day. When I came home for lunch, I was immediately served a variation of arroz con pollo, except instead of chicken it had beef. After this I had Spanish class, which has been a lot better since we stopped focusing so much on grammar. Immediately after Spanish class, I decided to head over to El Molino, the black market, once again.
This time at El Molino, I was consciously looking for some hiking pants, since our group hike to Chicon is in only three days. I swear that I will never get tired of going to El Molino to shop. I know it sounds crazy, but they literally have everything there. Even better, while El Molino is a black market, the goods there are pretty high quality. On Monday, I got a hiking backpack and some hiking shoes. Today, I got the hiking pants, but also had to get a new North Face jacket and a couple of Lacoste polos. Before you make any judgments on the amount of stuff I’m getting, think about this. A North Face rain jacket costs at least $100 in the United States. It’s not even 100 soles in El Molino. Same goes for the Lacoste polos, which are $70-100 in the United States but only 30 soles in El Molino. Again, I will never get tired of these great deals. Something else I learned today is that El Molino doesn’t even have fake goods. Rather, many of the big name companies have manufacturing plants in Peru. For example, North Face has one in Juliaca, which is in the southern part of Peru. I’m not sure where the Lacoste manufacturing plant is, but it is also in Peru. This at least partially explains the amazing prices. That and the fact that it is a black market, meaning that the vendors don’t have to pay taxes...
Earlier today in Occoruro, Lalo and I were playfully arguing about cooking and which food cuisines are the tastiest. He bragged to me that he could make really good Indian-style chicken curry, which honestly, I thought was a little too much. Apparently, he took this as a challenge, since we had chicken curry for dinner, prepared by none other than Chef Lalo. As soon as I tasted it, I knew he wasn’t playing around. As an Indian-American, I have tasted my fair share of chicken curries, both good and bad. Lalo’s was definitely up there with the best. He definitely simmered the chicken in the sauce, since the chicken absorbed all of the spices. He also got all of the spices correct, even using some cardamom. The sauce was rich and flavorful, and had a nice kick to it. In fact, when I think about it now, it was kind of an Indian chicken curry mixed with Thai green curry. Regardless, it was excellent. I know that I’ll believe everything Lalo says from now on, at least with regards to cooking.
After dinner, Jordan and I met up with the rest of the Cuzco group to discuss our plans for next week’s health lesson in the schools. We decided on hand washing, and came up with some innovative ways to make the topic interesting for the kids. The pinnacle of this innovation was the song we composed, which is as follows:
Lávate tus manos
Con agua y jabón
Antes de comer
Y después del baño (sung to the tune of Happy Birthday)
For those of you who don’t speak Spanish, here is an English translation:
Wash your hands
With water and soap
Before eating
And after the bathroom
I thought it was pretty cool, and I feel that the kids will be able to use the song as a way to remind themselves when to wash their hands and for how long (as long as it takes to sing the song twice). Hopefully they will find it as interesting as we did.
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