I am adjusting to my life here in Madrigal with flying colors. I returned from the city of arequipa with a bed frame and a table for my stove so the room is now livable. I took fruit crates and made a bookshelf where pretty much anything I need sits. The room feels like mine. Having built everything from the roof to the window it couldn´t be more me and peru smashed together. Yup, it´s an adobe hut, but it is my adobe hut! One wall is covered with maps and thanks to you all the other is papered with notes and pictures from The States. It is so cozy I have invited the other volunteers to a house warming party, my host parents can´t wait to get the Americans tipsy on pisco and chicha.
Now that I have a stove I feel like I have been eating like a queen. I have never had time to cook like this before. If I want to, I can literally spend all day over the stove preparing a soup. Getting to know and use local ingredients has become quite a challenge when balancing nutrients, but quinua trumps everything. The stuff tastes great and has so many preparations! Sweet oatmeal or savory soup or even spicy rice, it´s good stuff. My sister has made a habit of coming to my room around sundown when we used to do homework together to inquire about what I am cooking. She almost always gets in on the weird gringa food, even if she has to pick all the green stuff out. She is learning food by food the vitamins in each ingredient and how to make complete proteins. Tonight I told her I wanted to use her kitchen to change things up and she lit a candle for us to see by as we built the wood and cow poop fire. We made spinach, chicken, and rice soup with a little bit of fresh cream. This dish, unlike others I have prepared with lots-o-veggies, the family loved.
Meetings with what peac corps calls ´socios´or local coutnerparts is picking up. I discovered that they have a small computer lab without internet, and a space for a library near by. I am meeting with the teachers next week to discuss teaching non-formal education methods, and will begin my curriculum very soon, just a few more tweaks.
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