After teaching my adult English class this week, Marlon, Catherine (one of my students), and I went to Sumaya's house to have dinner. Sumaya is a women who attends the church I volunteer at, and her daughter, Genesis, is also one of my students. They live very close to the church, so as soon as class was over, we all went over to make beleadas.
Sumaya (in black) tried to teach me how to make the tortillas for the beleadas. She already had the dough prepared and rolled into balls, then she (very patiently) showed me how to smooth out the dough and then slap the tortilla back and forth between my hands to help make it flat and even. (if you remember from an earlier blog, I posted a picture and video of a woman in town making the tortillas the same way) As you can tell from the picture above, they were all having a great time laughing at me! It was really hard to keep the tortilla from falling, I actually dropped the dough a few times on the floor. 
The picture above shows Genesis and Catherine trying to help me smooth and stretch out the dough. They kept insisting I wasn't being hard enough on it, yelling "Mas fuerte! Mas fuerte!Watching Sumaya and them prepare the tortillas so fast made me want to learn that much more. I think it took me well over 5 minutes to do just one, when it seemed to only take them a few seconds!
After many failed attempts to flatten the tortillas by hand, I ended up cheating and placed the dough on a plate where it was a lot easier to spread the dough out evenly into nicer circles. After preparing the tortillas, we all sat down to eat. Inside the tortillas we put beans, scrambled eggs, and mantequilla (a white creamy cheese, almost the same taste as sour cream), the were delicious!
The picture above shows "anafre," which is a common dish here. It is basically beans and melted white cheese, served in a ceramic bowl placed on top of a larger ceramic pot. Inside the bottom of the pot are hot coals, that helps to keep the beans and cheese piping hot. It reminds me of fondue. At this steakhouse in town we ate at, they served freshly made tortilla chips, pickled, shredded cabbage (they put this on everything here), a sauce with olive oil mixed with chopped parsley, and pickled onion and jalapeno along with the anafre.
Students often bring random fruits and treats for me to try. The picture above shows a "manzana pera" which actually translates to apple pear, but they have regular apples here, and this is definitely not any sort of apple I have ever seen. It is a little tart and sour, and has a large oval seed inside.
This is my student Elsa, she is the one that brought me the manzana pera. I asked her to eat one in front of me so I could watch her first, before I tried it. It actually wasn't bad, but I must say I prefer regular apples!
There are many people that sell "elote" (roasted corn) on the sides of the street here. The picture above shows a man that sells them every night starting at about 5:30, right down the street from where we live and the church I teach at. I've now made it a ritual to buy one from him before I teach my English classes on Thursday nights. They serve it with melted butter, lemon, and salt. I wasn't sure about the lemon at first, but I was sold as soon as I took my first bite!
At the same place, they also sell "tamilitos." It tastes similar to the corn meal in tamales, but it is very sweet, and there is no filling inside. 
These pictures show my crazy kids feasting on massive amounts of junk food during recess. All the children here (and adults for that matter) are ALWAYS eating candy, soda, and chips. Even the "fruit juice" here, is pure sugar. Very rarely do Sara and I ever see kids actually eating something healthy or substantial like a piece of fruit or sandwiches. Usually a student's lunch consists of cookies, a bag of chips, some sort of candy, and a sugary drink or soda. They don't even sell water at the cafeteria at school! It's no wonder why all their teeth are either nonexistent or rotten.
Sara and I are leaving for Guatemala tomorrow for Easter break and we'll be gone for about ten days. I'll be sure to post a blog about our trip when we get back, so be sure to check back in. Happy Easter to all of you!!! I love you and miss you!
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