Food!

Here it is: The much awaited food blog! I’ve tried to take pictures of the more traditional foods that I’ve eaten in both Guatemala and El Salvador. We’ll start with:

Breakfast

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals, both here and in the U.S. In Guatemala, more often than not my breakfast consisted of fruit (usually papaya!):

This was at Patricia's B&B in Guatemala City

Sometimes, my host moms have made me panqueques (I’ll give you one guess as to what those are! Haha). In Guatemala I put honey on them, but here in El Salvador I use maple syrup. I must say, I think the honey thing is going to stick- so yummy!

Although I enjoy both fruit and pancakes, the most common meal I eat for breakfast is eggs. Eggs and beans. Eggs and ham. Or (like this morning) eggs with cut up hot dogs. Good thing I like eggs. :-) My least favorite thing to eat for breakfast is plantains. I would much rather just eat a plain banana than eat a cooked one. But, I still get served them, and I still eat them (but usually not a lot of them…). 

This was my last breakfast in Xela. Eggs, beans, plantains

This was actually dinner one night, but it could just as easily have been breakfast! Eggs, beans, plantains.

Guatemala

Now for some traditional Guatemalan food. My Guatemalan host family made some traditional meals, here are some pictures:

They look similar, eh? They all consisted of rice, chicken (or some other mystery meat), and a sauce. They were all very good. The sauces all had a different taste- the darkest one smelled like chocolate (but didn’t taste like it! Haha) The green one was my favorite, and it wasn’t too spicy.

At Sakribal, our language school, we also ate traditional foods. I forget the name of this dish, but it was served during our first “farewell” dinner for students. It is chicken, rice, vegetables, and some kind of sauce. It was very good!

And these are tamales. They were actually pretty good, but at first we had no idea what was in them. I’ve definitely gotten into the habit of not asking what meaty items are, because part of me doesn’t want to know. 

Not sure what we're eating! (Photo bomb- Susan!)

They were actually yummy! And I think they were chicken. ha

At our farewell dinner at Sakribal we ate “make your own” enchiladas! 

On mine I have guacamole (me encanta guacamole!), eggs, chicken, mystery meat, veggies some sort of sauce, and beets. Great flavors!

Sadly I'm pretty sure something in this meal made me sick. But I'm all better now!

My favorite meal in Guatemala was one I didn’t take a picture of, so I just did a Google search for this. Empanadas. Con pollo. They are SOOO good. Basically fried tortilla stuffed with chicken, and then you put a salsa-esque sauce on them. Yup, quite yummy!

El Salvador

Now on to El Salvadorian food! This first picture is of one of the national dishes (if not THE national dish), papusas! It’s a flour tortilla stuffed with different things and then fried a bit more (at least they taste like they are fried). Mine were all stuffed with beans because I can’t eat cheese. However, last night I had ones that had beans and chicken. Although I don’t really like tortillas (I’ll usually just have one with lunch), I really like papusas! 

With a yummy salsa to put on top!

Last Saturday my host mom, Mari, made paella, a seafood and rice dish! I love seafood, but I’ve never eaten a whole crab before, and I wasn’t quite sure how. But I realized that I like food that makes me work because I have to slow down and appreciate it! It was so good. 

This next dish is chicharrones, which is pork (I did ask what kind of meat this was). We ate at a nice restaurant last weekend, and the food was quite good. I enjoyed the chicharrones but I think I will order something else next time. This is the restaurant that new mission teams are taken to their first day in El Salvador, and since we’re now welcoming the new mission teams, I bet we’ll be able to go again. The restaurant is also a coffee plantation, and wow is fresh-brewed El Salvadorian coffee incredible. (And I don’t even like black coffee)

And this last picture of El Salvadorian food is a stuffed pepper that we had for lunch one day. Normally lunches at the mission residence are pretty normal- meat, veggie, rice, tortilla. However, when they brought out the stuffed peppers I thought “Wow!!” And (yes, you guessed it) they were really tasty!

And if you want to know what it was stuffed with, I'll just have to say "mystery meat" (but I think chicken, or maybe potatoes. hahahaha)

Sometimes the meat here can be kind of sketchy (as I’ve mentioned before), but really the meat here is probably better than a lot of meat in the U.S. Guaranteed it is processed less, and my mom probably knows the people she buys her meat from, and they keep their animals safe on a farm (but the animals might not always have enough food). One really sad day for me was back during my second week in Guatemala when I went to the Mercado (Market) San Francisco with Odilia, and we went to the place where they sell animals. Cows, goats, chickens- all sorts of different types of animals being sold for food. I was practically brought to tears, but this way is much more humane than the way meat is processed/sold in the United States. This was the little urge I needed, because I think I am going to try and be a vegetarian when I go back to the U.S. I will still eat meat if it is offered to me (like if I’m at a friend’s house), but I think cooking for myself I am going to try and go meat-less. Bam. I’ll need to find some good recipes!

Smoothies

As if we all didn’t know this already- Smoothies are incredibly refreshing in a hot climate. Who am I kidding? Smoothies are always refreshing. I had the yummy mango one in Panajachel, Guatemala, and the blackberry one I had last weekend with my chicharrones. I know how to order yummy drinks. :-)

 

Sweets

No doubt about it, I have a sweet tooth. The sad thing is, dessert isn’t really a thing here or in Guatemala. This made me and Meredith very sad, so we have definitely gotten our fill of sweets. Our first weekend we found a cake shop in Xela:

With a Coke of course. Lots of sugar!

One day during the break I went with Meredith and her teacher, Paty to a great little coffee/hot chocolate shop and got cinnamon churros (and hot chocolate!)

This was after I had eaten two. hehe

We celebrated Sakribal’s birthday while we were there (18 years!) and we ate this yummy banana bread!

I think I’ve talked about “Bake Shop” before- it’s a little Mennonite bake shop in Xela that sells the best donuts I’ve ever eaten (Clara, I wanted to bring some home for you so badly!). This is a picture of my teacher, Flor, and I eating our donuts. She had a jelly filled one, and I had a cinnamon cruller. (I’m realizing while writing this how much I like cinnamon! Haha)

I miss Flor.

And my adorable little favorite children at Bible School our first week, eating their Friday afternoon treat- ice cream. People (especially kids) seem to really like sweets here, even though they aren’t eaten that often. 

Yvette and Natalie!

Yup, it was that good!

Sadly (or maybe not so sadly), I think I’m losing a bit of my sweet tooth! My family offered me a piece of cake that Walter (host brother/dad) brought home from work, and it was really good, but I found myself thinking, “This is too sweet…” and I NEVER say that. I’m always saying, “Bring on the sweet stuff!” But truly, that cake was too sweet for me. Sad day. :-P

Pizza

And then there’s those days when you just have to have pizza. Gracias, A La Gran Pizza, the best pizza place in Xela. 

Ben and Meredith, posing

I hope you aren't too hungry now. But if you are, remember that in Spanish it's "Tengo hambre" (I'm hungry), not "Tengo hombre" (I have a man). Meredith made that mistake and the Sakribal teachers didn't let her forget it!! 

Peace, Love, and Smiles,

Christa

Because if you're anything like me...

You just kind of want to know what's up. 

And now that I have a better idea about what I'm doing here this summer, I suppose I'll share those plans with my wonderful family and friends. 

As you probably know if you've been keeping up with this blog, I'm here in El Salvador with Ben and Meredith, representing Duke and working with the Methodist Church here. I knew nothing about what we would be doing before we arrived and started working. Here is what a normal day looks like:

6:30 /6:45am: Get out of bed. I've been awake since 5am because the sun rises very early, and my friend the rooster likes to tell me it's time to get up. Everyone else in my house has been up for at least an hour by the time I get out of bed :-)

7:15ish: Eat breakfast. More often than not it involves beans and eggs. Believe it or not I'm totally getting used to it, and I look forward to it!

7:45ish (the "ish"es indicate El Salvadorian time. hehe): I get picked up to go to Spanish school at the Missionary House (which is attached to the Bishop's house). 

8am-Noon- Spanish school. Today was my first day with my teacher, Carla, but I really like her. She speaks French and English too, so if needed we could communicate in 3 languages. I think that is super awesome.

Noon-1:15ish: Chill at the missionary house, talk with the teams who are arriving for lunch from their morning sessions. 

1:15ish: Lunch. Always amazing food cooked by Juan de Dios's family. Food blog is coming later, no worries. 

2:00ish: Arrive at the worksites for the afternoon. Last week we worked on a construction site and in a Bible school. (see the pictures tab!) This week we're working in a medical clinic and a Bible school. Each week we will work with whatever short-term team is here, helping them translate. It's incredible practice, and a great way to get involved in the communities. This week especially, we are working in a very poor area- the line for the medical clinic was consistently long today, and there were plenty of kids who came to the Bible school, purely for something to do!

4:30ish: We leave the sites and head home to our families. I'm sure Meredith and Ben's families are great, but I'm partial to mine :-) I think they're the best. 

Mari is my mom. She is probably my [biological] mom's age, and she is amazing. She is the sweetest woman, and lets me talk to her in my broken Spanish and always tries her best to understand. Today was the first time she corrected me on something- like a good teacher she let me feel very comfortable making mistakes before she corrected me. Love her. 
Brenda is Mari's daughter. She is 30 and married to Walter. She is a lawyer and he works for the postal service (and has a nifty uniform!) They have two children (who I also call my "brothers" because I don't really want to call them my "host children," hahahaha). Diego is 9, and he talks my ear off! He is going to be the biggest help for learning the El Salvadorian accent, because he doesn't pronounce any of his S's, and as difficult as it is to understand him, he is super helpful to talk to. David is 9 months, and probably the happiest baby I've ever spent time with. Whenever I smile at him he smiles his huge, adorable smile back at me. I love hanging out with these two kids. Here's a picture I took this afternoon, when David has yogurt all over his face.

David is a little flirt. I call him coquetito (little flirt). At least I think that's how you say it. Hope I'm not calling him anything bad when I call him that. hahaha.

Anywho. I hang out with my family until around 7:15ish when we eat dinner. Then after dinner we usually watch tv. I go t bed around 10ish.

I'm very lucky to have internet here in the house, but I am trying my best not to use it often. I'm called to be here, and here is where I need to be. I don't need to stay connected 24/7 to the United States, and it's probably not healthy for me to be. It is nice, however, to be able to Skype my parents on the weekend and update my blog whenever I want.

Strangely, I have not felt the weird awkward uncomfortableness that I felt in Guatemala. My family has been so welcoming, and so nice. I think coming in with some language skills helps. My family hosts many students- usually one each summer for a long period of time (often Duke students). What I love most about this is that their house was built by a Lutheran group that came from Ohio. Now, they open up their house for a least 6 weeks a year to host other people who come to work for the church. There is something beautiful about that.

That's about it for now. Thanks for reading!

Peace, Love, and Always Smiles, 
Christa

Real World: El Salvador

Picture this: 

Two young children (toddlers) and their mother, out in the coffee bean fields in rural El Salvador. In the stifling heat they pick beans all day, separating the good ones from the bad ones, the red ones from the green ones. They fill a large sack, working for as long as possible. Their mother carries the sack down the mountain, perhaps slipping and sliding in the mud if there has been any rain (very likely this time of year). The bag is unbelievably heavy- 200 lbs. She could easily hurt her back, but she carries it nevertheless. She carries it, because at the bottom of the mountain, she gets paid for the weight of the beans. $1 per 25 lbs. $8 for a 200 lb. bag of coffee beans.  These beans then get shipped to the United States, where Starbucks uses less than a handful of beans and charges $4 a cup. Somewhere someone is making a lot of money. And it’s not with the woman and her children on the mountainside of El Salvador.

This is real life.

Those children grow up and eat more food. They need clothing and shoes. They don’t have an education because they can’t go to school- they have to help their mother every day. The young girl, once she is old enough to stay home by herself, will take care of the house. She will clean, cook, get water, and go to the market when needed. The young boy will continue to help his mom. He will continue to help until one evening, he’s playing outside with some of the neighborhood boys, and some older teenagers come over to him, asking him if he wants to join their group to make some easy money. The boy sees how his mother suffers everyday and desperately wants to help. He agrees to join the gang, and all of a sudden his life is spinning out of control in the world of violence, guns, and drugs. He wants to return to his former life, but he can’t because he fears he will be killed or be put in jail. He’s ten years old.

This is real life.

These and other stories were told to us tonight after dinner by Juan de Dios Peña, the Bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church of El Salvador. We’ve been so lucky to get to spend time with him today, soaking up his knowledge about the country and learning about his vision for the Church here. The Methodist Church has been in El Salvador for 16 years, and there are currently 12 churches in this country that is the size of Massachusetts and is home to 7 million people. The church is very hopeful, and is fully committed to helping the impoverished in the community.

La Iglesia Evangélica Metodista de El Salvador has some incredibly influential ministries that we learned about today. The first is building houses for people who do not have running water or electricity. We drove through some muddy, unpaved roads with plants lining the paths so high you could barely make out the walls and roofs of the tiny houses. According to Juan, 14,000 people live in this community, many without electricity, and most houses with 6-8 people in them (and we’re talking like maybe 800sq feet of house. Maybe.) The church is working to build cement houses that will withstand the small earthquakes, and that are equipped with both electricity and running water. The houses are built by El Salvadorians, with help from mission teams (see the pictures on the El Salvador tab), and financial help from the U.S. Each house costs $4800 to build, and although there are some fundraising efforts here, most of the funds come from churches in the United States.

Aside from building houses, the church is doing significant work with children and youth. There are children’s schools- places where kids can learn information, but also get practical knowledge about how to make crafts. The kids then can sell these crafts and help support their families. The youth groups attempt to provide a place for teenagers to encounter God and get off the streets. It gives them an opportunity to see that there can be more to life than gangs and violence (as easy as that life is to adopt).

The church also provides medical services at clinics. We will be helping out with these clinics during our time here. They charge people $3 to see the doctor, but then all the medicine is free. In a hospital, people can see a doctor for free, but medicine could cost up to $20-$30. The doctors are paid significantly less, but they are helping people who otherwise would go untreated.

Needless to say, La Iglesia Evangélica Metodista de El Salvador, under the great leadership of Juan de Dios, is doing some amazing work here, and I am SO excited to be involved in it. I’m already finding Juan to be an excellent example of servanthood- his house necessitates a life of hospitality and simplicity. His side of the house is simple, a few rooms shared by at least 9 people. The other side of the house is for missionaries. There are three rooms, each with about ten beds (bunked), and this is where we have been staying the past couple of days. On Saturdays, he invites the local children over to the house to watch the television, and they have a big sleepover using all the bunk-beds. The family is incredibly welcoming, and not just to foreigners.

This is their life. 

And I’m excited to be living it for the next 6 weeks. 

Last Blog Post from Guatemala

Hola all! 

Well, I'm en route to El Salvador. I'm currently in a nice hostel in Guatemala city, where I've been taking full advantage of the internet access. I'm quite sick (yuck), so last night I totally nerded out and watched far too much of Anne Hodges-Copple's consecration as Bishop Suffragan. Hehe. Pretty great. 

Anywho, just wanted to update to say that I uploaded more pictures on the Guatemala page (at the top, click Guatemala!). For some reason, I can't add captions to the pictures, and I haven't had the patience to figure out why, so I'm sorry about that. But I will explain some of the categories. 

Panajachel is a city on Lago Atitlan in southern-ish Guatemala. The lake used to be a volcano, but one day it erupted and basically caved in on itself, and now it's a lake. Crazy, right? All of the pictures of "mountains" are actually volcanoes, and they all used to be the little baby volcanoes of the big mama one. It's hard to imagine how big that volcano used to be!

The pictures of my family and teachers are pretty self-explanatory. Little almost-two-year old Alejandro takes up many of the family photos, but he's just so cute, how could he not?? haha. I love the one where he's holding out his hand to catch/pop a bubble. Most of the pictures with my teachers are from the graduation ceremony. I wrote an acrostic poem as my speech, and I love this picture of me that a friend took. A reminder to me that laughter is always good. :-) 

Sorry for this extra-short post. I'm working on a food post in my head, but honestly right now thinking about food makes me feel more sick, so we'll wait until El Salvador for that one! I have no idea what the internet access will be like in El Salvador (I know we're in a much smaller town). Prayers for safe travel much appreciated!!! 

Peace, Love and Smiles, 
Christa

On Embracing the Uncomfortable

I am also sharing this post on the International Field Education blog:  ddsfieldedintl.blogspot.com. Check it out to learn about other International Field Eds this summer!

The Uncomfortable

In general, I don’t like change and I don’t like feeling uncomfortable. It’s a wonder I like to travel so much. Whenever I travel, there is always that time of not feeling like I belong, of feeling uncomfortable. I’m not talking about being physically uncomfortable- a bed with very little mattress; cold showers; being wet, smelly, and gross; and crowded busses with people sitting on top of me are givens. I can handle the physical uncomfortableness pretty well. However, the feeling of awkwardness, the insecurity of not belonging- these are the uncomfortable times that I had to embrace during my first few weeks here in Xela, Guatemala.   

Faith

The second day I was here, my host family grilled me about my faith. I don’t live with a Christian family here, and my “dad” has some serious opinions about Christianity. They did not understand what “Anglican” is, let alone “Episcopal.” They think I’m Mormon because I don’t drink coffee or alcohol [I do drink alcohol in the U.S., I just decided not to here]. Anywho, on this second day in Xela, my dad kept asking me about the Holy Spirit, Jesus and saints, and, well, I was super uncomfortable. My speaking skills at this point consisted of “sí” and “no,” although I did understand most of what he was saying. I realized quickly that to some people, I was going to have to defend the cross I wear around my neck. Living with any host family necessitates an adjustment period, and this host experience is no exception.

Food

Last Saturday, I had my first real “culture shock” moment. I went into the kitchen to sit at the table and eat lunch, and on each plate was an entire fish. Head, fins, tail and all. “Lovely,” I thought. How do I eat this?! I decided to wait and watch the rest of my family for hints on how to begin. My eight-year old “brother” dug right in with his hands, ripping off the fins and picking out the bones. I decided to watch other people at the table… one woman was using a fork, so I decided I’d try with the fork. My “dad” looked at me struggling with the fork and said, “You don’t need a fork! Just dig in with your hands, like Fernando!” Ok, if you say so! Hola, culture shock! Fernando ended up devouring three fish-heads. Don’t worry, I didn’t follow that example.

Staring

I love that children have no filter or sensor. My almost 2-year-old “nephew,” Alejandro, is a prime example. He openly stares at me, and then screams. During the stare, his eyes say, “You don’t belong here… You’re not like us. What are you doing here?” I look right back at that adorable child and think, “I don’t know, Alejandro. Good question.”

Language

What makes it all worse is not feeling confident in speaking the language. I feel great at school with my teachers, and then I come home and feel like an idiot talking to my family. Put me in any public situation and I have to rehearse what I’m going to say over and over so as to not feel like a dork. And then usually I don’t understand the responses to whatever I ask.

BUT…

Embracing that Uncomfortable

Recently, something clicked. On my trip to the Mercado San Francisco with my teacher Odilia, I felt like I could actually speak to her, and we had very friendly conversation the entire morning. Over the weekend, Alejandro said my name (“Tita,” he can’t pronounce Christa!). I’ve had bonding moments with every member of my family, even mi abuela who I cannot understand (we dance to the music on the radio). This week I laughed and joked with my new teacher, Flor, as if I was hanging out with friends in the U.S.

Somehow, miraculously, after three weeks of struggling through a new language and culture, I finally feel like I can be myself in school and with my family. I feel settled, I feel welcomed, I feel comfortable. I have been enveloped in love by these people who at one point had made me feel out of place. When I walk to my “house,” I feel like I’m going home. I have created bonds with my teachers at school that make me excited to go every day, just to see them and talk with them!

But of course after one more week, I will leave for El Salvador where circle of feeling uncomfortable will start all over again. Although feeling uncomfortable is probably one of my least favorite feelings, it is also something I highly recommend because it is a reminder that life is not always a comfort. It doesn’t take an abroad experience to feel uncomfortable- I can think of many places in Durham, Geneva, or Framingham where feeling comfortable would take a lot of time and effort. Time and effort that would be well worth it, vale la pena.

Being uncomfortable abroad ultimately helps me think about immigrants in the United States who potentially live in a perpetual state of discomfort. I firmly believe that when we cannot empathize with people, we make it easier to put up barriers and divide ourselves based on differences. We can easily think that other people’s problems are not our own. I’ll be the first person to tell you that feeling uncomfortable and out of place stinks. However I was given the chance to thrive in the uncomfortable-ness to the point where I was welcomed and loved, and that feels great. Gracias a todas las personas de mi “familia” in Xela quien me ayudaron y me calmaron. Admiro la hospitalidad Guatemalteca.

In the end, what honestly gives me the most comfort is knowing that you all are thinking about me and praying for me as I am on this journey. You, my “family,” have supported me so much along the way, and I appreciate it so much. I will end this post with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer that I found as I began to write this post, which I see as a prayer to help me try to embrace others who are uncomfortable:

A Prayer for the Human Family

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purpose on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Peace, Love, and Smiles,

Christa