Peruvian hotel basics — coffee, tea, coca leaves.

Another early morning today, as we headed out for another day of volunteering. Today’s program caused much humor among the group: a series of talks about puberty, to be delivered to five different girls’ schools by the doctor in our midst, Jolene. Jolene, Christine (the translator), and the five teen girls in our group set off, with pads and tampons in their bags and varying degrees of embarrassment and consternation.

Meanwhile, the rest of us went back to the Anta Home. Most of the group started painting the chicken coop. Tiffany and I volunteered, with some trepidation, to be in charge of cooking lunch for twenty people. We weren’t sure what ingredients we’d have available to us — and then we found out the ingredients would need to be harvested, by us, from the home’s gardens. (To our relief, Van also said he’d be going into town to pick up rotisserie chicken.) It was definitely a different type of cooking experience than what we were used to, but an exciting challenge!

We spent the next hour or two in the gardens and greenhouses, harvesting carrots, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, beets, rosemary, and oregano; and rinsing potatoes that had been dug earlier. It took another hour to wash everything. Because of potential contaminents in the water and soil, washing food is a serious business here. One of the nuns showed me how to wash the lettuce — dunking and shaking the heads multiple times in a bucket of water, then thoroughly washing every leaf individually under running water, and finally dipping them in another pot of water containing a small amount of bleach. (In general we’ve been warned not to eat lettuce at all here, because of the likelihood of bacteria, so having a salad was a nice change, even if it was extremely labor-intensive.)

Eventually we managed to surmount the challenges of unfamiliar kitchens, limited ingredients, and a language barrier to produce a delicious lunch.  The Puberty Crew returned triumphant, having imparted valuable knowledge and having shared some good conversations with the girls.  (Zoe is getting lots of practice with her Spanish!)  They did their best to counter some of the prevalent old wives’ tales here — for example, that it’s harmful to consume citrus during your period, which virtually 100% of the girls believed.  (We’re doubtful whether they’ll be able to convince their mothers, though.)

Before we left the Anta Home, the girls put on elaborate traditional costumes and performed some dances for us, as well as playing the pan pipe flute.  Then it was lots of hugs and goodbyes.  These girls, the struggles that they face and the spirit that they bring to the world, definitely left its mark on us.

Van had one more surprise in store for us.  A woman he knew, whose village had been helped by his organization, invited us to her home, where she and her sisters produce Peruvian textiles in a totally traditional method.  It was fascinating.  They start with alpaca fur and wash it using a root that grows locally, then spin it by hand.  The women spend pretty much all their time spinning, as they go about other tasks. The rainbow of colors you see in these yarns were produced entirely from natural materials.  The reds, oranges, and purples are all created from the blood of a bug that only lives in the Sacred Valley.  After creating a dye from dried and ground bugs, he showed us how the color would change dramatically by adding various ingredients, like lime juice or certain herbs.  Finally the yarn is threaded onto a loom and elaborate patterns are created.

Zoe and I picked out this beautiful table runner to bring home.

The sisters then served us some traditional Peruvian foods — quinoa, giant corn, giant lima beans, potatoes, and — the piece de resistance — roast guinea pig, which is commonly eaten here because it’s so cheap to produce.  We then went out back to see the guinea pig farm.  Peruvians think Americans are crazy for having them just as pets.

Before…

…and after.

Plaza de Armas, Cusco

This morning we’d checked out of our hotel in Urubamba, and tonight we headed to our new hotel in Cusco.  We saw no fewer than four spectacular rainbows on the way home.  (Conditions of mixed sun and rain seem to be very common here.  We’ve seen a fair bit of light rain, but the sky has never been totally clouded over so there are always rays of sun emerging from somewhere.)

Feliz Cumpleanos a Jolene

For dinner (just appetizers and/or dessert for most of us, as we’d had a late lunch), Van brought us to Incanto, an Italian restaurant near the famous Plaza de Armas.  It’s a beautiful Colonial city square, reminiscent of similar ones we’ve seen in Central America and Quito.  The food was delicious, and we got to celebrate Jolene’s birthday.  Who wouldn’t want to spend their birthday giving puberty talks?  (Though when we raised a toast and Jolene yelled out, “To puberty!”, we did get some odd looks.)