Today I learned how to make chocolate cake the Guatemalan way. I carried a few ingredients on my 1 hour school-bus ride and 50-minute walk to Shalanshac where I met the unsuspectingly large group of Guatemalan ladies. As I walked to the town from the bus I enjoyed the immaculately clear view of the miles of cobalt blue hills and ravines and innumerous sheep and lambs grazing on the unendingly steep hillsides. I spoke with my walking company about chocolate cake and family until we arrived to our destination, and was asked to accompany the 4- or 5-year-old girl walking with us in her graduation next October. When we arrived I ducked through the kitchen door to find 15-20 women with bags full of this or that ingredient, but never all of the necessary parts. We started by greasing and flouring our sauté pans (in which we were going to bake the cakes) while the HUGE bread adobe oven heated up. Soon we mixed the ingredients while measuring everything by eye in coffee mugs and table spoons and fought over who got to use the cocoa I brought with me before it ran out. We finished before the oven was heated and so proceeded to make frosting, of which only two out of the 15+ were able to achieve the necessary creamy, spreadable texture. Everyone else put in too much milk/water because they were afraid that the difficulty they had stirring it warranted more liquid. And of course there was not enough extra powdered sugar to go around, so they all ended up with icing instead. Then they rushed to feed me my two hard-boiled eggs, peeled tomato and peeled potato before I had to catch the bus back to town while fighting over who was going to reimburse me for the ingredients. Eventually it all came together one quetzal short of the total amount and I headed out the door. I had to leave before they put their cakes in the oven, so I’m anxious to hear how they turned out. Vamos a ver.
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The rainy season started to come in a few weeks ago. I have enjoyed my naps under the daily afternoon torrential downpour on the tin roof quite thoroughly. I’ve also LOVED the thunder cracking ferociously right above my head and wading through rivers on my walk home from work. I just don’t think I’ll get sick of it. LOVE it.
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I continuously grow more and more excited for my short visit to home. I get so excited with my insatiable hunger for your hugs. I need them. It will be difficult going from this wonderfully temperate climate to 110-degree Sacramento summer days, but well worth the sweat. I love you, thanks for reading.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Así es mi vida.
Welp, I got to Mexico a little late because I came down with some incredibly horrible illness that had me bed-ridden an entire week, almost. My ears felt like someone was constantly piercing them with needles, painful to the point of hearing loss for almost 3 days. But, with a few antibiotics, a pharmacy in my purse, and determination like you wouldn’t believe, I made it across the border on Saturday the 24th. And enjoy myself, I did, indeed (even without a camera to document).
Crossed the border after about an hour of walking around with packs and luggage in probably 90-something degree weather with at least 100% humidity. Pretty disgusting, we were. Started the first night with dancing and all the other necessary shenanigans.
Took a boat ride down a river through the Cañon del Sumidero with walls 700 meters straight up, a crocodile, spider monkeys, neat birds, crazy rock formations… very beautiful. Topped that off with a 60:40 rum:coke (the only way to do it right) and the world’s best shrimp ceviche with the world’s most painfully spicy raw jalapeño. Ended that day trip with a live serenade of La Bamba, requested courtesy of our good friend Des.
Saw some Mayan ruins (Palenque) and swam in some unbelievably beautiful waterfall pools (Parque Nacional Cascadas de Agua Azul). The water was an aquamarine blue because of the sediment deposits in it, which formed pools you could walk around in and hop from one to the next barefoot. So serenely beautiful. Loved it.
Trip ended with Cha Cha’s birthday and carrying all our crap very hungover across the border. Very worth it.
Enjoyed pretty much every moment of the trip, even with ears still plugged from being sick the week before. One of those treasures you never forget.
ALMOST back to reality. Home for one night, then back on the road to a welcome party for some newbies and then to In-Service Training for the next week. Much needed girls’ night at Shani’s before a week learning how to make organic compost, lombri-compost, tire gardens, strawberry jelly and pickled veggies. Picked up lots of reading material on rural and small businesses and simple accounting and felt ready for work at the end of it. Finally.
Work should be good, now, with all the information I have to share and practice with my counterparts and the association.
I spent today baking cakes with a group of ladies in a nearby aldea and am very enthused to return two weeks from now with another baking project. They sounded pretty excited about maybe commercializing the practice eventually, and I got pretty excited to help them maybe achieve this developing goal of theirs. Even more excited that they want me to come back, and that I want to go back. Something else to look forward to.
I will spend the rest of this week helping my counterpart elaborate some project proposals to submit for review to several contributing NGOs and am thankful for the more open and comfortable relationship I’ve developed with myself and also with my counterpart. I feel SO MUCH better about the prospect of actually accomplishing something while I’m here.
I am thankful for the brothers I’ve found that I have here, I am thankful for feeling like I belong in this town just a little bit more, I am thankful for the enthusiasm and excitement I have for the life ahead of me, and I am thankful for all of you who continue backing me in this crazy endeavor to change the world, one small step at a time.
Oh, and I’LL BE HOME IN ONE MONTH. Four weeks from today. For ~two weeks. Can’t hardly contain my excitement.
I love you.
Crossed the border after about an hour of walking around with packs and luggage in probably 90-something degree weather with at least 100% humidity. Pretty disgusting, we were. Started the first night with dancing and all the other necessary shenanigans.
Took a boat ride down a river through the Cañon del Sumidero with walls 700 meters straight up, a crocodile, spider monkeys, neat birds, crazy rock formations… very beautiful. Topped that off with a 60:40 rum:coke (the only way to do it right) and the world’s best shrimp ceviche with the world’s most painfully spicy raw jalapeño. Ended that day trip with a live serenade of La Bamba, requested courtesy of our good friend Des.
Saw some Mayan ruins (Palenque) and swam in some unbelievably beautiful waterfall pools (Parque Nacional Cascadas de Agua Azul). The water was an aquamarine blue because of the sediment deposits in it, which formed pools you could walk around in and hop from one to the next barefoot. So serenely beautiful. Loved it.
Trip ended with Cha Cha’s birthday and carrying all our crap very hungover across the border. Very worth it.
Enjoyed pretty much every moment of the trip, even with ears still plugged from being sick the week before. One of those treasures you never forget.
ALMOST back to reality. Home for one night, then back on the road to a welcome party for some newbies and then to In-Service Training for the next week. Much needed girls’ night at Shani’s before a week learning how to make organic compost, lombri-compost, tire gardens, strawberry jelly and pickled veggies. Picked up lots of reading material on rural and small businesses and simple accounting and felt ready for work at the end of it. Finally.
Work should be good, now, with all the information I have to share and practice with my counterparts and the association.
I spent today baking cakes with a group of ladies in a nearby aldea and am very enthused to return two weeks from now with another baking project. They sounded pretty excited about maybe commercializing the practice eventually, and I got pretty excited to help them maybe achieve this developing goal of theirs. Even more excited that they want me to come back, and that I want to go back. Something else to look forward to.
I will spend the rest of this week helping my counterpart elaborate some project proposals to submit for review to several contributing NGOs and am thankful for the more open and comfortable relationship I’ve developed with myself and also with my counterpart. I feel SO MUCH better about the prospect of actually accomplishing something while I’m here.
I am thankful for the brothers I’ve found that I have here, I am thankful for feeling like I belong in this town just a little bit more, I am thankful for the enthusiasm and excitement I have for the life ahead of me, and I am thankful for all of you who continue backing me in this crazy endeavor to change the world, one small step at a time.
Oh, and I’LL BE HOME IN ONE MONTH. Four weeks from today. For ~two weeks. Can’t hardly contain my excitement.
I love you.
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