La Granja

Some more things I have learned about being in Peru:

-It is totally acceptable to take a day off work for your birthday, but if you don’t everyone in the office will sing Happy Birthday songs to you and after the songs each person says something about how special you are to them.

-Keke is a cake without frosting, torta is a cake with frosting (important to know your desserts)

-The women in the park at 6:00 am take their yoga very seriously, sweat suits and all

-In Spanish it is important to have the right accent on words or else you can say weird things like stretch marks (estría) instead of to stretch (estirar), yep I did it

Yesterday (Thursday) I went to the La Granja (farm), which is an organic farm that makes yogurt and cheeses. It also houses Albergue, a safe place for women and children to go to leave their abusive situations. We went to have lunch there because it was the first official anniversary of the Albergue, technically it has been housing women for years unofficially. But it was quite an experience to get off the bus and be welcomed by so many smiling faces, children and women alike.

We had pachamanca for lunch, which is a specialty in Huánuco, I’m told they have it on every special occasion, and they even have a pachamanca festival every year. Traditionally pachamanca is made in the ground in a hole covered with stones. It only takes about an hour in the hole to cook perfectly. Pachamanca is made of carne (meat) in a green sauce, a papa (potato), and camote (sweat potato). It was absolutely delicious. For dessert we had masamorra, which has the tendency to look like snot (something the YAV volunteers and I had fun with constantly in Lima), but this one was actually quite delicious and apparently is really good for digestion! Who knew?

                                                  What pachamanca typically looks like

After lunch everyone went separate ways to play different games. I was fortunate enough to play volleyball with some of the girls who live there. Most of the girls had a volleyball team shirt on so I knew that they really enjoyed it. I did not realize, however, that I got into an Olympic volleyball match! Some of these girls were amazing, and me, well let’s just say I haven’t really played since high school and it was most definitely not my main sport, but the girls didn’t seem to mind. In fact they loved that I just took the time to play with them. What I enjoyed even more than the girls smiling was how confident they looked when they played. It’s essential to understand that these girls were victims of sexual abuse, most had children from that abuse and had to leave their families in order to find safety and peace. Yet they can still smile, love their children, and go to school everyday to make a better life for themselves. What power, hope and faith. It was breathtaking.