Cooking

Lunch was arroz verde (green rice) with chicken.  The rice has peas, corn, and carrots in it.  There was also a radish salad.  After lunch, I got to talk to my mom, and then Kelly and I headed over to the rancho to set up for her first cooking class.  Today was the older girls, and I think they're probably the easiest group for this task.  They seemed to really enjoy the class.  They made cookies that they later got to dip in chocolate and also made cupcakes.  The little kids will decorate the cupcakes later.  I was in charge of measuring out the ingredients.  Marita was very helpful.  She squeezed lemon juice for me and did a bunch of the dishes.  Each time we go to the rancho, I have to go up to the roof and start the water pump.  Glad I learned that trick last summer.

After the cooking class, we came back to the rancho.  I took a bunch of photos of the garden and orchard for Sarah.  I'm currently posting them on facebook, but they're taking forever to upload.  After my plant photo shoot, Kelly and I played hide and seek with Jhon, Alejo, and Marjorie.  The little boys squealed most of the time.  It was really cute and made them pretty easy to find.  Later they wanted to ride bikes.  I don't know if training wheels haven't made it to Peru or if HdE just doesn't have any bikes with them, but the little boys don't have it too easy.  I pushed Alejo around the place a couple of times, and Kelly pushed Jhon.  Jose Luis was content to push his bike around himself. 

Dinner was leftovers from lunch.  Arroz verde has never been my favorite, so I made some scrambled eggs.  I'm getting really good at those.  Meanwhile, we've run out of water jugs, so we gringos don't have any drinking water.  The office called the delivery people like 4 times today, but they still haven't come.  I was reduced to drinking a bottle of the Inca Kola I had bought.  It was great, but I hated to go ahead and use it, and that was a lot of caffeine all at once for someone who doesn't usually drink caffeine.  Oh well.  It's not like I had a lot of options.  I hope the water man comes first thing tomorrow.

Josue seems to be doing really well.  He told me yesterday that he's praying about his future because he'll be 17 in April.  I wanted to jump up and down.  He was in the kitchen when we helped Filo this morning, and Kelly and I got to talk with him some more.  He said he wants to be a chef after spending some time in the military.  Josue also helped out in the garden this morning and works as vigilante (night guard) a couple of hours each evening.  He told me he gets bored in the summer (which is now for them), but I'm glad to see that he's doing useful and helpful things with his extra time.

Kelly's downstairs baking the rest of the cupcakes.  I'm going to bed soon.  Tomorrow morning we're taking some of the kids to a pool.  How do you spell sunscreen?

I love you, and I think you're pretty.