Marmalade, Finally!

One of the village banks has been asking me for the past 2 months to set up a marmalade class. One of the women in their group sells in the market - so the group wants to use her position in the market to generate more income for the entire group. Well, we found a women that makes delicious marmalade and is willing to teach, so we set up the class this week. After all the asking and trying coordinate - it happened, with 2 women. I am not disappointed, at least the 2 women came. I have tried to organize classes where less than 2 women were present. Besides the 2 women from the village bank, there were two other women from different banks present - so we actually had a nice little crowd. We made the marmalade from the fruit tomatillo and it turned out to be pretty tasty. During the class the women were writing down the recipe and asking questions. I told them at their next group meeting they should make marmalade so we can see if they learned the recipe. They laughed and nodded.

Although there wasn't a big fair or mother's day event this week, my days were still full of surprises and headaches. On Monday there was a transportation strike, so I was stuck with all the plastic chairs from our event on Friday and no way to get them back to the office. It was actually probably the first time I was scared for my safety here in Peru. The strikers were throwing rocks and pinching tires of other taxi drivers that weren't honoring the strike. A friend of a loan recipient saved the day and the chairs and I got back to the office in one piece. I also went to visit one of the literacy groups this week - and to celebrate Mother's Day (and their 2 month mark) they were having a little bar-b-que. I actually couldn't stay for the meat because I had another group, but it was a nice surprise to see this group coming together after their class in celebration. I left asking their understanding over and over again - because here in Peru it is a big no-no not to eat food when it is offered, especially in the countryside. Finally, I was still receiving B. day packages this week. So I spent some time surfing the itunes store finding new music to buy and reading English magazines and using new underwear. These little things added lots of excitement to my week. Thanks be to friends that know how to send the perfect pick-me ups.