Cooking and Volunteering

This week, we had a regular week of classes, but with two interesting extra-curricular activities - a cooking class, and my first day of volunteering. Both were interesting, in different ways, with each providing their own little slice of Argentinean culture.

Most alfajores you buy in stores look like this,
with a chocolate shell on the outside.

After classes on Wednesday, we all walked over to a place called Celia's in downtown Córdoba, which is apparently a cooking school. There, we learned how to make empanadas and alfajores, two staples of Argentinian culture. There are many varieties of empanadas around the world, and even in Argentina, and we were told that we were specifically learning about Cordoba-style empanadas. Like most empanadas, empanadas Cordobesas (adjective form of Cordoba!) are made by wrapping a certain type of dough around a variety of different fillings. The first part of the class mostly involved observation, and not any real hands-on activity. Our professional chef explained to us how to make empanada dough, which is pretty simple - a whole lot of flour, some water, and a bit of animal fat, along with a pinch of salt. After making that, it's supposed to sit for a while, so we moved on to the alfajores, a type of sweet cookie that also has a lot of variations, depending on where in South America you go. In Argentina, they consist of two small, plain, sweet biscuit/cookies with a sweet spread like dulce de leche (a caramel type spread) in the middle. He made the dough for that, and we moved back to to the empanadas. He prepared the filling, which for Cordoba-style empanadas includes ground beef, olives, potato, hard-boiled eggs, raisins, and onions. When that was ready, we finally got to do some hands-on cooking, rolling out the dough for the two foods, and cutting them into circles, so they'd be ready for cooking. The alfajores went into the oven to bake, while we filled the empanadas and fried them (although you can also bake them). The empanadas were absolutely delicious, especially fresh out of the oven, even if I don't care for olives (they're everywhere here, and probably my least-favorite part about Argentinian cuisine). Then the alfajor cookies were ready, and we got to spread dulce de leche on them and roll them in shredded coconuts, and they were delicious too. All in all, a very delicious and rewarding experience.

This pictures isn't mine, but it is almost
 exactly what our alfajores looked like!

Thursday was our last day of classes, but later that evening, I had a volunteer assignment at a "nocturnal refuge" near downtown Córdoba. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it ended up being a very interesting, and generally enjoyable experience. Based on its name, I expected it to be more or less like a homeless shelter, but it wasn't really like that at all. As I learned, this shelter is more like a hostel, catering to people who come to Córdoba from somewhere else and need a place to stay for a few days, and can't afford a hotel. According to the women working there, most of the people staying there fall into one of two categories: they're here looking for work and stay at the refuge until they have a more permanent option, or else they're here for some sort of medical treatment or health reason, and stay at the refuge while they or their friend/family gets treatment. Most people stay the night there, and then go out and tend to their business for the day before returning for food and sleep in the evening.

I got there at 6pm, and my first task was to sort and organize clothing, which I found a bit ironic, since I'm not all that orderly and organized with my own clothes. The refuge receives clothing via donations, and they have to go through them to see what clothes are serviceable for use, and what clothes are too dirty or ripped for use. I sorted through and depending on what shape the article of clothing was in, I either put it on the appropriate shelf or put it in a trash bag. At about 7pm, people started arriving, and I helped prepare dinner. Dinner that night was a big stew of meat and vegetables, so I helped with chopping vegetables. It was just me and one other woman working, and we were preparing a lot of food (for about 35-40 people), so it was a fairly time consuming venture. When dinner was finally ready, we served it in a small dining area, with a long table that could seat 14. There were obviously more people in the refuge than could fit at the table, so as soon as people were finished and got up, more people came in and sat down, so we were more or less constantly serving people. 

Everybody in the refuge was very polite and helpful, and they even washed their own dishes after finishing eating, which was somewhat of a surprise, although definitely a pleasant one. As dinner wound down, I talked with some of the people, who asked me where I was from and what I was doing in Argentina. I had some enjoyable conversations with people, and they were all very nice to talk to. When I said where I went to college, one man even said to the others "Did you know that the capital of the state of New York isn't New York City? It's Albany!" I was both impressed and amused by this, considering how close I am to Albany at Union, and also because there are quite a few people in the U.S. who don't know that. I left at 10pm, and was quite tired after a full day of classes and volunteering, but I was glad I did it, because it was definitely a unique experience. I spent Friday doing a whole lot of reading and relaxing, and then on tap for Saturday was a tip to La Cumbrecita, a tiny mountain town to the southwest of Córdoba. That deserves its own entry though, so I'll put a new post out just for that in the next couple days!