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Published: December 29th 2009
Today is Sabado, Saturday, and therefore our half day at the orphanage. We spent the morning helping Lorena, our host, and her friend prepare hot chocolate to take to the boys in the afternoon as part of a traditional Peruvian Christmas celebration when before Christmas children all enjoy a feast of hot chocolate and panatone.
Making the chocolate involved helping to heat bars of dark chocolate over a wood fire in Lorena´s friend´s garden shed, and then pouring it into three enourmous plastic vats, topping it up with about a hundred cans of condensed milk and then adding more sugar than anyone would sensibly give to a child they wanted to be able to manage ever again! All in all we went through a large sack of sugar, probably equivalent to about 50 of our large size bags, for 30 kids.
We then had to transport the whole conconction accross town to the orphanage. Not the easiest thing to do at the best of times but the lids of the pots didn´t fit and the roads in Ayacucho are terrible, so Ai and I were sat in the back of a taxi just waiting to get covered in chocolately sugary gloop. We also had Lorena´s friend´s baby girl in tow, so it was quite some journey.
Somehow we all got there in one piece without losing too much chocolate all over the taxi, and shared out the drink among the boys. They also had quarter of a large panatone each, I really feel for whoever had to put them to bed that evening!
Eating was followed by each of the children standing to wish everyone else Faliz Navidad and giving each of their teachers and us a big hug each. I think hot chocolate and panatone may be a celebration I bring home, I can see it going down well!
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Cat
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Mmm
Kat, you can definitely try that out on Ollie and me any time! Not so sure about panatone, but happy to try, and I've never made hot chocolate with condensed milk - inspired! Just sitting in the living room after making it home through the snow for the third day in a row - I need a hot chocolate now to warm up again! Very pretty, almost like we live in a ski resort, it's packed into most of the less-used roads and made most places incredibly icy. Odd to think of you sheltering inside from the heat on the playing field, though I hope it's cleared up by now so that the kids can show off their football skills (we played against the guys at the jungle lodge we stayed in and their team absolutely thrashed ours!).