This week is Fiestas Patrias in Peru, so the streets are proudly lined with the red and white Peruvian flag and most students are free from school. Tuesday at the training center we had a display of typical Peruvian festivities, including dance demonstrations, singing, and Peruvian treats. All the trainees gathered in the center with our language facilitators who donned traditional Peruvian dress and we proudly belted out the Peruvian National Anthem in bold unison.

My host family and I went to Lima for the night to celebrate Fiestas Patrias as well as their friends’ 25^th Anniversary. The night was complete with mountains of Peruvian food, drinks, and dancing until 2:30 in the morning. The 80 year old grandparents in attendance had more energy than I did as the party wore on. Typically when I tell a Peruvian that I’m from Pennsylvania they don’t really know where that is, but when I told one of the old men in attendance at the party that I am from Pennsylvania, he just loved it. The entire night he would yell, “Pennsylvania!” and look expectedly at me to come and dance with him. He could barely stand up, but he somehow managed to dance with enthusiasm all night.

The following day we had a vacation day from the training center, so Adam’s host family invited us all to take part in their Fiestas Patrias celebration. It was another day full of eating and dancing. Peruvians truly show their love through food, and there seems to be generous helpings of food for all attendance at any social gathering. One of my host family’s favorite phrases is, “Barriga llena, Corazón contenta”, or “Full belly, Happy heart” which is definitely an appropriate cultural axiom.

Today we were back at the center for the final celebratory day of Fiestas Patrias. One of the most popular celebratory feasts here in Peru is called Panchamanca, which is prepared in a hole in the ground on festival days. We made our own Panchamanca during training, complete with a giant hole in the ground lined with hot rocks and fire. We put potatoes, chicken, sweet potatoes, and huge branches of spices inside the hole and then covered it up with piles of dirt as it cooked. A few hours later the medley was cooked to perfection, so we all gathered around and performed a traditional blessing to Mother Earth before we ate.