Intercambio

Today I worked on the borders of the micro rellenos once again. This time, our group got through the entire border, but moving the adobe bricks was more dififcult than ever. Usually, the adobe blocks are about 40 pounds each, but today, since there were also rocks inside each of the blocks, they weighed close to 60 pounds each. Moving these blocks about 700 feet to our hole was really difficult, even with a wheelbarrow. Moving three of the blocks at a time, which we did for most of the day, made the wheelbarrow close to 200 pounds. I’m glad we finished, but we were all really sore by the end of the work day.

In the afternoon, I went to Spanish class, after which I watched Inception with the family. Although I have watched it before, it was really cool seeing it again, especially since Luis and Violeta had to figure out the intricacies of the movie. Tonight we will be going to a club, The Muse, where we will have a cultural exchange between all of the ProWorld volunteers and Peruvians. Jordan and I are going to bring Luis and Lalo to the cultural exchange, since they are close to our age, speak English, and have similar interests.

School Teaching and Election Results

Today was the second time for me in the schools (I did not go last week because I was sick). The topic today was tooth brushing, and as a whole, I definitely feel like the lessons went well. During our first class, we noticed that our lesson plan was not quite 30 minutes long, so we spent some time at the end asking the students questions and helping them to answer. However, we wanted to make sure that we had enough material in our lesson plan for the next five classes. As a result, we added a simple game stressing how tooth brushing can prevent cavities. In the first round, we played a game of freeze tag, with one of us being the cavity. There wasn’t anyone to unfreeze the students, so once they were tagged, they had to stay still. The number of students that were standing still at the end of the round represented the number of dirty teeth containing cavities. In the second round, we added a person as a toothbrush, and they had the power to unfreeze the “dirty teeth”. In this round, there were less kids with cavities than the first round. Thus, the game stressed that the use of a toothbrush could prevent cavities from forming.

After work we went back to our host families for lunch. I loved lunch more than usual today since we had a delicious lamb stew with rice. The flavor was really great, so I made sure to get seconds. I then rushed off to Spanish class, from which I went straight to a ProWorld interview. Today was our first official check in with the ProWorld staff, and we had to explain to them about how everything was going. I feel like I have had an amazing experience thus far, so I had nothing to complain about. However, I did mention that our group would like it if we could have Spanish class at similar times so we could coordinate trips together. The first trip that comes to mind is our trip to Urubamba this weekend for the Sr. de Torrechayoc festival. Additionally, we would like to go to Tipon together this Friday to eat cuy, or guinea pig. I’m pretty excited to try this, so I want to make sure I go with the rest of the group to a place that is renowned for it. I’ve been told that Tipon is the place, so I definitely want to go there.

Something else I found out today was that since Ollanta will be the next president, the exchange rate has gone up. One dollar is now 3.2 Soles, as opposed to the 2.75 Soles it was before. While this is good for us, since we think of everything I dollars, it is really awful for the Peruvians. I can’t imagine what impact this is going to have on people in Peru, since they will now have to pay a significant amount more for everything.

At night, we got together as a group and watched a movie together. This was yet another great bonding experience, and I feel it was an amazing time spent together.

Presidential Elections

Election day is finally here. I got up in the morning and relaxed with the family for a bit before accompanying them to the polls. The process here is really simple. You go to an election site, where there are officials who check off your name and then give you a slip of paper. You then mark your selection and give it back to the officials. To confirm that you have voted, you sign next to your name and then dip your middle finger in a bottle of purple ink. I thought it was really cool because both Jordan and I got to accompany Luis and Violeta to where they voted, and we even got to go inside and watch each of them vote. To top it all off, the officials told us to dip our fingers in the purple ink, as if we had voted. I guess I can now say that I “voted” for the 2011 presidential elections in Peru.

For lunch today, we had escabeche, a cold dish consisting of pickled vegetables and chicken. I thought it was pretty good, and loved that it was also a bit spicy. Margarita also prepared pickled chili peppers, which I had alongside the escabeche. For only the second time in Peru (last night being the first), I found the food to be spicy in my opinion. I feel that my host family is starting to make foods a little spicier, not only for me but because the entire family enjoys spicy food.

At night we watched coverage of the elections. I had thought that Keiko Fujimori was going to win, but as of the preliminary results disclosed today, it looks like Ollanta Humala is going to win. In general, Peruvians don’t like either of the candidates, but my family seems to prefer Keiko. It sure will be interesting to see what goes on in the next couple of weeks after the election. However, I will not be in Peru when the next president takes office, since that happens on July 28. Nevertheless, I look forward to what is bound to happen in the coming weeks.

Free Weekend and Indian Food!

I was happy to wake up a bit later today since it is our first free weekend. I had some breakfast and then went to the Plaza de Armas around lunchtime to meet up with my good friend Rahul, who is working in Urubamba but was in Cuzco for the day. We went to Jack’s Café, one of the good sandwich shops in town. After meeting up with Rahul , I came back home and had Lomo Saltado, one of the first dishes I had during my stay in Peru.

In the afternoon, our group met together at the office to discuss lesson plans for next week’s teaching session in the schools. Our topic for this upcoming week is tooth brushing, so we are giving each of the students a toothbrush and some toothpaste while also giving pointers on the importance of dental health. We decided on teaching the students through a story, which consists of a crocodile who doesn’t brush his teeth. Throughout the story he encounters other animals, which ask him about his brushing habits and give tips on what to change to promote a healthy mouth.

After working with the group, we relaxed for a while before going out to dinner together. Today, we went to an Indian restaurant in town, Maikhana. I actually thought that the food was pretty good, and it was very interesting to see that the restaurant was owned by an Indian couple. In fact, it was one of the better meals that I’ve had in Peru. We were completely stuffed after our dinner, so we went back to the office and relaxed together for a while before going back to each of our host families.

Dinner Plans

Today I worked on the borders of the micro rellenos in Occoruro. The first micro relleno we were working on had a little bit of an issue because there was water soaking into the pit. This would make it unusable, so we filled the hole up with a bit of dirt. We will check on it again tomorrow to see if there is any hope in salvaging it or if we should just start a new one. We then moved to one of the other micro rellenos, and nearly completed the border. On Tuesday, we will finish laying the adobe bricks on top, since we have finished the rock and mud layer underneath.

After work today, I came home for lunch and then went back to El Molino, the black market. I still can’t believe the prices that are there, as I got four North Face jackets for the family for a total of under $80.

Tonight was also pretty cool. Since the Peruvian elections are this weekend, all of the clubs and bars are closed until Monday morning. All of us met up for dinner and were originally planning to go to Pampa del Castillo, the supposed best chicharroneria in town. However, I found out just before dinner that chicharronierias close around 4:00pm. Thus, we had to find an alternative option for dinner. We instead went to Kintaro, a Japanese restaurant in town. The food was pretty good, but I had been looking forward to the chicharroneria. Since we couldn’t go out to a club, from dinner we all went directly to the ProWorld office and played cards and other board games such as Taboo for the rest of the night.