Tuesday

Another early morning today, with the same breakfast, except this time is was a pineapple and papaya smoothie. After breakfast, I had a few minutes before we left, and I sipped my coffee while watching TV.  The TV here is very amusing, the colors and people are always so vibrant and over the top!

While I finished up, Daniel wiped off the car before taking us to CIP, because I suppose it had rained. The weather in Lima is very different than I’m used to.  It is considered wintertime right now, but the temperatures remain at 60°F - 70°F, it is between 80% and 100% humidity, and there are always clouds.  But in comparison to Iowa winters, this is balmy!

After arriving at CIP, I started reading more publications, but was summoned to the HR department to get my picture taken and then go around to each of the entrances and register my fingerprint with the scanner.  I feel so official now!

Then I went back to my desk until Flavio took me to the aeroponics greenhouse to meet up with Jorge.  Jorge took me to see the new shipments of seed potatoes from Huancayo (CIP has a station there in the mountains) to put into the heated room, similar to the one I saw yesterday, to start the potato sprouts.  I helped put apples in some of the crates and carry them in, but we couldn’t finish because we ran out of apples. Also, Jorge decided that my name is too long, so now he calls me Cat J

On my way back to the office, I took a short walk and snapped some pictures:

The aeroponics greenhouse

The building I work in

Once I returned, Dr. Gabriela Burgos took Flavio on a short tour of her nutrition department.  She explained that potatoes play a crucial role in the lives of millions of people as their staple food, and thus it is very important to ensure that there are adequate levels of nutrients.  She showed us several of the machines and processes that they utilize for nutritional analysis, and then gave me several new publications on such topics.

At about 11:30am, Flavio and I went to lunch so we would be able to get a seat in the cafeteria because the World Cup games are still playing.  For lunch it was chicken and rice again with a different sauce, and a bowl of soup that tasted like chicken noodle.  Also, the drink that is offered is some sort of pineapple iced tea that comes sweetened and unsweetened. I had the former yesterday, and the latter today, but I’m not sure what I think of it yet. I've seen most people do a mixture of both kinds, so I may try that tomorrow and hopefully it will better!

The open air cafeteria

After lunch, I went down to a lab and worked with Sebastian.  He showed me how they utilize special equipment to measure the osmotic potential (which is the potential of water to move from areas of differing concentrations across a permeable membrane) in potato leaf samples.  The process was fairly time consuming, and Sebastian told me that he works on this project for four hours and hopes to finish 32 samples each day in that time, and there are 1,500 samples to test!

After leaving the lab, I returned to my desk to delve into the publications on nutrition that Dr. Burgos gave me.  At about 5:00, Liliam and I took a taxi home and we watched more soccer while eating dinner.  For dessert, Daniel and Liliam bought me an alfajor, which is a traditional dessert with two shortbread-like cookies dusted in powdered sugar and sandwiched around a dulce de leche filling. It was delicious!! Afterwards, I went upstairs and had the chance to talk to some friends and family before going to bed.

Spanish word of the day: nutritivo - nutritious, nourishing