Study Abroad Peru 2013: May 2: Day 6 (Cusco)

On our last full day in Cusco Whitney and I headed up to Mattinga with several good helpers. After

Three of the very scary chickens...according to Whitney.

 setting up to measure in the President's house again I headed down the road to a new house that Hernan and Porter had found the day before. I set up to record emissions from that stove as it burned for lunch preparation, and then sat down with Kristen to help the women prepare lunch. It turns out neither of us is very good at peeling potatoes, yuka, or alba verde. But we are better at that than we are at communicating in our very broken Spanish and extremely limited vocabulary.

A little relaxing during lunch...

 However, we really did enjoy coming to understand their way of life better. Despite the fact that they do have some modern conveniences, such as electricity, a microwave and flushing toilets, they continue to be a hardworking and mostly humble people. Sometimes I wonder if all of the hard work we put into our lives is getting us to the place we want as it is for them. Also, they are such happy people that I wonder if we can't learn to find the same joy in our lives despite how we feel about our circumstances.

He's got candy! Get him!

The afternoon continued in much of the same way with us monitoring cooking habits and carbon monoxide while also learning about these people and their culture. We learned about a style of cooking used in the fields. They build a small pit of mud and dirt, light a fire inside, and then maintain the fire to heat the walls of the pit. After it is sufficiently hot they throw the food inside. Mostly it is potatoes, yuka and alba verde beans. Then they cave the mound in and bury the food for about 30 min or so as it cooks. When the food comes out it is extremely hot and delicious. Yuka is a small yellow root that looks similar to a potato, but tastes significantly better similar to a sweet potato.

Working on some ovens.

 After lunch almost  everyone else came up and we commenced trying to be helpful to the oven team as they tried to finish the prototypes they wanted to sell a couple to the women in Mattinga. At one point Porter and I decided to help out one of the families by doing a little work along side them in one of their fields. We helped cut and haul bean stalks to harvest them. We talked about a lot of things including the gospel and the industrious nature of these people. We also talked about what it would be like to move to a country and serve them like we are now for years.

Even Dr. Lewis gets in on the action

 The oven team managed to get enough ovens done that they could sell them and were satisfied with the work. A funny story from the ride home: On the way home I wasn't paying too much attention to the driver, but at one point I looked up because I heard a distinct *click* as he put in his buckle. I wondered what had made him change his mind, so I looked ahead and saw several police cars ahead with their lights on. I had to giggle because I know several Americans who have the same mindset.

After we got back a group of about 6 or 7 headed out to a Greek place for dinner that had been spotted a couple of days before. I had no idea you could find great Greek food in Peru, but apparently you can!

Just my five best friends...no big deal.