Monday, September 19, 2011

Oh, blunders! And a bonfire, too!

Learning a new language has opened up a whole new realm of laughing at myself! I knew it would be a humbling experience, feeling like a toddler trying to express wants, needs, and thoughts. However, I'm really enjoying seeing it as a process, reviewing my growth, speed, and vocabulary in relation to when I first got here. I know I still have a long way to go, but now I at least feel like I've "aged" a few more years, speaking more like a 6 year old! I thought I would highlight some of the funnier mess-ups I've made here.

Another volunteer and I were at the grocery store, trying to find ingredients to make cookies. We were looking for the flour, which I didn't know how to say in Spanish. The other volunteer told me the word which I thought I pronounced correctly until the grocery attendant gave me a funny look. The word, harina, sounded a lot like the word arena, which is sand. I had asked if they had sand to make cookies with.

The other day we were organizing the rancho, the other building where groups stay when they come to volunteer. I was happy to report to the director and another worker at the orphanage that the ranch was organized, except instead, I guess I said that the ranch was peed on! The worker, who was in fits of laughter, was asking about the giant who peed on the ranch and has not let me forget that.

Last week, I was helping to tutor 2 of the older girls. Since they didn't have school or homework all week, I decided to try to work on their English with the help of a few different apps on my iPad. They had to click on the right animal after the name of the animal was said in English. Some of them were more difficult (anteater, yak), so I was giving them clues in Spanish. For yak, I said "tiene hornos", thinking I said "it has horns." The looks and the laughter from the girls suggested otherwise. I thought, "shoot. Did I just say it's horny or something?" No worries -I just said it has ovens.

The highlight of my past week was having a bonfire for all the kids one night. We roasted marshmallows, made s'mores for them all and sang songs around the campfire. My favorite part was seeing Jorge fall asleep in his chair with a marshmallow still in his mouth!! I swear, that kid can fall asleep anywhere!



Poor lil' booger!


















Oscar's first s'more ever!










Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Betty's bread-baking bash!

Once upon a time in a land far, far away named Moche (a tiny pueblo about 7 minutes from the orphanage) monkeys in dresses claim the middle of the sidewalk (true story with picture as proof) while AMAZING bread makers adorn the corners.


Betty the bread maker has such a sweet smile and spirit that it seems as if it soaks into the already-delicious breads and makes them sweeter. I faithfully cross her bread path on my way to aerobics a few times a week (oh, the irony) stopping for "pudding", a combo between "monkey bread" and bread pudding. One day my friend Curiosity asked Betty the bread maker if she would teach a bunch of gringas her delicious bread ways and she said YES!

Last Saturday morning, 6 of us ventured out, with literally not much clue as to our destination ("get off the bus here, walk 3 blocks(she didn't write which way, and ask for Nicholas in the bakery.") Good thing it's a small town. Everyone knows Nicholas. Everyone is curious as to why 6 gringas are looking for him.


THE Nicholas



Sweet Betty

She taught us how to make "pudding" and we got to help make "galletitas", or little cookies. After that process, I am aware that I am a eating a little bit of cookie with my large amount of sugar and lard. She put us through the baking ropes: we kneaded, we pressed, we sprinkled, we tasted. Such a cool experience-very rich, very local. Just what I was going for. She let us take all 75 cookies home to give to the kids and then later delivered the "pudding" when it was done baking in the wood-burning oven. We plan to go back to teach her how to make pizza in the wood-burning oven.



The "pudding" on it's way into the oven




I'm a kneading fool.




All the girls in the bakery dungeon.




I would be totally fine being locked in here.




The wood-burning oven




Oh for LARD's sake



Ashley admiring the finished product.




Betty really IS a happy person.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Mi cumpleaƱos!

So it seems like I have fallen off the blog wagon. Yes, I plan to get back on. It just takes a little "umph" to get my "rice butt" on board. That means being intentional and blocking out the voices that say I don't have very much "blog-worthy" stuff to say. Yes, I will stop using so many quotation marks.

Just 11 days ago, I celebrated my 29th birthday here in Peru. My volunteer family came up with a unique way of celebrating. Inspired by the movie Yes Man in which Jim Carey must say yes to everything, these crazy cats made me do dare after dare in the most public of places. If I refused, I had to don a piece of hideous rejected clothing from our orphanage garage sale. Some of the dares included: singing an Andrew Lloyd Webber song at the top of my lungs on the ledge of a fountain at the mall, kissing a duck mascot on his bill in the grocery store, eating a grilled cow heart (which is delicious, by the way), doing 25 jumping jacks after eating said cow heart while on the median of a 4-way BUSY intersection, etc. We had a lot of good laughs together...mostly at my expense. But I'm used to laughing at myself so it's all good.


Before birthday events commenced, sensing something fishy was going to happen.


My new birthday outfit and accessory



Planting one right on his kisser/quacker



Yet another outfit up/downgrade

These people really know me (or they listened well) and took me to a karaoke place to top off the night! Both Journey and Madonna made their presence known at Rustica in Trujillo, Peru!



Bryson looks really captivated by my singing, huh.