SATURDAY NIGHT PARTY!!!

Half day! I was thrilled to do construction this morning. My first job was stomping around in the mud. I am not sure which day we are using it for construction on the tienda, but it was a fun morning workout for my quads. Myrna likes to say everything is practice for Machu Picchu. We had added a lot of water to the mud a couple days earlier, but needed to mix it up and add a lot more water. Azucena gave me a pair of orange rubber boots. They kept making farting sounds and getting stuck in the mud. When I sufficiently stomped around – and without falling in, Azucena asked me to make the window. I lined up glass bottles and used twine to secure them. They all lined up pretty nicely side by side, a blend of colors. The second level was a bit more difficult because I was trying to balance the bottles on a long stick. Kaitlyn and I teamed up to make a really nice window. Myrna helped us mud it up. When we finished, there was not much left to do, and our shift was mostly up. Let the weekend begin!! Actually, it was pretty cool in the shade in the morning, so I wasn’t warm enough for a cold shower. I offered to help Vida with some work with her trees to warm up. It helped. For Sean and Myrna’s last supper, we asked Vida about having an asado at her place. An asado is a typical meal in Argentina, barbecuing lots of meat and chowing down. There are parks along the highway and all over the place with big cement barbecues for people to pull up in their trucks and start a fire. There is often lots of wine involved. I found some milanesa de soja at the grocery store, along with an onion and green pepper. My choices of flavor were original (ajo y cebolla), zanahoria, queso o jamón. I chose queso, as the thought of ham flavored veggie patties seemed ridiculous. Sean bought 4 kilos (8.8 pounds) of meat, which seemed like a lot to me for five people, but that’s the meal. We bought wine on the way back, too: 3 bottles for 12 pesos ($4). Crazy, huh? Three volunteers ended up coming from El Peregrino, so I shared my goods with the two vegetarians, and there was another meat eater. We got the fire going right away, and Sean fashioned a grill with wire and a grate. I pulled out the leftover pasta from lunch and a bag of bread, too. It looked like we had all the ingredients for a great party. Patch arrived a bit later with the beer. Kaitlyn took a little longer to arrive; she walked home alone in the dark for the first time, and she got lost twice and got rides twice. She was so close, second-guessed herself, and turned back. Dinner was great. The chorizos ended up a bit ashy, since they were smaller than the grill. We vegetarians ate from a cast iron pan, so not to worry for us. We moved inside for some music and dancing. It was tons of fun. A great party, though not the last supper because Sean and Myrna are enjoying themselves so well, they are staying till Wednesday. If they don’t delay again, we will travel south together. Hooray for music and dancing!!! tori