New Experience for the Day: Piranha
Today I came home from volunteering to a busy kitchen. Mama's friend from tamale day was back and this time it was tortillas on the menu! Unfortunately I did not press tortillas for today's lunch but I can shred a mean salad. Today's menu was salad, pasta, tortillas, and PIRANHA. Head and all! When all was said and done, I couldn't tell the difference between piranha and the good ol' sunnies fro home, but I can now say that I have eaten a fish not found in the US!
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Today was a day of sharing. And I shared the wonderful recipe of monkey bread with my family here. The cinnamon, caramel pull-apart sugary goodness. If you have never experienced monkey bread do yourself a favor and take a few seconds to do a google search!! One difference here is that they don't have biscuit dough in the store so we had to go back to basics and make our own from scratch and I am never going back. The two sisters had a blast helping out even if there was a bit of excess cleaning to be done afterwards, but they thought it was the best thing ever. It was a little iffy there since I have never made a biscuit in my life but we made it to the oven and it turned out heavenly! El Pan de Mono is definitely making another appearance in Guatemala before I leave. For those of you in the Midwest, I thought of you today walking home in 70° weather here. I may have had class today, but the sun makes it worth it! XD This weekend Mama said we had a church event on Sunday that they wanted me to join in on. At breakfast the only information I got was that I needed to wear a skirt, so at 10am I sat in the car waiting to get to our destination. Turns out today I would get to experience a Guatemalan Quinceñera or Fiesta de Quince Años! A Quinceñera is a celebration of a girl's 15th birthday. It includes a church service, followed by a meal and party that goes into the night.
Since Papa is a pastor, he preached at the service and I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed his sermon on the importance of family and hope I can hear him preach more in the coming weeks. At the church, everyone was dressed in the traditional dress consisting of calf-length skirts along with patterned and beaded shirts and possibly a colorful apron. (Sorry I did not get any pictures! I thought we would be going to church, so didn't bring my phone.) After the processions of friends and family, purity vows, and music, everyone drove to what I assume was the girl's house for a meal. The entire family had prepared tamales, fried chicken, rice, and veggie salad. One falls in love with how simple and wholesome the food is here. After the meal, the family and I left, but all the guests are probably still partying and having a good time as the party goes on into the night. Overall, today was a show of how family comes together to support one another and celebrate. Even though I was the only one with light brown hair and a whole head taller than most of the guests today, I felt like a part of the celebration and shared in the joy of someone in the community overcoming a milestone and taking their next step in life. Today was a pretty uneventful day and I was debating whether or not it was "post worthy" until the family was just sitting down for dinner and the neighbor started calling Papa's name through the door. The neighbor had found a HUGE "rat" in his store and didn't know how to get rid of it. Papa came back with a picture of it and it wasn't a rat at all but a small opossum! So of course with this new source of entertainment the whole family went outside after the police had showed up and caught it. Yes, the police. No shotgun rodent control in Xela. I guess for a city a opossum might be more of a big deal, but I couldn't help thinking how small he was in comparison to those in the Midwest. At the end of the night, the police were nice enough to take a few pictures for me (Dad, I know you would want proof. See below) then tied it up nice and neat in a box to release up on the mountain tonight and they were off. Just a little taste of home here in Xela :) Finally feel almost back to normal after being sick since last Saturday. Volunteering made me feel loved. Spanish class made me feel like I can actually tell the story of "La Caperucita Roja" (Little Red Riding Hood) with the correct verb tenses. Oh, and it RAINED today!!
Today I feel like I finally got into a groove at the orphanage. The girls are definitely getting used to me after I've been there for almost 2 weeks. The topping on the cake was when the little boy who ran in the other direction screaming from me on my first day was by my side almost the entire day babbling to me and trying to "help" me with the other kids. :) Spanish class was more of reminding me how much my vocabulary has shrunk since my last Spanish class I took a year ago. Oops! But thankfully my instructor is VERY patient. Exciting event for today: TAMALES!! Mama usually buys tamales because she says they are a lot of work, but today was different. I come home from the orphanage to corn husks and corn meal covering the dining table. I won't say I "made" tamales but we wrapped a big kettle full. So I can do one step on the process. Because of the time-consuming process, Mama had her mother-in-law, a friend from church, and even Papa helped out today with shucking the corn cobs, separating and grinding the kernels, making the paste, soaking the shucks, and finally wrapping and steaming the tamales. It was definitely worth it and now we have a wash basket of tamales just sitting in the kitchen! Yummmmmm! So, today was more of the same. Volunteered for the morning, ate, went to class, came home and here we are. With not a lot to talk about my day just a few thoughts about some differences here.
On my way home from class today I stopped quickly at a shop and as I was paying for my item there was one other person in the shop and she couldn't stop staring at me while I bought laundry detergent. It didn't feel aggressive, but it was definitely a new experience to be the one person who did not fit the mold of "normal" for this area. My hair is not black. My skin doesn't look permanently bronzed. My accent is probably very noticeable. In rural Minnesota, there would probably be 10 other women in Walmart that are taller than 5'7" with light brown hair and non-brown eyes. The difference between Minnesota and Guatemala is that they are much more accepting of "different" as far as I have experienced. I have never felt ostracized because of how I look here. I don't know if this is normal for foreigners here or if I've just been lucky, but so far so good! Today volunteering went well! More of the girls are starting to talk to me. Even though my conversation skills are mediocre at best, it’s nice to connect more and feel included. Having 2 whole days away from the crying and squeals made today a lot more enjoyable!
Today’s new experience was Spanish “class”. I have 3 weeks of classes set up for my time here and today was Day 1. My classes consist of me and my instructor in a room with a white board going over whatever I feel will help me most. Even though today was only an hour session, we went over the 5 different ways and situations to say “to become”. It reminded me of an accordion. “To become” does not sound complicated on its own in English but in Spanish you keep pulling it apart and it gets larger, and larger, and larger. When all was said and done, it was nice to have some sort of structured learning environment to return to today. I won’t go as far as saying I miss being at college, but I missed the learning atmosphere. Side note: I found the chickens on the roof today!! Mama would talk about sending you to sleep with the chickens and I just thought it was a figure of speech, but we actually have chickens on the roof! 😊 Today was a pretty slow day once again. Woke up to a simple breakfast to be followed by a trip to church. This was a short walk of 2 blocks from my front door. Here there are many churches scattered around the city and the only ones I've seen have been Evangelist and Catholic. This aligns with the statistics that Christianity is a prominent religion in Guatemala. As I sat in the pews throughout the service, I may no have understood much of the readings, but the comfort of the familiar ceremony was much appreciated. How would I have felt if I were in a country where my religion was not openly accepted and/or practiced? After church came more lines in the kid's notebooks as they start classes tomorrow. So. Many. Notebooks! As the family left to attend their own church service for the night I returned to the rooftop and soaked in the sun while, you guessed it, marking MORE notebooks They're endless, but the family appreciates it and I can't think of another laid back activity for a Sunday afternoon so I did it anyways. Anything to keep Mama happy. :) Tomorrow is back to the orphanage and I start my Spanish lesson tomorrow so I am preparing to use extra brain power. Side note: If you haven't already, check out my GoFundMe page. Every little bit helps and the personal hygiene products I already delivered were very much appreciated! I will keep the account open until February 26th and donate the money to the orphanage in my last week there. Click HERE to check it out! The title pretty much sums up all that I did today. The 2 activities for the day were a barbecue on the roof and lots and LOTS of cards. I hope E. never gets tired of playing with me because having to listen to and explain rules in a card game is helping a lot with my language. Today's new game was King in the Corners or "K's en las Esquinas". I believe we're up to 5 or 6 games now and for an 8-year-old she is a quick study. It was a day well spent! The barbecue on the roof made me realize how much Guatemalan's climate affects their living. In town, almost all stores and stall are outdoors and each house has some sort of living space outside. In the house that I am staying in, they have the rooftop where they have an outdoor grill and table for cooking set up as well as wash lines for drying clothes. There is no dryer in the house. Also, when you enter, you come through a door built into the garage door and Honda CR-V is parked between their kitchen and the stairs that lead up to the bedrooms and living rooms. I have not seen any sort of climate control in the house yet and I don't believe there is any. There is also a skylight that can be seen from the first level from almost 3 stories up. A lot of natural light is used and energy is used sparingly especially with the 4-minute showers and earlier bedtimes. This consciousness of resources is something that I hope to bring back with me. |
Liesel Theusch
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