"Food is...the way in which we humans shape the planet and ourselves."

I got really excited about this article I read this morning about food. Let's be honest, I'm always getting excited about food. I spend a great portion of my day thinking about it, what I'm going to eat, what I want to eat, what I shouldn't have eaten, what I need to eat, and so on. And I have a lot of strong opinons about food and especially about the current food system that exists in many developed nations, but mainly the U.S. because that is what I know. However, I won't get into all of that right now. Mainly I don't have time and that's not the point of this post. As I write, I am about to go to one of the many vegetarian places in Arequipa in search of a fresh juice (a delicious wonder that is very easy to find here in Peru). And while I would love to spend time to write about my views on food, I won't bore you.

I simply wanted to share a few observations about food in Peru. Food is obviously a huge part of culture here. You see it everywhere, there are always vendors selling it on the street, or people selling snacks off of little carts. There are resturaunts everywhere offering full meals for very little money. The big meal here is lunch, almuerzo, like most of South America, which people usually take a couple of hours off of work to enjoy. At the orphanage, we are not allowed to eat until we pray first and bless the food, and the children (and adults) must eat everything off their plates. After they eat everything, the children are allowed to drink water, which is usually warm and flavored with some kind of fruit or herb. It's taken me a while to get used to the water here. It's never cold as the water in Peru must always be boiled before you drink it. I know someone who has gotten hepatitis from the water and was bedridden for six months, so it's really important to boil it first. Plus it always seems to be flavored, and some flavors I enjoy more than others. Some flavors taste a bit like cleaning supplies to me. The desserts here have also taken some getting used to for me. There's a lot of jelly textures, and the sweet is a different kind of sweet than I am used to from desserts in the states. I think they use a lot less sugar here. Hot chocolate is popular, but it is made from natural cocoa from the Peruvian jungle and sugar is rarely added so it tastes very different from the hot chocolate and marshmellows mix from a bag I enjoyed as a kid. They also make a variety of other warm beverages that I have really come to enjoy, many of them involving some kind of quinoa or other grain. Fruit juice is also quite popular as I mentioned before. That is because an abundance of fruit grows here, just like in Chile, which is something I absolutely love. I think my favorite here is mangos. They are so rediculously cheap, you can get a kilo of mangos, usually two huge, perfectly ripe mangos for about 75 cents. I pretty much eat one every day. I will really miss the mangos.

There is a lot more I could say about food here, but because I am hungry and looking forward to the food I am about to eat, I am going to have to stop here. Perhaps I will continue to develop these thoughts another time.

Sadly, tomorrow is my last day at the orphanage. I am not looking forward to it. But Lilia, the director, asked me what my favorite meal is, so I have that to look forward to. I wasn't sure what to say, so I said something vegetarian. And she said, how about something with sweet potatos, and I said, sure. I'm sure whatever it is, it will definitely be delicious.