End of Month

I can't believe over a month has already past! While the time has flown, it certainly has not been a piece of torta.

Last night we had our first monthly meeting with the restaurant's staff to summarize the activities, advances, problems, etc. of the restaurant. Things have become smoother as Qiqe's parents returned from Argentina, the staff and I are getting use to one another, and our projects are beginning to come to life. We still need to improve on a lot of things, but I am finding a great need to be patient with myself. Like I mentioned, I am use to working in restaurants (or more importantly, management) that have years of experience and knowledge. Now, I am the management working with my partner of a mere 2 year. Man do we have a LONG way to go!

The waitresses and I are starting to warm up to one another on a professional level. I have been friends with them for more a year now, and we really do like each other. Now, it's just a question of figuring one another out in the working environment. On the other side of the house, I love our kitchen staff! We get along so well, they are such hard workers and really do the restaurant proud. They all want to learn English, and so everytime I enter the kitchen, they ask me a new word. They all seem to get a kick out of the silliest things like "lettuce" or the American pronunciation of "hamburger". Though, the past few days, I have protested my English instruction because the chef keeps walking around with the skull of a cuy (guinea pig) in her apron, trying to convince me to use it as decoration for our dishes (we served cuy to a Portuguese group upon request, and I almost lost it...the kitchen won't let me forget about that for a while.)

Today...or tomorrow (because this is Peru, of course who knows what time it will actually be....) we are hoping to introduce our new menu! Qiqe and I have slaved over the details for a few weeks, but are quite happy with the results. Of course, we had to redo a lot of the English when the printing company prepared the final copy. I think they spelled mushrooms about 5 different ways! Additionally, the menu helps resolve cost issues. The past month has seen signs of inflation in the market prices, though the past few days costs seem to be lowering again.

Tomorrow we have our first planning meeting with the NGO...so I will have more to share after that.

OH!!!!!!!!!! And our new website is up!!!!!!!! www.mojsarestaurant.com CHECK IT OUT!!!! The English translation should be up soon.