Its really just a piece of cake...or banana bread

So my weeks have been passing fairly smoothly. I’m looking at one month in site already, and I have had several opportunities to feel integrated and even slightly purposeful in my community. I’ve also found some time to see some of the other sites around my area, and in fact just returned from Brad’s site called Vitis which is about 15Km’s away. Of course to get there it’s a 6K (3.6 mile) hike to the main road, where I catch (hopefully if one hasn’t missed it) the only passing vehicle to Vitis. And luckily this time I did get to the road in time to hop on the bus otherwise it’s another 9Km hike straight uphill to Brad! Brad’s site is literally situated on a mountain outcrop, and is aptly named “El Cuidad de los Vientos,” or like our own Chicago, “The City of The Winds.” Once I got to Vitis I met up with Brad and we ate some of the local delicacy, fried trout; a fish that isn’t native to Peru, but has become a symbol of pride for many rural communities because they have started their own successful fish farms. Afterwards we met one of the environmental and tourism promoters in his site and we headed up the mountain to post a “Do Not Throw Trash” sign near the trails to some of the local archeological sites, and then headed back down just before the rain started….
.....Now let me pause a moment and let me inform you that putting up a small 3’x 2’ sign with such a simple and common message as “Do Not Throw Trash” is a monumental success for sites like Brad’s and mine. I can imagine its surprising when you think a simple sign like this can be made and hung in one afternoon by visiting Lowe’s back in the states, but when you’re faced with the challenge of living in communities where you may not even know you have an environmental and tourism committee until after 6 months in site and the supplies alone take another 2 weeks to procure, you can begin to imagine how volunteers take their successes, no matter how small, as giant steps forward….
So after the hike and sign hanging we bought some bananas, slightly browning, for what Brad and I considered the next great achievement of the day; making banana bread in his newly purchased oven! We followed the recipe as best we could, mixing the batter in chipped bowls and dented pots, and using guess-tamation to preheat the small gas oven that was lacking temperature gauges. We substituted some ingredients with others, and added our own flavors like roasted peanuts and honey that was made at Brad’s site. We popped our makeshift stew-pot/pie-pan into the over, and waited patiently listening to Christmas music on Brad’s computer, passing the time like usual during the rainy season with conversation and tea drinking. After an hour had passed with frequent checking, our masterpiece was complete and a total success! Two inspiring volunteers, lacking all proper materials were able to improve the quality of our community’s environment by promoting proper trash management, and even more so, we were able to amazingly produce outstanding banana bread at over 13,000ft in elevation with a small gas powered oven in the middle of Brad’s room! Now if that’s not ingenuity and embodiment of the Peace Corp experience, I don’t know what is!