3/19/12
Ay ay ay. So my task this week for Waaw is to cook for our 28 kids along with Margaux from New York/Holland. We got together ideas for the four days this week that we need to cook and came up with spaghetti, chicken/veggie noodle soup, chicken adobo, and a Quechua meal that was prepared in Margaux’s homestay… I originally forgot that we don’t have to cook on Fridays so we also have chili as backup. I went out Sunday afternoon and comparison shopped in two local supermercados for ingredients.
This morning we went to the store, bought all our ingredients for today and tomorrow and were quite pleased with ourselves for being under budget. This afternoon we got to the project, and with the help of our fellow volunteers we washed and chopped red peppers, carrots, onion, garlic, and lots of tomatoes… we cooked up our onions and garlic in a little oil, added the veggies, cooked them down, and … here’s maybe where we went wrong… added ketchup in place of very pricey tomato paste. We figured it has a similar consistency with spices and sugar, so it should be fine. And if you ask our volunteers or Margaux or myself, the sauce was delicious… it boiled down to a great consistency with the ground round beef we cooked and added. We added it to the tallarin (pasta noodles) and served it up to the kids.
When they were served they all said, ooo que rico! (ooo delicious!), but after a few minutes we had a myriad of reactions… a few of the kids liked it, a few of the kids were super polite and tried to choke it down, others just were not liking it which showed on their faces. Haha. One of my favorite little kids, Victor, who is always quick to give you a strong hug that lingers a bit (he’s adorable) actually really liked it and said, “Que rico la comida!” as he passed by. Later one of the other volunteers came into the kitchen laughing that Victor was telling him very enthusiastically that THE PEPPERS ARE THE MOST DELICIOUS PART! I love Victor. As long as he was happy with dinner, I’m happy.
So now I’m really worried about tomorrow’s planned chicken adobo because it seems that the sauce was too sweet for their tastes… and this recipe is pretty sweet as far as meat goes (correction, it’s salty from the soy sauce, I was thinking of Korean BBQ). It’s hard enough trying to please little kids when you’re cooking… it’s even harder to please them when they are from a different culture, because like I said, all the volunteers liked it (and we are from Belgium, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.).
Other than that, the program is going well. They selected 28 kids that need to be there the most due to family need after interviews with the parents on Friday. We only had 24 kids there today, so I’m not sure what happened with that… but they really seem to enjoy the activities and having help with their homework and are always very entertained by us, whether we are meaning to be funny or not. It’s a great program and a great group of volunteers right now… everyone gets along really well and is always willing to pick up a knife to chop veggies or come over to help with homework that another volunteer can’t figure out with our limited Spanish skills… I’m really happy to be a part of it. I just need to figure out how to feed Peruvian kids food they will like while hiding some veggies in their dinner :).
3/20/12
So today we cooked chicken adobo that my dad makes at home. This version is Filipino food… one of my favorites along with poncit. It required a lot less chopping than yesterday since we only needed garlic, onion and green onion in addition to the soy sauce and white vinegar. It’s super easy to cook since you just chop, throw everything in a pot, and let it cook down into delicious chicken and sauce for your rice. We used the excess chopped tomatoes from yesterday, added chopped cucumber and lime juice and salt, and we had a cool veggie (fruit?) salad for a side to counter the salty chicken. We also learned from yesterday that the kids are accustomed to the typical Peruvian custom of having a mate (tea that’s not just black tea) with their dinner, so I picked up manzanilla (chamomile) from the store this morning…
Everything was going so smoothly until our gas tank ran out… meaning we had no way to finish cooking the chicken, start cooking the rice, or boil the water for tea with only an hour until we serve dinner. So we quickly looked to the family that lives there for help… after a little confusion about how much gas we had (little versus none) we got a new full gas tank from a dude who brings it on a motorcycle and were back in business. Once again the volunteers were coming into the kitchen saying, “Wow it smells great!” which gave me no confidence because we all agreed yesterday that the pasta sauce was great… we started dishing out the food and soon heard the kids coming back from the park and clambering in to wash their hands. We dished out plates with minimal salad, rice, and chicken, because they are required to finish their food and yesterday some of them were pretty miserable. A few minutes later as I was still filling plates in the kitchen, I heard Stejn ask the kids if they liked the food and a resounding “SI!!” came from the room. I was soooo excited. (After yesterday I lost a little confidence in my cooking even though Ruben and my hostel family always seem to enjoy what I cook for them.) A little while later we had the kids coming back for seconds and even thirds… Seems we found a winner of a dinner recipe that we can use again! Thanks dad!
Also, we got a really sweet note from one of our girls, telling us that she loves us and thanking all of us for teaching her beautiful things. We tend to get little notes or flowers or hugs every day… and it never gets old. :)
And now some pictures, because things are always better with pictures and because you should see how cute our kids are.
Stejn and Shana teaching the kids about gallos y gallinas (roosters and chickens)
Trent and Maria helping with some puzzles
Georgia and Zack making words with the kids with scrabble tiles
Margaux and I having fun on kitchen duty… we eat a lot of chocolate from the tienda across the street to get us through, thus the happy faces
This little girl’s face says it all as she’s trying to figure out how she’s going to choke down this strange food… (spaghetti with sauce sweeter than they are used to)
Much happier campers today
Our precious letter of thanks today
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