From left, Julio, Alex, and Oscar greet us with a "Buenos dias" Wednesday morning.
The more interesting part of the day was the cooking class attended by Nicki, Alex, Deb, Angela, Jason, and Marilyn. Angela provided the photos, and Marilyn wrote up the description below. When they were done, they brought the food to us at the build site, which was delicious and most welcome.
And now, Marilyn Dudley followed by the Daily Devotion.
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On Wednesday, six of us elected to take a “cooking lesson” from the women at the co-op, which included preparing lunch for the whole crew including our Habitat hosts, Francis and Flor. This was also to include shopping for all the ingredients for the meal which the women had planned for us.
The co-op
is organized similarly to a co-op in the US.
The objective is to provide training and opportunities for women in the
local community to make a living. Four
of the women had visited us Tuesday afternoon to tell about the success they
had had and to display the goods they sell. Of course, the generous people in our group
bought all they had. You’ll see some of
it at Good Shepherd sometime soon!
Beti, Dinora, Griselda, and Verilise from the Getsamane Women's Co-Op.
Angela,
Deb, Alex, Jason, Nicki and myself volunteered for this cultural
experience. And what an adventure it
was. After another delicious breakfast,
we dropped off the rest of our team at the construction site so they could
resume building.
We continued
on our little bus to the Ahuachapán city market. We walked a block or two with Francis, our
Habitat leader and Glenda (Beti’s daughter) from the co-op leading the
way. It’s similar to a large outdoor
fair or famer’s market with small tables, booths, and stalls lining the street
for blocks. Each one was filled with an
assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and eggs, fish and seafood as
well as flowers, clothing, and shoes—almost anything one might need. Each individual display is a work of
art! At many of the booths, the women
prepared food to sell.
Glenda, Beti's daughter, looks at limes at the city market.
Some
of the produce looked familiar, but many items were new to us. We were fascinated by a fruit called litha, which
resembled hairy strawberries. Inside the
hard skin was a fruit with a texture like a grape that tasted similar to a
peach and inside that a pit, which Francis warned us not to eat! Francis wouldn’t let us taste till we got to
the co-op. There she showed us how to
break open the shell and eat the flesh without swallowing the pit. I think everyone loved them. But she made us keep a few for the others
back at the build site. They were
nothing like we’d ever tasted before.
And after lunch there was quite a competition to see who would get to
eat the remaining fruit.
The
market is open every day except for a few special holidays and Francis told us
that it was busy every day. She had a
list of ingredients we needed to buy. We
observed a few small trucks carrying produce to the market and off-loading into
baskets or buckets to be delivered to the smaller vendors. I have to admit this is the first time in all
my travels that I’ve seen an entire pick-up truck loaded with bananas! We saw people (mostly women) carrying baskets
of produce on their heads. They roll up
a towel, making a platform for the basket atop their head and carry the basket
with no hands. We bought spinach-like
greens called papelillo, squash, onions, tomatoes, plantains, cucumbers, all
manner of peppers, cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, loroco (a green that grows
as a vine), etc.
Next
we stopped at a dairy story where Francis purchased cream, a couple of
different cheeses – one similar to ricotta and another like mozzarella, and
some special chocolate called horchata for later which she was sure we’d
love. (She made it into chocolate milk
for the evening meal.)
Our
last stop was a modern grocery store at home, except all the signs were in
Spanish. Some of the products sold there
were familiar American brands. El
Salvador uses American money and the Sagacawea dollar is a common coin. You won’t see any one-dollar bills in El
Salvador, except from Americans. At each
stall where we made purchases, one of our group shelled out the necessary money
for the purchase. This is where Francis
purchased the chicken to be used for lunch along with spices, flour, corn flour,
etc. Soft drinks, including Coca-Cola,
and El Salvadoran soda which is the local favorite. We couldn’t agree on what it tasted like, but
we did agree that it tasted very good.
I got
lost from the group for a brief time today.
I was so intent on snapping photos and taking in the scenery that I lost
track of the person I was following.
Fortunately, my fellow travelers could see my big turquoise hat and
called to me before I panicked too much.
I have to admit, I had mixed feelings because I felt like an incompetent
older person who had to be watched, but every so grateful for the loving
kindness of my fellow travelers.
Finally
we had all the purchases packed into the bus and off we went to the co-op to
learn to cook! We’ve been spoiled. Every single meal we’ve had has been
wonderfully delicious and prepared by someone else—a real treat for me!
Arriving
at the co-op, we disembarked from the bus and each of us carried part of our
“haul” into the co-op building. As we
entered the small one-story structure through a classroom filled with beautiful
young children who greeted us with Spanish words I didn’t understand, I was overwhelmed
by their wonderful smile and my eyes teared up.
I wanted to stop and hug each one of them but unfortunately my hands
were full of grocery bags. They only
stayed until noon time and we didn’t get a chance to interact with any of them
except for a darling little girl, Carmila, whose mother was one of the women giving
us the cooking lesson.
We
passed through the co-op building and into an outdoor area at the back. A roof covered a cement patio area where they
had set up tables for us. At one end of
the area was a large griddle for frying and two propane gas burners for boiling
and cooking in pans.
To
the left of the adjoining yard was the area used for washing hands and
food. Water flowed from a pipe into the
deep sink in the center. On each side
were shallower sinks which we used for washing hands and produce, and for cutting
up the chicken. On the other side of
the yard was an outdoor, wood-fired grill.
A couple of the women were starting the fire when we arrived.
Our
first task was to wash our hands and unpack the produce. Then the fun began. Since there were six of us and most of us had
no experience at cooking El Salvadoran food, we needed lots of
instruction. Our tools consisted of
sharp knives, graters, and potato mashers — no food processors or electric
knives in this kitchen! The pressure was
on. We were preparing lunch for our
entire crew back at the build site, and if we failed, someone would be
responsible and that was us.
The
organization of the task was just short of amazing. Each of the teachers knew what her job was
and the order in which the food was to be prepared. They all started at once, simply asking for
volunteers to do any number of tasks. We
chopped, diced, sliced, and mashed till we satisfied their exact standards and
not a single whole vegetable remained.
To
make the plantain empanadas, the ends of the plantain were chopped off, it was
cut into chunks about 1.5 inches long, then boiled. I think Angela smashed and smashed, and then
smashed some more. When it was finally
smashed to perfection, we dipped our clean hands into it to form a ball,
flattened it in our hands, filled it with previously prepared refried beans (sold
in a squeeze bag) or the pudding mixture which we cooked. Then the challenge was to shape the mixture
around the filling into a sort of egg shape without breaking the covering. They were later deep fried in oil over the
open fire.
Pastalita dough was made with corn flour, shaped by hand into crescents after
filling with the finely chopped mixed vegetables - corn and potatoes. It takes a lot of practice to get the nice
shape that the teachers did. I think I
might have made a single nice one in all my attempts. It’s a good thing that one can’t taste the
shape of them. Even the most uneven ones
tasted as good as the perfectly shaped ones.
Jason seemed to be the most competent at this task, I think because he’s
had practice with cooking authentic Mexican food at home. This was also deep
fried.
Pupusas
were made from corn meal dough and filled with one of three different fillings:
refried beans with beans, or refried beans
with a mixture of loroco. Again,
practice was required to create the dish.
The dough was flattened in your hands, filled, then shaped into a ball,
then grilled. After it was browned on
one side, the pupusa was flipped over.
One
of the teachers prepared the chicken. It was grilled on the outdoor grill after
being basted with a special sauce.
We
were so busy, when break time came, we gobbled our graham crackers and Chiky’s
cookies and drank our grape or strawberry juice on the run without sitting down.
Chiky’s are a chocolate-covered cookie very
popular with Jason and AJ, who fight over them whenever they are available.
If
you think I remembered all the details, think again, my fellow cooking school attendees
and Francis helped me sort it all out.
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Wednesday, August 9
Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know
it. -
Genesis 28:16
A popular song from years ago
titled “From a Distance” envisions a world of harmony and peace. It says, “God is watching us from a
distance.” Indeed God is watching us,
but not from a distance. He is present,
in the room with us, right in front of us, gazing at us all with unbounded love
in His eyes. I think we have experienced
God being here with us this week. Even
across the 1800-mile distance between El Salvador and Champaign, God is with us
and everyone here and there as well.
What we do here this week is
an example of compassion for our El Salvador friends. Jesus was moved with compassion for both individuals
and the multitudes (Matthew 9:36-37).
Not only did our Lord notice the pain and hurt of broken people, He
responded to it by challenging His followers to pray for the Father to send out
workers to respond to the hurts and needs of this dying world. As we follow Christ’s example, a heart of
compassion for people can compel us to make a difference in the lives of
others.
Let us pray.
Father, open our eyes to see
the hurt and struggle of others. Then,
open our heart to respond, so that through us, they may see You and Your love. In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
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