The First Two Days

I’m so sorry for not posting sooner, I keep falling asleep at night before I finish...

Day One:

Even though I got to bed at 3am, breakfast was at 7am. It took a great amount of willpower to get up and ready by that time, especially since I’m not a morning person! But it was well worth the effort because I came down to Liliam making a wonderful breakfast for me.  I had pineapple juice (that’s what she called it, but it was more like a smoothie), an egg, coffee with evaporated milk, olives, and a pretty roll that I ate with butter and jam that was from a berry that seemed like a mix between raspberries and blackberries.

During breakfast, Liliam, Daniel, and I sat and talked at great length in a sort of halting Spanglish.  Liliam wants to practice her English, and that’s been fine with me because I’m generally tired in the morning and after work, so it’s nice to be able to speak mostly in English.

So this is what I learned about each of them: Liliam works at CIP as a research scientist studying bacterial wilt in potatoes.  Her husband, Daniel, is technically retired but as a hobby he owns a meat market that sells chicken, duck, and turkey meat.   She and Daniel have two sons and a daughter, and several grandchildren, including twins! But, they are all living in Spain right now, and Liliam and Daniel miss them very much. 

Also, a young woman named Alejandra lives in the house as well. She is working at CIP on her doctoral thesis involving farming practices utilized the Andean highlands.  Alejandra was born in Peru, but lived in the United States for several years so she speaks perfect English and Spanish, and is very understanding with my occasionally botched attempts at Spanish!

As I discovered soon, when Liliam said that their lunches in Peru are larger than the other meals, she really meant it! I came down for lunch to a plate of chicken wing (that was as big as a pork chop) tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, broccoli, corn on the cob, and a bowl of soup that had quinoa, chicken, and vegetables in it. I was a bit overwhelmed.

I did learn some interesting food customs though – for corn on the cob, they pick off and eat each kernel because they are so much larger (larger than my thumbnail), tomato slices are eaten with lime juice, and broccoli is served with salt and olive oil.  Also, I have not yet had a cold drink in Peru, Liliam even served warmed water for lunch! After almost an hour, I was able to eat everything but the chicken wing, and thankfully they were very understanding and boxed it up for dinner. 

After lunch, it was more soccer, so I watched for a while.  Then Liliam showed me her small garden out back, which had some beautiful flowers and trees!  Then we came in and she offered me some fruit that was similar to an orange, but it was light yellow and less tangy.

At about 5:45pm, I went with Liliam to Catholic mass at her church.  It was a lovely walk, and I enjoyed getting out for a bit. The church itself was beautiful, with an almost hexagonal shape and two sets of doors that were always open.  For the service, I only understood about a quarter of what was being said and sung because I’m neither catholic nor fluent in Spanish yet. But overall, the experience was very interesting.

Liliam on our walk to church

When we got back, Liliam, Daniel, and I ate our dinner late.  Afterwards, I went up to my room to relax for a while before going to bed.  It was a very nice first day!

Spanish word of the day: contenta - glad, pleased, full of joy

Day two:

Monday was my first day of work, and I was up early to get ready and eat breakfast.  Breakfast was slightly smaller because Liliam was also getting ready, so it consisted of another roll with jam, coffee, a smoothie, and some cheese that was slightly bitter. Afterwards, Daniel drove Liliam and me to work.

Once inside, I met Dr. Evelyn Farfan, who will be overseeing my work while Dr. Awais Khan is on a business trip.  She showed me to my own desk and computer, and Carmen (the administrative assistant) gave me some office supplies.  After settling in and working out some computer programs, Dr. Farfan took me on a short tour of some of the applicable facilities. 

The hat, t-shirt, and coveralls from CIP

One of my favorite spots was the “Cámara de Invernadero” (which confused me because cámara means camera and storage room, but at the time I only knew the former definition), which is a greenhouse storage room.  Jorge was in charge there, and showed me the crates of different seed potatoes (which are potatoes from which they plant the sprouting plants from the potato eyes), and explained how they monitor the temperature and sunlight to encourage growth.  Also, they place several green apples in the containers as an ingenious way to increase ethylene gas and encourage sprouting. Then I saw some of the experimental plots that were utilizing drip irrigation.

Afterwards, we went back and Carmen gave me a quick tour of the floor before I started into reading and summarizing different papers that Dr. Farfan gave me.  It was an arduous task as half of them were in Spanish.  Shortly thereafter, I went to lunch with Dr. Farfan, Flavio (who I will be working with more frequently on the day-to-day tasks), Javier, and two other women in the cafeteria.  

The cafeteria was incredibly full because there was a large TV with a World Cup game, but we got a table and they started rapidly speaking Spanish, of which I understood bits and pieces.  It is terribly difficult to understand when there are several people speaking at once very quickly with plenty of background noise.  And I thought the AP Spanish listening sections were hard!

Upon returning to my desk, I resumed reading and summarizing the articles.  Now I can talk at great length about tuber dormancy and the different tests for the effects of drought, but I won’t put you through that!

My desk!

At about 2pm, Flavio invited me to coffee in the cafeteria with some of his friends. As I discovered, there is a machine there that makes different coffee and cocoa drinks to order that cost about one Nuevo Sol (about 40 cents). The drinks were delicious, and it would be even better if the machine came in a Keurig size for my desk! :)

Back to the articles until about 4:45, when Liliam and I left work.  We took a bus about halfway, and then walked the rest.  It wasn’t too long, but I underestimated the distance because Liliam would tell me how many blocks we have left, but their blocks are huge! 

We came home to more soccer on TV, it was the USA versus Ghana.  I ate dinner while we all watched, and then had the huge and delicious piece of flan that Liliam bought for me on our way home from Mass last night. For most of the game, the USA team led, but with about five minutes left Ghana scored a goal to tie it up.  Thankfully we scored another quick goal won! Afterwards, I went up to my room and evidently I was even more tired than I thought because I ended up falling asleep with my computer and the lights on at about 9pm.

Spanish word of the day: invernadero - greenhouse