Beans

The beans-and-rice experiment continues. I have to say this is fun, so far.

I made breakfast rice--parboiled in butter, sweetened with dark brown cane sugar. It turned out perfect! Much better than last night's experiment.

Beans--did the obvious thing and made chili.

Now to focus on a different bean--the cacao bean. Oaxaca is known for both coffee and chocolate. And stir-fried grasshoppers, but we won't go there right now.

Mexican chocolate is fun to make. You heat the milk on the stove and add solid tablets of rich chocolate until it looks right. To truly do it the Oaxacan way, you serve it in pottery bowls instead of mugs. Ancient Mexican civilizations believed chocolate was the food of the gods, and it's easy to see why.

I'm making some right now, and when it's done, I'm going up four stories to the roof to enjoy it with the city lights spread out at my feet.

Rice and Beans

Given the store of rice and beans in the house, I decided that once I was alone, I would experiment with them and see how many ways there are to prepare rice and beans. Dave Ramsey (the famous financial guru known for telling people to eat rice and beans until they get out of debt) would be proud of me.

First of all, people, DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND. Those are NOT the only things in the house. This is not a financial crisis. It is an experiment.

I found out two days ago that cooking beans takes forever under normal circumstances, and it takes even longer at this altitude (5,500 feet above sea level). After two days of trying, I finally got them right--a blend of black beans and pintos, boiled with bacon grease, a can of green chilis, a chopped tomato, and "chili salt." Chili salt is dried peppers and dried cactus worms ground together for a unique flavor.

Tonight was my first rice experiment, and it was terrible. I often parboil rice in olive oil and tomato paste or chicken bullion. There wasn't any olive oil, so I substituted vegetable oil. I tossed in rosemary, chicken bullion, and a fresh tomato--diced.

It was awful. The flavor was just right, but (maybe because of the vegetable oil) the dish was very greasy. It was hard to eat, but I did it.

Better luck tomorrow.

Staying Home Today--August 6, 2010

She followed us down the street, shouting at us and cursing us in English and Spanish.

Rod and I had stopped at a tourism booth downtown to get a map of the city. When Rod asked for a map, the tourism lady turned to her children and said, "These disgraceful people want a map." That was the beginning of her outburst.

Now, she was following us, getting in our face when she could, cussing at us and shouting that we should be deported.

We finally managed to shake the helpful tourism department worker and buy the things we came to market for--mostly coffee and chili salt.

The day had begun well. Benito walked us to the bus stop. We crossed paths with an innocent man sweeping the sidewalk, and Benito gave him a good barking--just in case.

That was where the good times ended.

After we bought our coffee, a protest broke out in the middle of town. Protesters blocked all the bus routes out of town, so we couldn't catch a bus home. Bus or no bus, we knew we better leave while we could. Rod hailed a cab and paid a ridiculously inflated price for the cab driver to somehow get us out of town. The driver believed he could do it, if he took a back way.

I felt better when I saw we were really going to make it out of town. We zipped down back roads and past out-of-the-way shops. This wasn't so bad. We could still make it home and go to the orphanage to volunteer this afternoon.

That's when we ran into the soldiers.

A regiment had set up a checkpoint, and they were there in full force. The cab driver's eyebrows shot up and he said, "Soldiers? What are they doing here? Something must be going on."

Rod turned to me and said, "We probably better just plan on staying home today."

Here I sit. We made it home an hour ago, and I still feel pretty shook up. I wish I had some yarn or something, so I could knit. Yarn was on my shopping list today, but I couldn't find any.

We planned on coming home from the market, eating lunch, and heading to the orphanage. Now, I guess we can't.

Just another day in beautiful Oaxaca.

Clinic: Day 2

Yesterday, we visited a Zapotec village 7,500 feet above sea level. We were there all day, so there is a lot I could write about. I like to keep these posts short, though, so I'll just choose one thing--eye clinic.

Dr. Susan brought boxes of reading glasses, and she set up an eye clinic on a balcony. The Zapotec elders would come and try on glasses of different strengths and try to read a Bible story from a child's picture book.

They were so proud of their new glasses, and we saw tears of joy more than once. The ladies prepared soup and coffee for us, as a way of saying thank you. The coffee is boiled in a clay pot with a cinnamon stick thrown in. When it is ready, they pour it into pottery bowls to serve. One lady brought a sack of peaches from her tree and gave them to Dr. Susan as trade for the glasses.

We take so much for granted--glasses, flavored coffee creamer, even running water. It can be shocking to see how grateful people in other culture's are for things we consider basic necessities of life.