Saturday, October 4, 2008

30 September 2008

Someone went home! One of our sweet little girls has returned to live with her family after the judges deemed them fit enough to take her back. We’re going to miss her quite a bit, but she is going to be so much happier. You should have seen her the morning she was preparing to leave. She dressed in her prettiest outfit, hair combed, bows everywhere, and the biggest smile you’ve ever seen. Every time she’d walk by, she’d stop to jump up in my or one of the other volunteers’ arms and say in her best English, “I love you!”
Now she’s home and we’re hoping and praying that she keeps practicing that phrase often, in whatever language it may be!

Hey! I memorized that other rhyme!
Tin Marín de do PingÜe
Cúcara Mácara Títere fue
Yo no fui, Fue Tete
Pégale, pégale al quién fue
Con la punta del Pingue!

Are Boyscout activities brutal all over the world? I’d never been to one before, and I went on Saturday. EVERY game was waaaay violent and I ended up with the most impressive bruises my arms have ever experienced. One looks like a smiley face! A giant, purple, painful smiley face. Totally worth it though.

Oh oh oh!! Martita, the cook, took me under her wing. Our relationship started because she was too short to plug in the blender. Beautiful, isn’t it? The outlet is about 5 feet tall, but there’s a 1-2 foot counter that adds some space. Pretty mighty feat for our mini-Mami. Her plea: !Soy pequenita! Too true, Mami Martita.
She taught me how to make tortillas! I’d wanted to learn so badly. She makes amazing tortillas, and we have them at nearly every meal. One day, she initiated me: “María, ¿me ayuda con las tortillas?” And later, “María, ¿Puede cortar los plátanos?” That’s right, she also taught me how to make fried plantains – one of my absolute FAVORITE foods. I get off lucky because some of my favorite foods are beans, rice, tortillas, and fried plantains. Pretty popular meals around these parts! Oh man, and there’s a drink called Atól which is the true “magically delicious” breakfast treat. Here´s a shot of some of the kids getting ready to eat in our happy abode:
Gringas! Those are amazing too. No, not me and my companions, but rather this taco-like food that consists of some sort of meat (street dog, perchance?), pineapple, cheese, and a salsa/pico concoction. It doesn’t sound that impressive, but they do something amazing to it, I know. They’re Guillermo’s favorite food, so he took us out for some last night. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same…

Okay, enough about food for now. AAh! I gotta go!

Hasta luego!!!

4 comments:

C Eric L said...

I want to try gringas! It sounds awesome!.

Lon Atkinson said...

Hay, Boy Scout activities are brutal. Every single major injury I have had happened on a Boy Scout activity:

Broken knee, heart attack, broken ribs, just to name a few.

I hope you will be home sometime so that you can make some of this great sounding food for your friends and family.

Lon

The Smith Family said...

Oh, I wish I could call you!! I am going to try my hand at making the Tortellini/Pesto dish that we did a few times but without your amazing cooking abilities I don't know if it will turn out, but I will tell you all about it later. Trenton will be writing you a letter so expect to see it in the mail soon. I am also going to let him draw some pictures for you and the little banditos (?is that the right word, at all). Hasta

Deb said...

excellenté! So I assume that you will dazzle us with you cooking skills when you return. Or at least order us about the kitchen carrying out your cooking skills. either way there will be a tasty meal to be had. :)