Little things

I have really begun to realize the little things here. These little things bring me the greatest joy at times and I wanted to share some of them with you. When people ask me how I am doing, when I say I am great, that is an understatement and I hope this will help shed some light on the enormous amount of joy in my heart and the smile on my face (yes, Kelly, I will have some pretty awesome smile muscles when I return).

The children. For example, today when I was leaving the home to go to the internet, a child that I didn't recognize and I am pretty sure I don't know came running up to me shouting "PUNTO CORAZOOOOON" how could that not make me smile? Every day, there are children who come to our house for water and are often quite intrigued by the gringa but nonetheless, they give some of the best hugs I have ever gotten in my life.

The people.Again, I still don't know everybody's name, but when people see me, they will often stop to say hi to me and remember my name. Pretty awesome that after just one time of meeting someone, we are friends. They also help me with my Spanish at times, which is nice.

My community. AWESOME. We are all really crazy in our own ways and don't take ourselves seriously unless we need to. In other words, there are a lot of laughs in our house. Also, the love that my community gives me blows my mind. For example, I was having a rough time last week with this whole language business and went to the chapel and just sat there one night for a good 20-30 mins before Edgardo came in to ask me something. He saw I was upset and asked what was wrong. I said I was ok but really just needed a hug. He didn't probe the situation much more and just stood there and hugged me which was really all I needed to feel better. He is also like my big brother and even though the communication is still faulty at times, we have an understanding of when the other one is frustrated or we are often on the same wavelength...kind of weird at times.

Prayer. The first and foremost aspect of our life. Every day, I am in prayer about an average of 3 hours. An hour of Adoration, Mass, and Liturgy of the Hours. The fact that I have drastically changed this aspect of my life is wonderful. I have been able to receive many graces from it and without it, my time here would be much more difficult.

There are a lot of other little things that happen every day so I am often amazed by them and can't help but think "man my life is awesome right now, how am I ever going to leave this place?" In other words, I am extremely happy and for now, this is my home.
Take care.
Kari

Comida

When I knew I would be doing mission work, I accepted I would have to leave behind some of my favorite food and it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. At orientation, I was talking with Nati one night and she said that everyone she has seen come back from mission has lost weight. Well, I can assure you, that that probably won’t happen for me.

The people here pride themselves on the food they have, as they should. There are some ingredients that you can only find in Peru, for example, aji. It is a type of pepper that is quite spicy, but I am a fan of a little bit of it here and there. When I gave my presentation at orientation about Peru, I included a slide on the food and really didn’t spend much time on it. I did mention that Peru is nicknamed the “Gastronomical Capital of the Americas” which is so true. Apparently, Peru has the most unique dishes second only to France, go figure. I encourage you to Google the ones below that I have tried because they are interesting and you probably wouldn’t think I like them, but I haven’t met a dish I don’t like (with the exception of onion soup from France…)

Favorite to date: Aji de Gallina-has aji in it some chicken and is a thick yellow creamy sauce typically served over potatoes with half a hardboiled egg. I forget what else we typically eat with this, probably some vegetables of some sort. I am determined to learn how to make this dish and try to find a substitute for aji when I get back. If you ever go to a Peruvian restaurant, try this.

Ceviche-made with pota (octopus) or pescado (fish) that is uncooked. Now, I am not a sushi fan by any means, but man this stuff is good. I like it more with pota because of the texture factor. It is made with a lot of lime juice (freshly squeezed by hand), a little aji, onions (I eat around them and then give them to Flo) and some little herb that I don’t know the name of. Typically served with canchitas (basically it’s popcorn that isn’t popped but way better in my opinion), and camote. Now, in the states I don’t typically like camote because really, sweet potatoes aren’t my thing. I didn’t like the sweet potato fries at the Hut or McNellies and never put them on my plate at Thanksgiving. I don’t know why, but here, I LOVE THEM. They are quite delicious, and yes, I plan on making sweet potato fries one day when it is my turn to cook.

Chicharrones-basically, chicken nuggets, or whatever meat you make it with nuggets. Fried, but made fresh with real, 100% chicken! It was what I made on my first day of cooking this past Thursday. You add some garlic, ginger, and pepper to pieces of chicken that you have just cut and prepared from the body of the chicken itself (something I have no idea how to do so Edgardo did it for me) roll it in what I think is corn starch (still learning the translation of ingredients) and drop it in some hot oil.

Picarones-pretty sure this is God’s gift to me in Peru. It is kind of like a funnel cake but a little crispier and is served in circles, like donuts. They are quite scrumptious by themselves but with something very similar to syrup but not as thick, they are amazing. There is a lady that makes and sells them on the street in Pro where we go to mass at night if there is no mass in La Ensenada or we didn’t go in the morning. We have even gotten them free one time because it was late and she was closing down. Win.

Lunche-really this is the name of the hour at night when we eat. It isn’t dinner like I am used to, pretty much just finger food and appetizer type stuff. However, I have a new favorite and ya’ll should try it because everything is in the states. Bread (but not like sandwich bread, you need fresh rolls, ciabatta is good), avocado (my new fave thing ever), lime juice (again from freshly squeezed limes), salt, fried egg (I do over hard to avoid a mess), cheese if we have it, and ham (which is really bologna but sometimes we have the real stuff!). It sounds weird, but if you want a piece of what I am eating a few times a week, here ya go!

Cuy-aka Guinea Pig. So, the one time I have had this so far, I didn’t know beforehand that this is what we were going to eat. We went to the house of a friend and there were 3 decent sized cages of guinea pigs. Then I realized, that is where my “lunche” (it was supposed to be lunche for us but she prepared dinner) probably lived earlier that week. I tried to not think about that when served because I wanted to give it a fair shot, after all, these Peruvians know how to prepare their food. It wasn’t that bad. I lucked out and got a leg so it was like I was eating chicken. Slightly different texture and taste, but chicken in my mind.

Side dishes-Fresh veggies (yes, I am eating my veggies more here than I did in the states). Typically a mix of green beans (I have no idea how to say it in Spanish and forget the name every time because it is not “frijoles verde”), carrots, choclo (corn but not Iowa sweet corn that’s for sure), every now and then broccoli. These are tasty with a Chinese sauce that I thought was soy sauce but when I tried it, it was much sweeter. Puree aka MASHED POTATOES! I enjoy these in the states so every time we have them (at least once or twice a week) I feel a little more at home. However, I am going to make it a point to not eat these on my birthday this year since last year, mashed potatoes were my birthday cake because of my wisdom teeth coming out. Rice delicious. I love it in the states, but here I have learned a new trick to making it even more awesome. Adding a little bit of garlic to the pan. I love garlic and I love rice (they were always in my apartment last year) but I never thought of putting them together! Genius.

I am still learning my way around the market and how to cook with various ingredients. Also, I learned the hard way Wednesday night that I need to make sure we have the ingredients in our market for what I want to make so I am not scrambling the night before to find something to make. I had every intention of making lemon pepper chicken for my first day. Simple, easy, delicious. Well, we don’t have yellow lemons in our market. It was suggested I make it with lime but I wasn’t sure how it would taste so I ex-nayed that idea. I am hoping to find a simple recipe for how to make glazes out of fresh fruits because really, I think that ______ glazed chicken will be my specialty. For example, I have oranges and pineapples here. Both would make delicious glazes but I don’t know how to prepare them. So if any of you who read this have a simple recipe (I am talking real simple we don’t have fancy things and ingredients down here) please send it my way!

Well this is quite long so I am going to head out now. Take care!