A Parade and a Wedding -

The Parade - As we have noted previously, the small plaza in front of our apartment is the launching pad for parades, all kinds -- political, religious, schools, military, etc. Here is a small parade which was supporting families and children. It was interesting because of the two llamas/alpacas that were included.

Either two llamas or alpacas, not sure which.

In the middle of the parade.

Supporting the role of the regional Superior Court in family matters.

A pro-family organization.

Not sure who they represent and they are not too organized, but one of their signs says "Love your neighbor as yourself."

This group represents the Municipal Office for the Defense of the Rights of Small Children and Adolescents.

What would a parade be without a band?

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The Wedding - On December 19th, a popular couple in the ward had their civil marriage and reception at the Stake Center. In Peru, no religious weddings are recognized, only the civil ceremony performed by the mayor or his designated representatives. As a result, LDS couples who wish to be married in the temple, must first be married in a civil ceremony and then travel to the temple to be sealed. 

Jhony (that's how they spell Johnny) and Shantel were married on Friday, traveled all night to Lima, an 8 hour trip, and were sealed in the Lima Temple at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. The mayor came to the chapel and performed the ceremony and gave them a long discourse of counsel. They exchanged rings and then immediately held the reception. 

The announcements said the ceremony would start at 4:00. We got there at 4:05 and they were still decorating. Finally, guests started trickling in around 5:00 and the  ceremony started at 5:45. The reception included a full course, catered meal and was served about 7:00 p.m.  We left at 9:00, having been there for 5 hours. Here are a few photos of the event.

They cleared all the pews out of the chapel and set up this display in front of the pulpit.  We didn't know that was allowed!

A closer view. The bride and groom and their parents sit at the table on the right.

Yes, there are 10 cakes! We asked someone if they ever cut and serve the cakes and were told that often they are just given to family members and not served to the guests.

The band on the stage at the back of the cultural hall. They were very loud!  The red heart is left over from a Young Adult activity.

The cultural hall all decorated and the tables set up.

The table settings were very nice.

After the ceremony, the bride and groom begin their walk around the hall, stopping to greet the guests at each table. The mayor is standing in front of the door in the background. He and his assistant stayed for the dinner.

They continue their walk. She is 25 and he is 28, both returned missionaries. We were given small bags of rice to throw as they walked but on the slick hardwood floor this was not a good idea.  One lady guest fell and hit her head and left soon after.

The bride's train.

The family photo. The groom's parent are to the right of the bride followed by his brother and wife. Other family members of the groom on the left. The bride's parents and brothers were further left and got cut out of the photo.

Lunch at the Lumber yard -

Several weeks ago, we noticed an event on the Stake calendar called a "Mixtura", scheduled for Saturday, November 29. "Mixtura" means mixture so we were puzzled as to what this could mean. When we asked some of the members, they said it is sort of a personal fund raiser in which various families bring traditional food dishes and sell them to raise some funds for their family. This sounded interesting since it is not something that is done in the U.S., nor are we familiar with it in Mexico or Guatemala. To further add to our curiosity, we were told it would be held in the lumber yard of one of the members.

It turns out that the lumber yard is only 4 blocks from our apartment and since the event was scheduled for Saturday near lunch time, we decided to make it our dining-out experience for the weekend. The following pictures tell the story.

The view as you enter the large double doors from the street. Not too many had arrived at this point. They weren't kidding when they said it would be held in a lumber yard. This location is one of two lumber yards that the bishop of the Centenario Ward owns.

More people began arriving.  Notice that the "tables"are just pieces of wood stacked together.

The only pricing sign we saw, which was near the entrance. "Chocho", very popular here, is a cold salad made with a variety of small white cooked beans, tomato, purple onions and seasoning. The prices indicated are one sol and one sol .50 céntimos. About US$.36 and $.54 respectively. We are not sure what "conchita" is. "Chicha Morada" is a tasty purple drink made from boiling black corn. The price was US$ .18 per cup.

This table caught our attention right away. Baked chicken with hominy. A bargain at 4 soles (US $1.45). Also, we wondered what the "Tacucho" sign was about. We soon found out.

This is the preparation of "tacucho", a traditional food of the jungle area of Peru. This sister moved to Huaraz about 4 years ago from Iquitos in Loreto province of Peru and on the headwaters of the Amazon River. She cooks the green bananas (actually plantain - seen on the shelf to the left) over the coals, along with the pork rind on the skewers. The pork rind is then cut into small squares and placed in the pot where the fat boils out to form a brown liquid and the rind becomes very soft. The cooked banana and the pork rind with the oil are mashed together to form a ball for serving.

Well, I couldn't resist. It was actually very good, a little bland, so I added some "aji", the Peruvian equivalent to chili or salsa, to spice it up a bit.

A great photo! Four of our good friends seated at their "stand". They were selling chocho for one sol per bowl. It was really good. From the left, Pilar, the ward RS president, Maria Louisa, the wife of the Stake President, Monica and Sharon, two young adults who are also Marilyn's piano students.  They were also selling cake by the slice which was very plain but tasty.

The back view of their "stand" with a creative seating idea.  A great example of the build-it-yourself stools and table.  Every time they moved, the stools fell over and had to be re-built.

This stand had meat and salad. We were already full of chicken, chocho, and hominy by the time we got to her location. We did buy a frozen popsicle for dessert--which were really just skinny little bags filled with fruit juice or milk with a little chocolate added

This sister brought cooked cuy (guinea pig), a big favorite here. We passed on this one.  We get teased a lot about not eating cuy.

Happy diners!

Other seating options. You had to be careful where you sat or the boards flipped up.

As the crowd increased, one had to find any seating available.

Brother Jamanca, the high councilor over family history, and his children.

Mother and daughter.  The children here are just beautiful.

So where do you find a bed for a siesta in a lumber yard? Put it together out of  pieces of plywood of course. Older sister keeping an eye on the baby.

The Sunday following this Saturday lunch, we went to Caraz to provide FH training. When we didn't show up in our regular ward, several members  asked us at a Stake fireside later that evening if the food from the Mixtura had made us sick. We assured them that it was delicious and had not harmed us in the least.

Peruvian Thanksgiving -

Our Thanksgiving "family" consisted of 16 hungry missionaries and 8 other invited guests/helpers. Marilyn spent all day Wednesday cooking and started again early Thursday morning, but it all came together and we had a special dinner. The U.S. missionaries especially appreciated it, although all the missionaries liked the food. One Elder said he hadn't had Thanksgiving dinner for two years.  We saw several of them taking pictures of their HEAPING  plates of food.

It is interesting to cook here. We had to borrow pans from three different people and were lucky to buy a stainless steel baking pan in the market. The ovens here are small and the pans are big--not a good combination. There was no turkey available since we were told that it is eaten by some families at Christmas and does not arrive in the markets until early December. We bought six roasted chickens that were already cut into quarter sections, some of which we divided further for smaller portions. They were delicious. 

Marilyn made the usual: stuffing, sweet potatoes and apples, gravy and cakes.

We bought rolls at the bakery around the corner and had them make two apple pies and one lemon pie. We cooked the potatoes at the church which was quite the process.  The potatoes came from the market and were caked with mud so the first thing was to scrub them--twice.  After they were "clean" they were boiled in a huge pot.  Then we took the peelings off by hand, holding them with a fork because they were too hot to hold. These were the yellow potatoes which have LOTS of eyes in them so were not easy to peel  Then we mashed them with a Peruvian potato masher (shown below).  You know at home we can peel, cook and mash potatoes in just a few minutes--this process took more than an hour with three of us working on them--whew.  We had learned from previous experience that you have to use the right type of potatoes--once I tried mashing white potatoes and they were literally like big globs of glue.  We also boiled the corn on the cob at the church.

The tables are all set, awaiting the hungry masses. The children of Pilar Bejarano, and Flor Aguilar and her mother, Vitalia, are already seated in the corner.

Here are the cooks, actually one cook and two helpers. This is the kitchen at the Stake Center, which also serves as a classroom on Sunday. There is a gas stove and a sink with only cold water. There is no refrigerator.

Pilar Bejarano, the Relief Society President of our ward and our good friend.  She is washing the potatoes.  The corn on the cob is already cooking in the other big pot on the stove.

Marilyn and Flor Aguilar, a young mother in the ward.  We are cutting up fresh fruit for a huge fruit salad.

The utensil to make mashed potatoes. 

You put the cooked potato in and squeeze.  It actually takes quite a bit of power to push the cooked potatoes through the holes.  When milk and melted butter were added, the potatoes were actually quite good.  Peruvians usually make their mashed potatoes very watery and not very tasty.

One of the trickiest things was trying to re-heat the stuffing and sweet potatoes (which had been cooked the day before) because the pans they were in didn't fit in the oven. So Pilar put the pans on top of the hot potatoes and then directly on top of the burners.  The sweet potatoes did OK but the dressing got a little burned directly over the burner.  But it worked out OK.  We set things up ready to serve, buffet style.  This was a totally new concept to Pilar. She thought we were going to dish up the plates and was surprised when I said they were going to serve themselves.  As the line was going though, she commented that it was much easier that way.  Even in their homes, the mother/cook dishes up everyone's plates.

The fruit salad and butter and jam for the rolls. 

The dessert table. From right to left in front, apple pie, lemon pie, apple pie, modified pumpkin/squash dessert, and chocolate cake with white frosting and nuts on top.

The serving line loading up.

Hungry missionaries ready to chow down. Note the portions on the plates and the huge ears of corn.  It looks like field corn but has a good flavor. Also note the yellow color of the potatoes--that is without gravy.

Getting started.

Sister missionaries and elders.

Even the adults were not bashful. This is Robert Bejarano, the RS President's husband with his loaded plate.

The "adult" table. From left, Pilar, Robert, Juan Montalván (our trainer at the archives), Vitalia (Flor's mother) and Marilyn.

Two of Robert and Pilar's children, Karen and Rodrigo, hamming it up for the photo.

It was Sister Albright's birthday and the Zone Leaders surprised her with a cake.  Just what we needed was more dessert.

Cutting the cake after blowing out the one candle and singing happy birthday in English and Spanish.

From the photos  you can see that the missionaries enjoyed themselves. We got back to our apartment at 5:00 and each took an hour nap. Elder O. left for the Family History center and Sister O. taught four piano students that evening.  It was a great day and we counted our many blessings--which certainly includes the opportunity to serve here in Huaraz with these wonderful young missionaries and Peruvian members.  (Although we were really missing our "real family" that day.)