The last couple of days have been chock full of studying, social and school activities, I haven’t been able to focus much on work so tomorrow it’s back to the grind. I thought I’d be even worse about writing, but I’ve only missed a few days really, although I know I haven’t written about so many things. And I haven’t been keeping a journal because I figured this blog would be a decent substitute. So I will play a bit of catch-up with these weekend posts—warning, they will probably be disjointed, unorganized and not make much sense, but there sure will be lots of pictures!
Boxboles (pron. bosh-bow-lees)
This is what we made in our cooking class last week. It’s a typical Mayan dish that hails from the Ixil triangle, a region northwest from here in the Cuchumatanes. If the weather gets better later this month, I’m going to try and go on a 5 day trek in this area. Anyway, boxboles are made with masa (por supuesto), the leaves of something similar to something called something that sounds like “whiskey”, wisquiles? Anyway, the leaves look like swiss chard in size and durability. There are also two sauces that accompany the main dish. One is made out of toasted squash seeds and the other is a fiery hot sauce made with tomatoes and chile coban, a super hot, super flavorful pepper. Although there were only a few ingredients, the dish was actually really intense, complex and most of all, filling. We all felt like we were carrying masa babies, or boxbole babies, after consuming just a few boxboles. Of course the fresh tortillas didn’t help the masa madness.
La Virgen
Here are a few pics from the desfile a week and a half ago that started the month of Mary here in Xela. This weekend the central park and the streets around it are closed to celebrate the first weekend in the month of Mary. I’m sure each little celebratory parade, street fair, firecracker or stick of dynamite that is set off at 5am and then repeatedly every few hours, has some significance, but damned if I know what any of it means. Or frankly, if anyone does. I never get a straight answer when I ask questions about what stuff means.
I had a make up class this morning because I had to skip Wednesday to go to Mazatenango. Carlos brought me a pache which is like a tamale, but it is made with rice and I think pork. We finished all the perfect tenses, which are pretty easy because they translate almost exactly the same in English.
Well, tonight is Michelle’s birthday and I have to get ready, which consists of taking my bandana off, putting my jeans on and assorted layers of t-shirts and hoodies. Hasta mañana!
Maybe the firecrackers have a similar meaning of the Chinese New Year celebration?
Why do you have to wear so many shirts? Hope you had fun at the party.
Who is Johnny Luke?
LOVE YA
I dunno, there always seems to be firecrackers going off and mini dynamite explosions. It has been so cold here that I have had to sometimes put on pretty much everything I have with me to stay warm in this office. And forget about the layers I have to sleep with in order to not get bitten by whatever keeps biting me. I have yet to catch the suckas. Mosquitos, spiders, bed bugs…who knows.
The party was a lot of fun…Michelle is the owner of the second hostal I stayed in, where I met quite really interesting, nice people. I am the only gringa left of the group of Americans and Brits who stayed there and she was nice enough to include me in her birthday celebration with her family and friends…even though my spoken Spanish is maybe one step above pointing and nodding.
Johnny Luke is my friend John, and he teased me on Facebook about using English leads in order to for him to read my posts, so I was just teasing him back…xoxo