Gaseosa

Hello, Beautiful People, and a Happy Wednesday to all!

Presently, I am sitting in my frigid kitchen with the window open after having embarked upon a slightly scary adventure with Laura. This evening, we noticed a very strong smell of gas, which we thought was coming from the oven, but which then seemed to permeate our entire apartment. I am wondering if the blame belongs to me because I just recently commenced with my first attempt at baking cookies in a Celsius oven at 10,000+ feet above sea level (daring, I know), but --

Okay, so that hastily ended paragraph and the dash that follows it represent a break in my blogging, during which wonderful Eliza came to our apartment to see if our concerns were warranted. She also smelled the gas, and immediately diagnosed the problem. Apparently, in order to use our oven, we have to actually light a match and ignite it or only gas comes out. Now, the oven is on, my experimental high-altitude cookies are in the oven, and our minds are much more at peace!

So I've had several interesting adventures since my last entry a few days ago, and work has been keeping me so busy that I haven't been able to document all of them. That being the case, I'll share some of the major highlights!

- On Tuesday, the PITT kids, Lalo, Lauren, and I spent our last day volunteering in the community. I think that many of the students felt much more useful today than they had on other days, largely because the work had come to be more intellectual and less physical. We were using rubber cement to connect PVC tubes, and assembling sprinklers, and doing things that required a bit more of an engineer's mentality than simply digging out a canal or lifting heavy rocks. As the day drew to a close, I spent some time enjoying my last few hours with my pal Analie. While normally Analie is the only child brave enough to come and hang out with me (the "gringita"), for some reason, on Tuesday the children seemed less afraid, and I ended up becoming a babysitter for somewhere around 10 or 15 ninos. The children in the community are so beautiful and so sweet that it's easy to love them, and we spent some time chasing each other up and down the hills behind the work site and playing "follow the leader," which some of them couldn't quite understand, making the whole sight pretty comical. At the completion of the project, we had the exciting satisfaction of seeing the water flow through the PVC piping, and then watching as several sprinklers turned on from the pressure of the water, helping to irrigate the community's crops during dry season. It was such a neat feeling to actually see what we had helped to accomplish, and humbling to hear the praise of the community's president, who expressed such gratefulness and appreciation. I had a sad goodbye with Analie, as well as with the community members, several of whom I would miss particularly (my friends who taught me my first phrase in Quechua, for example). I hope that I have the opportunity to return to the community again before I leave Cusco.

- For PITT's last day of volunteer work, we had a celebratory dinner at a restaurant called Don Benito's. Despite the place's clear role as a group tour attraction, we enjoyed authentic performances of Peruvian and South American dances along with a reeeally tasty buffet of Peruvian food. Among the options were both ceviche and cuy--aka guinea pig--and in an act of bravery, I tried both! I think my motivation was simply to find out if either item would be worth ordering as an entree. My unfortunate conclusion on both counts is "no gracias." While the ceviche was flavorful and rather nice, I'd rather have a nice grilled piece of salmon. And the guinea pig--ooh, no no no. I probably could have enjoyed the roasted rodent, but wonderful Lalo thought it would be okay to tell me, as I chewed on a darker part of the guinea pig "meat," that I was actually eating its BLOOD. While I know that eating blood is, in some countries, perfectly normal (I believe the Irish eat some sort of pig's blood soup...yes?), blood consumption is not a normal activity for me, and I was quite distressed by Lalo's information. But for all those of you who give me a hard time for not trying strange and exotic foods, take heart--I did give it the good college try!

-After last night's dinner, the PITT students convinced the professors to go out for a bit of salsa dancing. Lauren and I obviously had to come along once we learned that the professors were going, and we ended up having a pretty great time! I didn't stay too long, but I did stay through most of the free salsa lesson, and Peter (my PITT student dance partner) and I became pretty darned smooth on the dance floor! While we managed to get pretty good at the moves themselves, the hard part was remembering the numbers that the instructor assigned to each move. He'd say, "Okay, number 3," and Peter and I would just look at each other and say, "Uuuh, what's number 3?" It just made things funnier, though, and we managed to dance through our confusion with reasonable success!

-Today, I was given the task of investigating restaurant locations for some of the ProWorld groups who will be arriving in the next several weeks. While this job is fun, it's also pretty challenging at times. While Cusco is full of interesting-looking restaurants, finding the right place for a ProWorld group requires a lot of thought and investigation. At each of the places I visited, I had to find out the menu options and whether there were items suitable for vegetarians. I then had to find out if the menu had enough variety and if it worked within our budget. Then there's the matter of whether the restaurant can accommodate a group of our size, and whether we need to call in the order in advance, and if so, when, and all sorts of other little details. Today, I visited a place located right near our regularly-used hostel as well as a place near the Plaza de Armas called Victor Victoria. Then, later in the day, I went out again with Laura to find a new dinner option because our normal restaurant was temporarily closed. I tend to get pretty nervous about having to do these tasks in Spanish, but I also feel very much empowered when I am successful. There are definitely moments when I realize how much I still need to improve with regard to my comprehension skills. A lot of times, I need people to repeat things to me so that I can fully understand what they're asking or saying. Luckily, I'm not afraid to ask for clarification!

-As previously mentioned, I made my first attempt at high-altitude cookie baking this evening. While I wouldn't say that I had a rip-roaring success, I'm fairly pleased with the results considering that this was a first try. Baking at a high altitude requires alteration in amounts of flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar. While I've been able to find some high-altitude adjusted recipes online, most of them aren't adjusted for an altitude as high as Cusco, so I think there will have to be some additional changes made. Today's recipe was fairly standard, though the blog writer who shared it claims that she added additional flour and less baking powder as compared to her standard recipe. There were also the complications of being in a country that doesn't have "brown sugar" as we know it in the US, OR chocolate chips (at least not in their grocery stores). Anyway, though the cookies tasted pretty good considering the circumstances, they definitely spread to the point of becoming almost a giant cookie blob, and I wouldn't say that they are anywhere as good as my US-made cookies. Attempt two will probably involve butter that's a little less fully melted and an additional half cup of flour. Wish me luck!

-Tomorrow begins a new bit of madness as PITT leaves and Duke arrives. In addition, St. Scholastica arrives early next week, and then groups from Missouri and Arizona State U as well as individual students here for internships and summer study abroad. ProWorld is going to be busy busy busy! To Laura's and my amusement, a good number of our "tasks" for the next several weeks involve accompanying student groups to lunches and dinners at various locations throughout Cusco. I guess that since Eliza has been here for a while, the novelty of dinners out has perhaps worn off a bit, but Laura and I are always up for a free meal! Our only joint concern is for the welfare of our vegetables, which we need to cook before they stop looking delicious and start looking rotten! I'm just going to have to concoct something delicious out of potatoes and green beans and half an onion. I'm thinking roasted veggies will do the trick--now that I know how to turn on my oven!

I'm off to finish a few last-minute tasks before bedtime! Goodnight!