Oink!

While I am always quite surprised when a rifle passes by me in my host homes, I know it means pork for the next couple of days. Sr. Omar brought out the gun, which I didn’t know I was living with, and headed out into the night to a neighbor/relative’s house. Sra. Cirila then left in the dead of night a few hours later to what I can only imagine was to butcher what was left of the pig. And without fail, we ate plenty of pork for the next few days. (The difference being that this house has refrigeration, so I didn’t feel as bad about eating the meat after days of gathering flies on the counter of my last host family.)

Ciri asked me if I ate tamales. This is always a tricky question. Sure, I eat them, but it is the hidden treasure inside that I might not eat. I knew I wouldn’t be surprised by pig feet again as they know I don’t eat feet. Visions of delicious pork nestled inside the tamales danced in my mind as I responded with an excited “yes!”

I guess I wasn’t thinking: People raise pigs by fattening them. Therefore the pigs are fat when killed. Therefore people eat lots of fat. QED.

My tamale was filled with a two inch by four inch by one inch chunk of pig fat. There was no meat at all, as you can be sure I poked the jelly-like form. Chorizo is palatable if only for it’s texture as you can crunch into the fried shell as your teeth melt into the nuggets of fat and rip through the skin. If nothing else, the work required to eat chorizo makes it tolerable, not to mention it is smaller. But this was just soft lard. I couldn’t do it.

The first night I ate around it and slid it onto the top plate in the pile of dirty dishes. The second time I was alone in the kitchen and tried to throw it out to door to the dog or whatever animal might find it more appetizing than me. “Tried” is the operative word here. I wound back and released… only for it to hit the overhanging zinc roof with a resounding thud. So much for being stealthy!

You’d think that would be clue enough to keep the lard off my plate the next time. But for breakfast the following morning I found a chunk of unfried, soft pig fat on my plate sans tamale. This time I threw it within inches of the dog that gobbled it up before anyone was the wiser.

Adjusting Nicely

On Sunday I moved into my third and final host family. It is like a combination of my first two, though only the best parts of each. I am living with a real family again, aka with kids which make for great conversation. The girls are 5, 7, and 11 years old. And my host mom is around more, which makes me feel like I don’t have to leave the house too. My host dad is awesome too and wants to take me to the waterfall on this side of the community as well as Cerro Punta on the other side of the national park. And his brother brought me home in his truck the other day when it was raining. Major points. hehe

I have my own room too. I have a double bed, instead of the single (not twin) beds I’ve been accustomed to. Plus, it is my first mattress with springs in my community. Granted all you can feel are the springs, since there isn’t any padding left in the mattress, but hey, what can you do. The first time I picked up one of the pillows on the bed, I felt like I was lifting a dead animal. I guess the best way to describe the filling is perhaps strips of jeans tied in balls, and just as comfortable… I really have no idea what it is made of or why on earth anyone would make a pillow using it. But I bought my own pillow back in Training, so I’ve got that base covered.



It is a further walk from the rest of town, but the chiva will still drop me off on that side. I´ve finally included a picture of the Toyota Land Cruiser that is typically filled with 20 people (made to carry just 10) and at times is packed with over thirty. It is our own version of those contests to see how many people you can pack in the car, only this is daily with a real purpose.

It’s pretty amazing what you get used to. By now I’ve taken for granted that I will eat whatever is served in front of me. My host families and other community members do ask me what I don’t like to eat. I try not to make my list of things I don’t like eating too long in case that is what they were planning on serving. I do let them know that I don’t eat feet. After a surprise of a piglet hoof in my tamale at a birthday party, I’ve been making sure the community knows that I do not eat feet. Pig feet, chicken feet (haha, it’s not a monkey paw Scott), oh, and cow’s feet are not to enter my digestive system. Honestly though, it is all just skin and cartilage, with hairs of the beasts prinking out. Typically I would say yuck, but I’m learning to recognize that it is yet another cultural difference. I mean, the kids fight over them, so there must be something appealing. I was pasearing the other day as one woman was cutting up a pig’s ears and plopping them in a pot of beans. I’ll have to remember to add that to my list of things I don’t eat.

I mention that they are things that don’t exist in the States, so I am simply not used to them. It seems to hold over most people, though some take it as an invitation to offer the gringo something new. After two months of warding off chorizo, I was finally served a slab for dinner tonight. In the States I would avoid the white of bacon. Here on my plate prepared by my new host mom was a half inch thick, inch and a half wide, and three inch long chunk of fried pork skin and fat. At least she was nice and gave me a small piece! I ate it, thinking of happy thoughts instead of where all that extra fat is going to pegar on my body. That’s another thing, the new question for me is “Have you gained weight?” or “You look más gordita.” Hmmm, yes I do. Could it be meals of pure fat? The fact that just about everything is fried? Or perhaps is the typical meal of top ramen and spaghetti soup, spaghetti with tomato sauce, and rice dinner? I think I’m certainly getting my fill of carbs here!!! So I can’t wait until I can cook on my own and choose what I eat again.

I start my English class on Saturday. I am a little afraid of who is going to show up. I’m labeling the class as Intermediate, but I have a feeling many beginners and little kids sent by their parents might try to sign up. Plus, I’ve decided that since I don’t really want to teach English, I am making it basically an environmental education class simply with lots of English words throw in. hehe I put in a lot of the past month planning topics, vocabulary, grammar, activities, and methods to evaluate the class. I’ve got my fingers crossed it will pay off and run somewhat smoothly. One of the gringo’s in town is going to help me with the first few classes too. After I finalize who I am going to let stay in the class and who has got to go, I’ll be making it official with the Ministry of Education. (At least that’s the plan.)

¿Qué más? Oh, speaking of school, it’s pretty much a mess right now. No construction has happened for the past month. The representante won’t show, and class is still in the rancho communal. The teachers pushed for suspending class completely (which thankfully didn’t fly), and another meeting will be held on Monday to see what they are going to do. People are supposed to come today (didn’t happen) or tomorrow to check everything out, including the possibility of holding class in the half remodeled school. Oye. I am pushing the Padres to go to the Ministry of Education and get something done about the amount of days the teachers are missing too. So many little projects…

I’m inventorying the vivero too. Admittedly, I stopped after the second day of getting through just four species and over 500 plants when I ran into a monstrous ant nest. I have the worst luck with ant bites, and boy do they hurt! The trees aren’t going to be planted any time soon, unfortunately, so I’ve got time. Man though, one of the guys in town got bit by a scorpion when I was at his house chatting with his wife. He said the pain shot right up his arm into his chest and didn’t go away as we watched his finger turned black. Note to self, do not touch any creepy crawlies around here!

Life is going fine here in Cabecera. Hope this latest update finds you equally well! I miss you all and hope you had a great Labor Day!

Potty Talk

I don’t know quite why it happens… but I feel like every time I step across the threshold into a new room, I end up taking a deep breath and absorbing all it has to offer. Take note next time you enter a room. My favorite is the kitchen, as it typically offers fresh smells of what will soon be devoured.

However, when I turn back the curtain and take that same whiff of the outdoor latrine, it just isn’t the same. I now consciously take a deep breath before heading in that direction, but sometimes I can’t hold my breath that long or I simply forget. The resulting odor is as ripe as countless years of use of the same a poop hole can be.

With various gnats and flies forming a makeshift cushion over the wooden “seat,” I dare not touch any part of me to the wood. Hovering over the seat to go pee is no problem, just like camping only you have to maintain a higher stature to clear the seat. I drink plenty of coffee and chicha to use it quite frequently. However, the main foods I eat are fried (read fats) and mountains of platanos (plantains). With their powers combined, they create quite the digestive plug. After not going number two for about a week and knowing I was consuming way more food than I ever have in my life, I decided it was time. Squatting proved to be more exercise than I could muster with my out-of-shape quads burning at the end of each try. I tried with all my might to clear my bowels, but I couldn’t. From the stress of the hike the day before, my quads were burning and my bowels weren’t about to budge. I considered it and weighed all my options (which were few).

So I sat.

I tried leaning against the side and presumably less used part of the seat. At least there were fewer stains on the side I chose. After successfully completing my mission, I could become a spokeswoman for Purell and the new uses for their disinfectant after applying it liberally.

I am happy to report that by incorporating more food groups into my diet, or perhaps picking up a parasite, I haven’t had to sit since.

La Comida

I just got back from two weeks of traveling. Looking ahead to this month, we've got a week in Santa Clara, a week at our sites, another week in Santa Clara, then a week in Ciudad del Saber, and finally Swear In when we become official Peace Corps Volunteers. It's a lot of traveling and moving around, but I can't wait. Catching up from where I left off last, I headed out to the mountains of Chiriqui for my Cultural Week. Think lots of coffee, lots of mountains and trees, lots of rain, lots of mud, and more rain. I walked through a coffee plantation to get to my host family every morning and night.

You might be thinking that with so much Arabica coffee growing, and home to the most expensive coffee in the world (that hasn't passed through an animal's digestive system), we would be drinking some pretty fine coffee. Well, just about all of that coffee is shipped out to customers such as yourselves. Panamanians drink Duran, which I've been told by an organic coffee grower contains a mix of roasted coffee beans not fit for higher grade brands and burnt corn for added volume. Yum! I'm not the connoisseur yet, and still can't taste much coffee regardless due to all the sugar each cup contains. Every morning my cup also had a nice surprise of cheese hidden in the bottom. We're talking a chunk of cheese (queso fresco) about half an inch thick, an inch wide, and another two or three inches long. I don't think it flavored the coffee too much, and I couldn't bring myself to eat more than a nibble of the cheese. Therefore the family dog could probably tell you how it actually tasted better than I can.


Panamanian dogs have been indispensable in maintaining my relationship with host families. Anything I can't or don't want to eat goes to the little guys. I have a rock at my house in Santa Clara where I can dump off any leftovers for the dog. My Chiriqui host mom took the bus to work before I woke each day, leaving me free to feed the dog any fried Spam or coffee-cheese I didn't want to consume. The dinners were all great, so I didn't have to worry about sneaking food away when the family was there. In Herrera, I ate all my food, no matter how full I was since my host family was so great to me. I did have several theme songs running in my head as I was eating. For example, the morning when I was served two whole hotdogs for breakfast (in addition to several tortillas, a cup of coffee, and a cup of crema), I had the song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" stuck in my head. They just reminded me so much of Ballpark Franks you can buy in the States. Hehe. Then on another morning when I was served a monstrous portion of alhaldres (fried dough), I kept thinking of my high school field hockey coach yelling "Finish It!" from the sidelines. Growing up we got to draw a line down the middle of our plates and only eat half if we couldn't finish. Too bad the same rules don't apply here!

My first experience with crema deserves a word. Evidently there are several types of crema.
However, I have only been served one type, appropriately named crema de harina, aka cream of flour. Basically, you pour some milk and flour into a pot, heat it up until most of the flour dissolves into the mixture, and are left with a thin yet chunky batter. Yum! There are also cremas made with strawberry, others with oatmeal, etc. Speaking of oatmeal, I also had my first taste of oatmeal chicha.

Chicha is the all encompassing word for juice here. It can be blended fresh from pineapple or mixed up from a packet of Tang. We made some chicha de caña, squeezed right from the sugar cane stalks. It is quite a lot of work, but well worth it especially with a bit of lemon juice mixed in. I even had banana chicha made by cutting a banana in quarters, popping it in a glass, adding a bit of milk, sugar, and cinnamon. This one is eaten with a spoon and was by far the most delicious concoction that I have tried. Best of all, I had banana chicha in Chiriqui, which means there is a very good chance of having it in my community many times over the next two years!

These last two weeks were filled with activities. I toured and worked in organic farms and school gardens, introduced to the Ngobere language which hopefully I´ll be adding to in site, shown many medicinal plants, learned how to make sombreros, taught in the schools, had an amazing Despidida (goodbye party) and can´t wait to see my Herrera host family again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is just about the best day ever. Unfortunately, not all of it had to do with Thanksgiving which isn't celebrated here. I went to work as normal and not a word was said about the holiday. Come on! Both Laura and Rodrigo are taking English class, and you'd think that they'd mention something about it in class. Heck, the whole point of Spanish class as I remember it was to celebrate El Dia de Los Muertos and Cinco De Mayo. Perhaps that's why I didn't recollect much of the actual vocab and grammar... shucks.

Anyhow, after work I decided that I was going to do what any good American would do on an American holiday: visit some American stores. :) I jumped on the bus to the shopping center outside of the city. (It is one of about 3 buses I take regularly.) First stop was to see what American movies were playing. Unfortunately most of the good ones weren't starting until about 8pm, and it was about 2pm when I got there. I then grabbed a frappacino at McCafe, McDonald's version of Starbucks. It was delightful, although a lot smoother (aka melted) than a normal frap, but it did the trick. With my input of caffiene I began my shopping excursion at Walmart.

Now, don't get on my case about this. I honestly do love the store because of it's offerings, despite it's problems. With every turn of the aisle (yes, I go up and down every one, perhaps multiple times, at any grocery store no matter how many times I've been there) I was delighted by new finds. I picked up come capichino mix. Mmmmm. And I finally found canela (aka cinnimon) which I've been looking for since I got here. Then I found beer in a can, so I don't have to pay for the rediculous redemption cost of a bottle. (It isn't a formal kind of add-on, so whatever little store you go to writes on a scrap of paper that you can get your dollar (2 pesos) back when you buy your next beer there. I'm sure it is a great way to keep loyal customers, but I'm just not into that...) I also found, get ready for this... Peanut butter! It isn't the same as home, so I was a little set back, but I figured it was better than nothing. I lugged my grocery bags onto the bus and headed home.

On the bus I FINALLY got a call from the lab saying my results were in! Yay!!! Absolutely everyone in the office knows me know, since I've been there about 10 times. I considered hopping off the bus near the lab, but decided against it since I had my hands full. Once I got back to the apartment, the doorman stopped me before I went up the elevator. He had a package for me!

So I received the package from him (thanks to Mom), making my day even better. Once I got up the the apartment, the first thing I did was take care of the important stuff. I popped the beers in the freezer to chill. :) I couldn't wait that long though, so taking a cue from Jeff's mom, I filled up a glass with ice cubes and poured my beer in. Mmmmm. Then I was ready to open Mom's box. I got a brand new book to read and... REAL peanut butter!!!! I am so stoked to try it. It's been a LONG time.

I hopped back on the bus, picked up my results and even got my receipt to be reimbursed by PC for it. I still have to translate the results and go back to the doctor to have him sign everything off, but that should all be taken care of on Tues. On my way out of the office, the other secretary lady waved to me and asked how everything was going. (I had to go to her about 5 times I think.) I'm pretty popular there. hehe

Once I got back to my apartment, I cooked up my lovely Thanksgiving dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce (compliments of the international foods section in Walmart). It even all turned out well. Yes! Oh, and my appetizer of beer, chips (again only found at Walmart), and guac dip (avocados only at Walmart... see where I'm going with this?). Yummmm!

So that's my Thanksgiving. I hope you are all doing well! I miss you all!!!

Much love,
Kerry

Yum!

I just made my very first cream sauce from scratch! It really turned out great. I had some initial problems with it being too thick. I thought adding more milk would help, was afraid it was too thin, and added more flour. I now know being patient would have been the better option. Oh well, it still turned out well. I'm proud of myself. hehe

It makes up for the flop of my corn tortillas I tried making the other day. The recipe on the internet said it only requires corn meal and water... The problem was they tasted like corn meal and water. I didn't have a method of making them really thin, so perhaps that contributed to their lack of taste, as any bit was a whole lot of nothing. Add to that the fact that my second batch of hummus wasn't as good as the first (added too much liquid and tried thickening with some of the corn meal...). Oh well, I'll get the hang of that some other time. Perhaps I'll just go back to buying "pan arabe" at the store. It's only like $0.50 for a whole bag of them. hehe

So there are my adventures in culinary delights. (Yes I know, it's not much...) I plan on bbq-ing some more this up coming week. Those steaks I made the last time were delicious! I'm in the mood to host a Thanksgiving dinner now. hehe I'll spread the word to Laura and have her invite the other girls in her English class I met at the party the other week. yay!

Mate

Mate is definitely a cultural distinction of Argentina. I can't remember if I have explained it before, but it is basically like loose tea that you fill a hollowed our gourd with. Then you pour really hot water into it from a thermos, of which only about a quarter cup of water fits in the vessel at a time. You drink the mate out of a metal straw. Once you have sucked it dry, then you pass it back to your host. They refill it with water and pass it to the next person. This repeats again and again until all the hot water is gone.

Boy is the water hot!!! Because it is kinda a cultural necesity to share mate when offered, I always feel obligated to drink it. But the water is just sooooo freakin hot sometimes. Whenever I make it, I make sure to combine the boiling water with some room temp water to cool it down a bit. Not everyone plays nice though.

Tonight, I burned my mouth worse than I ever have. I mean, I've eaten hot foods before, sipped on hot coco or coffee a little too early and gave my tongue a run for it's money. However, I can honestly say that I burnt the roof of my mouth. How might I be so sure? I literally have a huge blister on the roof of my mouth!!! I thought I just had something caught up there... but I hadn't eaten any leafy anything or, well, anything that felt similar to the sensation my tongue kept prodding. Armed with my headlamp and mirror, I was able to confirm that yes, that was my own skin. Gross.

During dinner (which started at almost 11pm), it popped and I was able to fish the excess skin from my mouth. Yum. I was really too tired to care though. We JUST got back at 1:30am from DINNER. Oye. (I wrote the rest of this email before we left.) To say I'm sleepy is an understatement. Pues, buenas noches!

Learn Something New Every Day

First, I have to catch this up a bit...

On Wednesday, I played tour guide for Ben and Rodrigo out in the field as Martin and I changed the entire numbering system for our nest boxes to incorporate new boxes we will be placing next week. After checking all the nests which took forever since we didn't split up, Ben and I headed off to Santo Tome. I've taken the bus there, but instead of getting off at the terminal where we could easily catch it, we got off our collectivo much earlier. After waiting at one corner, switching to another corner (again having no clue if the bus actually travels on that street), we hailed a cab to jet us over. Then we started making some new boxes with all the wood we ordered last week.

We kicked butt! I drilled all the holes for every screw Martin set in place. The two of us also put traps on every box as well. (Ben drilled the hole for the door in the front piece of wood and cleaned up while waiting for us to finish.) We were like a well oiled machine. I was actually a little afraid that I was going to drill my fingers or Martin's at the rate we were going! By the end of the day, we started and finished 45 new boxes!!! Anyone want a bird house for Christmas? I'm an expert at making them now! hehe

We got back to the apartment at around 8pm, so instead of making dinner, we went out to celebrate. Every day when we take the taxi to our field site, we pass this Arabian restaurant. I've been eyeing it and was quite interested in trying it out. (We've probably gone out to dinner twice a week and have tried all kinds of places. Because real dinner isn't served until after 8:30pm though, most of what we've tried has been sandwiches (and burgers, lomos, etc).) Well, I ordered lamb which was served with onions on top (cebollado). Yum! It was cooked so which is a big difference between the pan fried steak Ben's been dishing up at the apartment. He ordered some kind of ground beef scoop marinaded in a lime juice or something. I liked mine way better! hehe. For desert I had oranges baked and drizzled with a sugary syrup. Mmmmm.


Okay, yesterday I worked with Rodrigo out in the field while Martin and Ben paired up. Each team was tasked with catching some birds and checking the nests on their side of the field. Our first nest to catch the female in was tipped upside-down by a cow and all the eggs were on the ground around the box, broken in half mid-incubation. It was too bad to see that there weren't going to be any chicks from that nest, but as Rodrigo said, it's less work for us. We checked all of the nests in that section (before ducking under the fence) and then processed the next female. We did all of that before the others even caught their first bird. Yes, we rock! Then we checked some more nests, measured some chicks, and tried catching a female that needed to be painted. (I've painted all of mine with a bright blue fat sharpie, but some of them either weren't painted at all, or got a speckling with a fine-point black pen. Yeah, as you might imagine, it is a little tricky to tell the males from the females as they are flying around if they are only a little bit more grey. Mine look like a whole new species!!!) We couldn't catch her again, as this was the same bird that took several days when she was incubating. Now with chicks in the nest, she has no reason to sit there forever. Oh well. We gave up and finished the rest of the nests.

By this point, Martin split up from Ben and finished checking the nests on their side. Ben was still trying to catch his bird. Rodrigo and I were walking to see if they needed any help when I froze... About three feet ahead of me lay a snake with a distinct triangular shaped head. In my book, that means bad news, so I asked Rodrigo to confirm that it was dangerous (peligroso). He replied with "do you want to take some pictures?" and "beni-noso". I'm flipping through my mental Spanish dictionary and it's not ringing any bells. So then I do the next best thing and run through possible English cognates... beni-fit, bene-volent, etc. Ummm, that doesn't make too much sense. Peligroso, si? Muy beninoso. Hmmm... still not helping, answer my question. Ohhhhhhh, light come on. So what you're saying is, this is the most venomous (actually spelled "venenoso" in Spanish) snake in all of South America. With this realization, I take a couple steps back. I think this snake doesn't need quite the intimate photo shoot Rodrigo seemed keyed up for. hehe, oh foreign languages...

We told Martin who after fixing the broken box joined me in telling the ranchers. Rodrigo left with one of them to go find it again and kill it. I am all about letting wildlife be, but these snakes can give birth to 60 live, venomous babies. Then with each bite, then inject more than double enough venom to kill a person, let alone all the cattle, horses, and little kids the ranchers have running around. Needless to say, the snake is no more. The main rancher (whose name I can't remember for the life of me) told Marin and I an interesting remedy for a snake bite. When his dogs have been bit by snakes, he injects kerosene into them. We asked all kinds of questions like how much and where to gain a better understanding. Evidently it would work for people too, but he said an alternative for treating people is to drink a mixture of milk and garlic. I don't think I want to try it just to see if it works. I'll try my luck at the hospital if I ever need to. But it is definitely neat to know that in a situation far from any medical treatment and without antivenom, you can live from such a bite. I'd love to learn all those little tricks, which makes me even more excited for Peace Corps. hehe

Today Ben and I had our day off. We split up and he paid for our accident insurance. (I am now covered with Argentina accident insurance, Cornell's International SOS health insurance, and my own travel health insurance. Overkill, doncha think?) I walked to the post office (12 blocks) and picked up the certified mail we got a notice about, which turned out to be our accident insurance papers. I also hunted down a stationary store to buy an envelope. That was another little lesson in Spanish, as I couldn't remember the word for envelope. I knew letter was "carta" and I had what I needed to send in my hand. So I told the lady I needed to send a letter, pointing to the paper I had in my hand. She then directed me to some nice, blank pieces of paper. Umm, let's try this again. I need to send this paper, and I need one of these (Pointing to the envelopes I just picked up), but smaller. Yes, success! I then went back to the post office and waited in line again. When I got to the counter, I told the lady I needed to sent "una carta certificado" or a certified letter. She just took the letter, gave me a price which was way less than I expected and slapped a stamp on it. No, I know what the word is this time, and you didn't even listen to my bad Spanish!!! :) (I didn't say that to her, but just repeated what I said the first time.) She looked annoyed, but totally understood that yes, I didn't just want to send the letter internationally, and that I pay a lot to send a little piece of paper in the mail that I had already faxed to it's destination. (That's how I see it at least.) But I'm not paying for it... if I ever get my reimbursement, that is.

Then instead of heading back to the apartment, I set out with my camera. I found llamas, picaries, flamingos, parrots, foxes, tapirs, pumas, and more!!! Yes, I took the bus up to the zoo. (I mapped out the bus system here in Santa Fe and have been exploring the city. Yes Jeff, that means that I have seem more than just Walmart. hehe Oh, speaking of which, I made peanut butter yesterday!!!! I was in a desperate search for a cheap, yet functional blender which I found at Walmart. I'm happy now. lol) At the zoo, there were no maps, no brochures, no gift shop, just animals. It was a different experience with the focus really just on seeing the animals. All the big animals were in similar enclosures which consisted of grass at varying heights and a house for the animal to get out of the sun all surrounded by a fence. The birds had perches to sit on, the monkeys had trees and swings to play on, and the nutria (think huge rat) had water to swim in. It wasn't the best zoo I've been to, but for a small city in a country with a struggling economy, it better than I expected. And for a dollar to get in, I'll have to go back to just watch the animals some more and perhaps sketch a little.

Just as I was leaving the zoo, the same Mormons were coming back down the street that passed up the street as I was going in the zoo. I had been kicking myself for not talking to them. When we passed the first time, they said "hola" and I replied with a "Hi." They each did about ten double takes as they walked further up the road. So we had a chat about where we were from and all that kind of stuff. I learned that they stay in each town for about 6 weeks and are in the country for a total of almost two years. For one of the kids, it was just his first month here while his partner was finishing up his mission. Then at the bus stop an older gentleman (who I stopped earlier looking at a map) asked me what I was doing and the like. He overheard me speaking in English and there you go. hehe. He's just traveling all around Argentina with this trip scheduled to last 5 weeks. (His Spanish is about at the level of a second week Spanish 1 student. I'm definitely more appreciative of my own ability now!) After practically a month here, I'm running into all kinds of Americans! Several stops before my apartment, another pair of Mormons boarded the bus. I would have talked to them too, but I needed to get off too soon. Crazy though.

Tonight I made the best dinner ever. I still have no clue how to control the heat in the oven. It is gas powered and there aren't any labels on the knob to tell you how hot the oven is going to be. We need to get a thermometer before I try baking cake or something. Anyhow, I put some foil down on a pan, drizzled it with oil, and sprinkled some salt, pepper, and seasonings. Then I plopped down some chicken breasts and repeated the same base layer on top with the addition of some chopped onions and tomatoes. (I realized too later that we were out of peppers.) I folded down the foil into a little packet and popped it in the oven (which is supposed to be at 400F but who knows what it was) for 30-45 min. (I think I took it out closer to 45 min after a bit of a disaster cooking the rice too high. Smoke. Bad.) The chicken turned out so well though. It was so tender and would have been even juicier had I cooked it properly. It was still loads better than anything we have eaten here at the house though. hehe Well, I take that back, I now can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. mmmmm

Peanut butter and BBQs

Well, I just got back from my jog and had a great time. Then instead of coming straight back to the apartment, i went on a search for a blender/food processor to grind my peanuts. I was hoping to just pick up a cheap one... but that might not be possible. The cheapest they had was $30 USD, which is a little disappointing as then they jump to $45. (It makes me think that the cheaper one is actually cheap. Too bad. They had normal blenders all the way up to $100 and more! I was hoping to spend about $15 bucks on one. Kels got Scott a coffee grinder for pretty cheap for his birthday, like I know she didn't spend more than $15, probably about $10 if I recall. I only saw one coffee grinder here and it was again $30.

So in defeat, I picked up a burger off the street. Not literally, it was at a food stand. I thought it would be about 2 pesos, as I had a 2 bill. Nope, when it turned out to be 3 pesos, and I only had another 100 bill and no change. I felt so bad for the guy as he pretty much gave me all the change he had to break my 100. Oops. It was a pretty good burger though, nothing special, but not covered in all the grease and fat that you might associate with a street vendor. Perhaps the burger didn't quite counteract the affects of my run. hehe

Then I went to the grocery (like a corner produce store). I picked up some more fruit, as I ran out quickly from my last shopping trip. Si, un kilo por favor. Beer caught my eye when asked for anything else, so in good nature, I got one of those too. I have to support the local cervaceria (beer factory), don't I? Well, when I got back to the apartment, I ingeniously stowed away my beer in my extra nalgene. After a bit of a trying day in the field today (not to much with me), I figured I could use a good, whole beer. No more of these splitting a single beer between two people (60/40 not in my favor), or even just drinking one out of dixie cup sized glasses. yum. My theory proved correct that just as I finished preparing my new beverage, Ben was sitting at the table of the family room, complained about the tv, left, asked me for one of my apples I just bought, and then returned to complain about the new show that just came on. Good thing I didn't have to wait until he finished drinking my beer too! hehe.

Last night was a blast. After arriving at Martin's house an HOUR late because Ben had a fight with his wife and wanted to get a drink beforehand, I had a chance to mingle with Martin and his wife. She is so bubbly and friendly. I just love her! Martin is such a great guy as well. He's the best host/boss we could have. Perhaps a good description would be the friendliness and concern of a kindergarten teacher, the fun and determination of a frat guy, and the ease of conversation of a friend you've known forever. Anyhow, they decided to have a Argentinian asada bar-b-que for us. That basically means take about a whole cow, cut it up in various pieces, pop all of it in the bbq (which looks like a brick pizza oven), and enjoy! There was sooooo much food and it just kept coming. We had appetizers of cold, bite size pieces of steak dipped in a veggie mayonnaise sauce. Then we had sausages, one that was probably normal and the other "blood sausage". I have no clue what all was in them, but yep, I'd say the later was at least 50% blood. When in Argentina! Then we had one cut of steak. And then another. (By this time I was stuffed.) But then Martin took even more off the bbq. (The pics are from an asada that we had about two weeks later out in the campo.)

I couldn't eat any more, so they switched from beer to some other kind of drink. I can't remember the name of it, but it starts with an "f" (perhaps some fennel-based alcohol...ah it's Fernet) mixed with coke. It was pretty good. Then came the coffee and tea (which I didn't take). Ohhh, I forgot the ice cream in between. mmmm. Then Martin's wife cooked up some marshmallows for us which she had a kick out of. I guess you can't get them anywhere but Walmart here, so most people haven't had them. mmmm :)

That about catches things up here. Hope ya'll are doing well!

Dinner

Last night I had the best dinner ever. Sorry Mom, but this stuff was just cooked so deliciously. :) Martin picked Ben and I up at, gasp, 10pm for dinner. It was early for he and his wife to eat, and ummmm a little late for us. So it was pretty much a compromise for the two parties. We went to a resturant by the river that had all kinds of pictures and memorabilia up on the walls with the owner posing with all kinds of famous people. That's Argentinian famous, as I couldn't tell who was important in each picture. It made for a great atmosphere though. And there were also some beastly dogs roaming around in the restaurant, which Martin assured us is NOT a cultural difference and not accepted here as well.

As far as I could tell, it was a kind of all you can eat, family style restaurant. I really don't know what exchanges took place between Martin and the waiters, as all I could pick up was him requesting what I wanted to drink. Beer, yum. Did I mention that there is a cerveceria in Santa Fe? Yep, that's a HUGE beer making factory that produces about four different kinds of beer for my consumption. Okay, it probably makes some for other parts of the country too if you want to get down to specifics. Anyhow, the restaurant was perched on the side of the river and specialized in seafood. I think specialized is too vague a term, as all we ate was one platter of fish after another. First we were treated to fish empanatas. (Think of the type of bread that makes up a chicken pot pie and cross that with a hot pocket shaped in a semicircle and fill it with fish!) It was the best empanata that I've had so far. Mmmmmm. Then came little fishy meatballs in a red sauce. They were good, but they fall low on my list from all the other yummy things we had. Then we had a huge fish that looked as if it had just been plucked from the ocean and immediately roasted in the oven with garlic and probably some buttery goodness. It was delicious!!! We each just dug our forks into the fish (which come to think of it probably looked a lot like all those dead ones that line our field site...) and ate the meat from it. Most of us grabbed a chunk, brought it to our plates, and got the bones out of it before bringing it to our mouths. However, this didn't seem to phase Ben who I imagine got at least one bone in every bite which he had to fish out of his mouth before taking in the next bite. Once Ben cleaned off the last bit of meat from this fish, we were brought another, smaller fish that was cut into steaks and fried. Yum again. I was stuffed by that point, but they then ordered another one of the big flat fish. I didn't touch any more of it, but I definitely want to return to that restaurant!

Once we were done, Martin dropped us off at our apartment. By now it was 1am. Mind you, all we did was go to a restaurant and eat dinner. And this is early for Argentina dinner???? I slept well, though woke up every so often to the howling wind which has accompanied us for the past two days. The weather has warmed up quite a lot since arriving. Evidently, it had been raining for two solid weeks before we got here. Add that to the fact that it was one of the coldest winters they've had in a long time, and I don't feel that bad about feeling so cold those first few days. I no longer need my down jacket as much, but it is certainly very comfy in inclimate weather!

Even though I took a nice nap after work today, I think I need a bit more shut-eye before more work tomorrow. Oh, and just to give you something to do... try to estimate the amount of feathers both inside and then outside the nest cup using this picture. That's pretty much all I can see when I have to do the same. Yeah... I don't imagine the stats on this count are going to be too reliable.

Brrrrrrrrr

Okay, so it is very cold here. I'll just get it out now, so I don't have to dwell on it throughout my time here. Granted, it is warmer here than in Nome. However, I was simply expecting it to be much warmer here and because I feel it should be warmer, I'm being stubborn. Because it does get so hot during the summer, which isn't for quite a while, buildings aren't heated. So, as I sit here in my polarfleece, shivering, I hope you realize that I haven't avoided the winter chill that will be arriving shortly in your locales. My feet are numb, approaching the color of my dark wash denim jeans. And for once, I am actually wearing socks all the time and am considering buying a hair dryer to stay warm. That's a whole other story...

My first shower here was delightfully warm. In fact, I think I created a new microclimate for the apartment when I opened the bathroom door and all the steam flooded the hallway. However, my shower this morning and then upon my return from the field were as cold as the glacial spring in Nome, Alaska. I have a feeling Ben jumped in the shower right after I turned mine on, accounting for both the drop in water pressure and drop in temperature. However, a "drop" simply does not conote the total lack of water above freezing. There was not a drop of warm water mixed in with the rest of the flow. I jump under the spout, wet my hair, lather up, then jump back under to rinse off. I could care less if my hair doesn't look as nice without conditioner, but I am not going to spend the extra time freezing wet that would take to add that step! Brrrrrr!

Okay, so that being said, we finally made it into the field today. Now, it's not like I've been here forever, it's just we didn't go yesterday as planned. Our site is amazing. On first glance it might be a little disappointing. It's on land owned by the University yet rented by a rancher. There are lots of cows and horses roaming around, and even quite a few sheep. There are a bunch of lagoons everywhere (aka mosquito breeding grounds when it finally does warm up). And due to low oxgen levels in the water a while ago, there are tons of dead fish everywhere. Luckily, they've been out of the water long enough that they don't smell quite so ripe.

The site has TONS of birds though. In addition to all of our swallows, there are just about any kind of bird you can think of. We've got burrowing owls (I finally got to see some after all my time in SW Florida wanting to catch a glance at some), parrots, wading birds, shore birds, birds from families that aren't even in the States. Lots and lots of birds! The only problem is, that I've never seen so many of them. That is a great thing... but compound learning a new species by the fact that it is named in a different language, and then a scientific name might thrown out, and after asking I'll get the English common name. That's a whole lot of info at once! I'm still just absorbing things right now, so in time I'll actually learn all the species. It's awesome though!

Oh and I can't forget that we also saw capybara today. These are the largest rodents in existance. Think of a guinea pig on some serious steroids, and you'll have a good idea of what I am talking about. Don't worry, I'll have pictures soon as I don't think they'll be going anywhere.

Our site will be flooding as the season wears on. I'm not talking about some puddles we'll need to walk though. The water already reached over my rubber boots and soaked my socks and pants today as we crossed a wet spot in the path. It will get to the point where we'll need a boat to reach our nest boxes. Last year, the water rose about 6 feet as we could see on all the trees, nest boxes, etc. (At least I think it was last year... I know there was a huge flood in Santa Fe in 2003, but I think there was another one at least in this part last year as well. As you might imagine, details such as this are lost to me in translation.) I don't know what we are going to do when the water is deep, but not quite deep enough for a boat. How I do miss my waders!

After checking the boxes that were already up (about 50) for nests and eggs, we went to the institute to build some more nest boxes. I must say that I am quite good with my power tools as blasted through the nests. Martin and I had quite a system going while Ben was in the other room. Upon his return, he took over for Martin and we finished up the rest of the boxes. It worked pretty well, but combine OCD with a project that doesn't require being exact (aka screws perfectly flush with the wood, etc) and I had to chuckle a bit.

When we got back to the apartment, the owner and her family were there. She explained that the metal covers for our windows needed fixing and asked which I wanted fixed first. I said my smaller one by the desk instead of the slider one, as it needed to be kept closed. I really had no clue what was going on, but just kinda guessed, and sure enough, the workers came in and my window above the desk it apart right now with the metal cover (think of a garage door with multiple slats rolling down to cover the window) blocking any view or light. I think they are coming back tomorrow with the parts to finish it up and then they'll do the other side. I could be wrong, again trying to figure things like that out in a different language kinda flies right over my head.

She made Ben and I dinner with an assortment of foods, a plethora would be more appropriate. We had two types of pizza, two types of empanadas (a stuffed pastry filled in these cases with ham and cheese and the other with ground beef), and a type of grilled ham and cheese sandwich that also probably has a special name. Then she brought out dessert and cut each of us a slice of ice cream cake covered in a hard chocolate and nut shell. It was divine, as it was chocolate ice cream on the bottom and toffee ice cream on top, with a liquid nugget of dulce de leche in the middle. After we finished, she insisted we couldn't be done yet, and cut us each another piece of the ice cream that was probably double the first. Though my stomach was already bursting at the seams, we both looked at each other and figured we couldn't offend our host. You can be sure though that I much rather would have liked to save it for later and savor it over the next couple of days. Oh well, it sure tasted great and I bet I'd be able to find it in the store if I crave it over the next couple of months.

I forgot to mention that yesterday Ben and I went out to dinner. Mind you, people here don't eat until 9:30 or 10pm!!! So not only was it very special for our host to make dinner just for the two of us and all of them to join us at the table to talk, you can imagine that finding dinner by ourselves at a normal US time wasn't possible. We left the apartment a little past 7pm and received strange looks from the waiters in the restaurant we tried. We ended up walking around town for the next hour or so. We are very close to the city center, which is great as we don't have a car. We ambled down the pedestrian street filled with stores of all kinds which I'll definitely be taking a look at later. After eventually making our way back to the restaurant we tried earlier, we were served. Before our dinner came, we received a basket of bread and crackers. With that came a brown looking spread which I tried. It tasted remotely like chicken, in a strange kind of way. Yep, you guessed it, it was chicken pate, basically, spreadable chicken liver if you aren't familiar with it, as I certainly wasn't. It didn't taste all that bad, but upon learning this, I couldn't bring myself to eating any more of it.

Hmmm, I think that is about it for now. I'll unpack my camera and hopefully start taking some pictures soon!