Salsa, gardening and more

I seriously can’t believe how each day seems to top the day before. It’s amazing! Every day has something amazing happen. Friday I was invited to go to a cock fight that takes place here in Chaclacayo. The guy is American and we are going to have our trainers talk to him to find out the details. The fights are every Saturday night and me and some friends want to figure out the details to go. (It’s legal here, don’t worry) Also, Friday at my training center we learned more about how to cook different styles of food for once we get to site because there are different nutritional values of foods raw and cooked. There were some current Peruvian volunteers who came in and they taught us how fix chicken liver and cook chicken blood. They also taught us how to use chicken blood and chocolate to make chicken blood pancakes! And yes, I did try the liver, blood and pancakes. The liver and blood was ok, but I didn’t like them raw. If I could mix some rice and vegetables with it, I would be good to go. The pancakes were amazing!!!! I got the recipe for that one and I will search Peru top to bottom for some syrup for those. They said it’s good to know how to use chicken blood because if you go to the place that kills the chicken early enough you can get the blood for free.
After training I went with Bj, Nate, Kelsey and Kari to play 4 squares. This is apparently a very popular game in the USA that I was unaware of, but they all taught me to play and I totally won! You draw 4 giant squares about 5X5 feet and put a number in each one. The last person in the number 1 spot wins and the 4 square is where you start. You use a volleyball and smack it with your hands like your hand is a tennis racket, but lines knock you out of the game. It can only bounce one time in your square before you knock it to someone else’s square. It’s hard to explain in a blog, but it’s so much fun. Afterwards Bj and knocked our soccer ball around some and then headed home. For dinner that night I had the Peruvian style Chinese food that was pretty good and somewhat similar to that of the USA style Chinese food. As usual we watched our favorite TV drama, Al Fondo Hay Sitio. It’s so dramatic, but it helps my Spanish out a ton!
Then Saturday I went to Lima to Agraria University to learn how to make a garden. We got down and dirty with some fruits, veggies, dirt and seeds. I leaned what products will be available to me and how to use them. We walked all over this campo and they showed us which leaves we can eat. After how amazing the leaves were on some of these plants my friend Justin and I were picking leaves off everything to eat. We will probably pay for that later, but I did learn tons of new fruits I love. I only know the Spanish names for them though since everything was taught in Spanish (as usual). I swear I can hardly speak English now. I planted so much lettuce and other things today it was great. I feel like I might be growing a green thumb here.
On the way back I went with Bj, Juliet and a ton of the Environmental volunteers to eat at Bembos which is like the Peruvian McDonalds from what I could gather. It was amazing to finally eat some chicken nuggets. Bj, Juliet and I took a combi back and the first ride was in a mini combi. It is meant to hold 10 people and we had about 20 in it. It’s the size of typical minivan basically. We had to stand, but since it’s so small we basically all hunched over each other trying not to fall in the lap of those sitting. The next combi ride that took us the whole way was the kind I am used too. It was funny because in the traffic we got hit by another combi, but since it wasn’t bad we just kept moving. No need to see the damage if no one is hurt.
Saturday night was just amazing too. I went with about 10 people from the health group to Santa Eulalila to a place called Kis Kas for Cubano fest. They played salsa music all night long. There were about 25 trainees there and this club was huge and it’s outdoors. It was beautiful. I’m not going into much detail about the night because we were there for 4 hours. Haha. I am amazing at how some of the PCT guys can salsa! We flipped, turned and spun all over that dance floor. I am now officially a salsa dancing girl! I also met a local guy who taught me how to salsa dance. The music was so loud I couldn’t hear his name so I called him La Bamba all night. He taught me how to flip and turn faster! Haha. I can’t get over how much fun and somewhat easy salsa dancing is. The slick floor helped everyone slide around. Thank you South America! But Saturday night was probably my most favorite night there. I love my Environmental and Wat San people! My family gave me a key to my house so when I came home I could get it, but it was so hard to open that door. It’s like the lock and key would turn, but the door never opened. Bj and I even considered hoisting me on the roof and I could climb down my latter. Luckily on my final try I was able to open the door and head to bed. Best. Night. Ever. I love PC, my fellow PCTs, salsa dancing and everything here!