Goals two and three

Peace Corps has three goals. The first one is technical assistance. The second two are related to cultural exchange.

Goal two is to share American culture with the local population. Goal three is to teach Americans about the local culture.

I know I'm no longer a volunteer, but I will forever refer to moments of cultural exchange as "goal two" or "goal three" moments.

I was hanging out in the kitchen with my host family the other day when my host mother asked me: "We have eggplants and don't know what to do with them. How do you prepare eggplants?"

I told them that there are many ways to prepare eggplant, but my favorite was is to make eggplant parmesan. I warned them that it's probably one of the most complex ways to prepare it, but that it's worth the effort.

It took little convincing for them to agree to try it.  While we were discussing other options for the menu, the subject of dessert came up.

My host mom asked if I had ever tried "Banana quente con sorvette e canela" (Baked banana with ice cream and cinnamon) I told her that I hadn't.

She resolved that we were going to make it for dessert for lunch.

I asked her if she had ever tried chocobananas. She said that she hand't.

I resolved that we were going to make it for dessert for dinner.

Everything was delicious. Everybody liked the new foods so much that we resolved to make them all again before I leave. My host dad is deathly afraid of onions. No one knows why, but he was really afraid of my tomato sauce. But in the end, he ate several servings of the eggplant parm and is one of the biggest proponents of the dish's return to the dinner table.

To make the Brazilian dessert, you need to bake the banana in the over with the skin. Everything else is pretty similar to your traditional banana split.