Today started really early (for me who doesn't believe that things should happen 10 am, and for exhausted travelers of all sorts). Whitney opted to stay in bed/Cusco in an effort to stay on her feet later in the trip. Therefore, I had the distinct pleasure of joining Dr. Lewis and Dr. Jones, Megan, Larissa, Kristine, Perry, and Derek in the tiny town of Mattinga above Cusco.
We started off at the school talking with the women that cook there, and observing the oven built just last year. Unfortunately, it has fallen into disuse simply because it is not how they usually do things. We spent the afternoon (it took us about two hours to get up to Mattinga in a seven passenger van) measuring a couple of stoves and observing one woman cook.
The children at the school most definitely thought we were crazy for measuring all of the firewood (or so Larissa translated too us). I can't possibly see why...
The woman we observed that first day probably also thought we were crazy, although she held it in better than the kids. What would you think if a bunch of foreign kids showed up at lunch time and wanted to watch you cook and take measurements of your stove?
Overall I thought the day was pretty successful despite the fact that we ran into numerous first world problems. (Someone didn't have enough brain-cells active the night before to charge our equipment...whoops!) The good doctors didn't seem to share this outlook because our team (so me and Whitney) were tasked to come up with a solid plan for interviewing and observing the next day including and had to hand out assignments to those from the other teams who would be joining us the next day.
We felt we'd rather approach the day with less structure because we really didn't have a great understanding of what we would face the next day (Peruvians don't have the same sense of time/commitment as Americans) also we were loathe to pull our classmates from their projects. But despite our objections a plan was made and an attempt to be fully prepared was made.
After being released (literally; those who came by to consult on dinner plans were sent away until we finished) Larissa, Perry, Rydge and I went on a hunt for pollo a la brasa (Rydge's request). Eventually we found a place that seemed unlikely to poison us and at a cheap rate. We ordered a whole chicken and two liters of limonada to split between the four of us. The food was good, the company better. BONUS: we watched part of "Transformers" playing with in Spanish. Watching the movie was entertaining because the sound maybe in Spanish but the actors' mouths are clearly in an entirely different language.
 |
| The stove at the school. The best stove we saw, because it had a hood and chimney. |
We started off at the school talking with the women that cook there, and observing the oven built just last year. Unfortunately, it has fallen into disuse simply because it is not how they usually do things. We spent the afternoon (it took us about two hours to get up to Mattinga in a seven passenger van) measuring a couple of stoves and observing one woman cook.
 |
| The children at the school anticipating lunch. |
The woman we observed that first day probably also thought we were crazy, although she held it in better than the kids. What would you think if a bunch of foreign kids showed up at lunch time and wanted to watch you cook and take measurements of your stove?
 |
| Part of the team outside the house of the woman we talked to on the first day. |
 |
| Obligatory stove picture...I have waaay too many of these on my hard drive. |
We felt we'd rather approach the day with less structure because we really didn't have a great understanding of what we would face the next day (Peruvians don't have the same sense of time/commitment as Americans) also we were loathe to pull our classmates from their projects. But despite our objections a plan was made and an attempt to be fully prepared was made.
 |
| Second obligitory stove picture... yes... this is actually intersting... to some of us... |
No comments:
Post a Comment