Hot Tamale

Due to heavy rains, Saturday Peace Corps activities were cancelled. Although the rain eventually let up, the main concerns here in Guatemala when the rain gets intense are landslides and flooding. Apparently (if I understood my host mom correctly…Big If here…) there was a landslide on part of route 14 (the Inter-American Highway). A bus got hit by the landslide and flipped over; there were many injuries and even a few deaths. So, yes, we volunteers were mandated to stay put, which was fine by me because instead of having Spanish class and an intercommunity exchange where my group would get to visit the town of another group of volunteers and vice versa, I got to help my host mom and sister make tamales, which I have really wanted to do ever since I got here. Ok, and by help I mean primarily put the masa on the big plantain leaf, throw some sauce, a piece of meat, and a thin slice of chili on top, and wrap it all up like a tasty little present of deliciousness. But still, that is sort of cooking, right? I am getting there, and as they say here in Guatemala: Poco A Poco…(little by little).

My host sister, Lucy, makes tamales every Saturday to sell. I never knew there were several different ways to prepare the masa. Today for example, they just used Maseca (Corn Flour), salt, and ground up rice. (Incidentally, to make tortillas—which I did in Spanish Class—you just use Maseca and water, make little balls, flatten them out and put them on the stove. Salt to taste). However, sometimes they use potato in the masa instead rice, and in my opinion, this is way more delicious. Although they had already prepared the sauce, they let me in on their secret sauce recipe. Basically just roasted tomatoes, tomatillos, and like three different chili peppers (not spicy, just flavorful)—chili pase, chili seca, and chili verde—all blended together with water, and like most every other food in Guatemala, SALT. Anyway, that was my Saturday adventure. By the end of my two years, I will be a Guatemalan food making pro…( a girl can dream…that is kind of the theme of my entire Peace Corps journey so far…)

Oh and as an update to my previous blog about playing futbol with my niece and nephews, yesterday we played another round, and the Girls won, despite the boys’ many efforts to cheat. Take that boys! Tomorrow we play for the championship (My little nephews even made a trophy out of newspaper and styrofoam cups painted gold! I think they are taking this a little too seriously…! I might have to let them win so that they are not scarred for life, but if the girls win I am teaching the boys a valuable lesson that girls, too, are fully capable of playing some hard core futbol…hmm…what to do…Oh, and I fully realize that I am like 4 feet taller than everyone and I have an unfair advantage…oh, well.)