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Volcan Aqua - on my walk to Spanish School
(click to enlarge)
Starting to feel at home – food and cooking!
So I have been here 11 days, and feel settled into a new routine. Having never lived in a shared accommodation before I am finding it quite a fun experience, you don’t pick your housemates so a level of adjustment is required. I think it is all about timing, when the bathroom is free and more importantly the kitchen! Everybody has their own ways and the mix of cultures is just great. There were five of us living in the house up until today one guy has just left to move to his own flat, and one woman is leaving back to Germany on Monday, so we will be three until some new people arrive.
I needed to get back to some cooking. It is such a (hectic) pleasure to shop in the covered market where you can buy the freshest fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, flowers and household items, I reckon about 500 stalls in a warren of aisles and passageways. Love it! Been told that I need to shop on a Monday, Thursday and Saturday for freshness and other days for cheapness! But with Strawberries (fresas) available all year at 45p per pound, blackberries (moras) the size of golf-balls (also 45p per pound) and a bag full of carefully chosen but mixed vegetables for about £1.50 I am not complaining. I am going to the market with my Spanish teacher next week as an activity, as I need her to explain some of the interesting but totally unknown fruits and vegetables available.
Moras - the size of golf-balls and yoghurt a great way to start the day
I was kindly warned by one of my housemates, “you know, blackberries are one of the fruits people are generally warned off eating …….” My reply “well you only die once!” We had a discussion about risk taking, and I think that with my Indian experience under my belt a few berries and some street food won’t actually do me too much harm, (and I need to loose the weight!)
So as you can see from the pictures, food is good, healthy, wholesome and cheap! My food bill is about £2.50 per day and I could reduce that by half if needs be, but I am enjoying cooking with good ingredients so I am pushing the boat out! But Olive oil is about £5 per half litre bottle, so need to find the Guatemalan equivalent!
Today I tried “tortillas negras” black tortillas made from a very dark blue/black/grey maise that is typical in Guatemala and have to say they are far superior to the white ones! These tortillas are made by groups of women who make the tortillas in their hands and cook them over a fire on a plancha (metal sheet). But they ain’t cheap! 3 for 1Quetzale about 3p each! The normal ones are 5 for 1 Quetzale!
Preparing tortillas
Had an interesting interaction with the three ladies who run a tiny stall at the bottom of the road making tortillas – I said to them “cuanto questas” Mujer:“cinco por un quetzale” so I said “cinco por favor” and then watched as one of the mujeres (women) started to stuff a bag with 25 tortillas – “no, no, solamente mi” “cinco tortillas todos” (I think you can do the translation) ~ if looks could kill! I mean who buys only 5 tortillas or more likely who eats only 5 tortillas at a time! Surfice it to say that I have spent the rest of the week buttering up the “mujeres de tortillas” though still of course only buying 5 tortillas a day! But I go out of my way to doff my hat and wish them a good day/afternoon/evening every time I pass and make the “one with the face” smile ~she will come to love me!
I made a kind of Bolognese with carne de vaca (beef), local chorizo, olives, tomatoes, peppers, etc served with tortillas (black tortillas today) ……
Lunch con tortillas negras
Moral standpoints:
There are a lot of charities working in Guatemala and of course to some extent they are all vying for money, fortunately CasaSito through its professional approach and amazing Director, Alice Lee has managed to obtain some hefty funding via professional group of bankers in Canada (bankers apparently aren’t all bad!) but we volunteers had an interesting discussion about a charity that in some ways seems to have crossed a line in trying to raise funds – they have produced a discount booklet for tourists in Antigua (good idea) but and it is a BIG BUT, for a donation of Q.200 (£17.50) you can go on a tour … I quote the publicity material “Experience Guatemala Tour” To see firsthand where your donation is going, join our tour to "X" which we run every Wednesday …… visit the slums where the families of our school live and of course visit our schools …… and get a 50% discount on your donation if you purchase the discounts for education booklet!
or maybe it should read ....
“Roll up roll up, see the amazing squalor these people live in, experience the grime for yourself, gawp at the poor and dispossessed and then come and go oh, ahh as you see the little angels in their school ~ or are they monkeys in a zoo?”
We couldn’t believe that poverty could be turned into an attraction ~ “infotainment!” is the buzz word I think. Ok, so the charity needs the money, but is this the way to get it? (Answers on a postcard to ……..)
This same charity charges its volunteers US $1100 for an 8 week volunteering “package” ~ I must be using the wrong dictionary but I thought volunteering was a cash free transaction. The volunteer who is with this charity and living at the Volunteers house comes back daily with horror stories of trying to work with a class of 35 5 – 7 year olds who are very active and don’t really appreciate yet another teacher who has only basic Spanish! She feels so frustrated that she simply can’t communicate with the children in a way that is beneficial to them and the poor things get a new “teacher” every 4 weeks! I can't help feeling that somewhere along the way the objective has got lost in a process.
I am so thankful that CasaSito has a level of cultural sensitivity and professionalism, that protects those for whom we strive to improve their situation and that “CasaSito works on the “teach a man to fish” principal rather than “give a man a fish!”
Makes a nice change from a black cab!
(OK they are for tourists but they are such a part of the place)
More on the cobbled streets later!
Work and thoughts of my own place.
I am also starting to get involved in the “Festival des Artes” due to be held on December 3rd, I am in charge of buying all the prizes for the art competition, (knew all that painting would come in useful) and in designing the poster for the event (in Spanish – of course!) Is there no end to this guys talents I hear you cry!
Had a slightly tough couple of days on the Spanish front, “disafortunadamente” (unfortunately ~ just love that word!) it started to feel like I had this mountain (volcano) to climb and only 8 weeks in which to climb it ….. “afortunadamente” (fortunately) my teacher Aura, has reassured me, and has adjusted the way she is teaching me so that I don’t feel so lost at times . . . . it is just that moment when you think that there is so much to learn, apply, remember, and could go in a 100 different directions or run round like a headless chicken!
I looked at two apartments this week and nearly took one, but “afortunadamente” some new friends ( a couple who run an excellent restaurant here in Antigua) suggested that a) the area was a little “peligroso” (dangerous) at night and b) I could do much better if I took my time and they pointed out two cafes that have large notice boards groaning with apartments that kind of pass from “traveller/volunteer to traveller/volunteer” so I am going to look at some this week, stay tuned!
Going to try and upload some videos for next week! (Can't wait for next week so here my first video of Antigua - the quality will improve!)
Hasta proxima domingo, amigos!
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