19 Abril 2011

Today was a heavenly birthday and an unforgetable day in the story of my life.
Cesar had surprised me and come in the night before carrying homemade sushi and wine. Delicious.
We woke early and joined my family in the kitchen sipping on warmed morning milk.

After tending to the chickens we picked the rabbit that would be the day's dinner and prepared him for the solar oven. Surprisingly, they don't skin the small animals, they di-fur them so they can fry the skin. We treated the rabbit just like a chicken, thanked him for his life, slit his throat, stuck his whole body in boiling water, then pulled out his fur in clumps. The little guy was cut into fourths, rubbed with spicy aji pepper and garlic then set up in the solar oven. He roasted in his own juices all day while I went to work.




I had two teacher workshops scheduled for the day on nonformal education and how to integrate activities that are emotionally and kinesthetically stimulating into the classroom. They went very well, but there was definatly some frustration expressed by the professors in a lack of funding to purchase supplies to play games. The gov't supplies the building and the horrible ministry of education books, but no more. The teachers and/or the students have to pay for papers, copies, markers, pencils, tape, chalk, everything. Getting supplies for games can become costly quickly. So, we decided to extend this workshop for the next week when I would bring them a large collection of games that cost nothing but preparation (like jeopardy, or the human knot).
Just as the Primary school workshop was beginning the comvi arrived with my good friend volunteers ready to eat and celebrate my day with me. They sat in on my workshop and were able to give me very good constructive criticism and take some information back to their sites for their social counterparts.
Following the workshop the professors, very sneakily, coaxed me into their "teacher's" lounge and surprised me with tea, music, and a delicious lucuma and chocolate cake. It was such a lovely surprise. I felt so appreciated!
The professors and volunteers danced until the sun went down, and with hungry bellies we headed back to my house to check on the rabbit. You could smell it from outside the patio. It was perfectly baked from the 5 hours in the sun before the afternoon clouds came in. Thank you to Dr. Hallquist for providing me with the resources for solar oven cooking!


We put potatoes on for "papas chancadas" my host families new favorite side dish-mashed potatoes and sipped on the delicious wine Cesar brought in the night before. As good friends from Madrigal began to appear at the house Mario, Kaysi, and Kelly wipped out a cake they brought from Chivay and the festivities began... traditional style. We ate and bouned around dancing Huatiti into the wee hours of the morning.





The biggest hit of the night was my host father dancing to Billie Jean once we got a few drinks in him...