Quick Shout Out to Larka and Mikah!

Two close friends from college came to visit me for a week. My first visitors from Nebraska! I had such a great time seeing faces from home, and everyone was excited to meet my friends. Yes, they are still asking about them. I absolutely love that we were able to stay in my village most of the visit and that the girls were able to get a taste of my everyday life. We made tortillas, washed in the creek, spent some time with the kids at school (it was so great, Thursday morning the students had all prepared skits for education week and since there was no school on Friday, we did an art lesson with them), and rested much in the hammocks. Of course we ended with a trip to the beach, and even saw Nim Li Punit on the way. What a wonderful, wonderful week. And instead of me telling about it, I would love to hear how Larka and Mikah would explain the visit, so I'm hoping they'll both find time to comment on this post with a few words (or more) describing their experience, especially since I know they've already written about it in their journals. Loves and Hugs!

Baking with Sarah Ack

Just about every Sunday, I take myself over to my friend Sarah's house. I met Sarah when I first came to Santa Teresa while on a morning walk. She called me over, asking if I knew how to bake cakes because she wanted to learn. I told her I had a recipe book and if she was willing to try new things, I would love to experiment with her. For those of you who don't already know, I like to use recipes as mere guidelines and since there are no measuring cups or spoons to be found, I enjoy baking with Sarah all the more. And another factor to throw in the "mix," neither of us have an oven so all creations are made over the fire. Our first attempt was to make no-bake cookies. Tricky, I know, but honestly I was a little nervous to make anything too crazy and wanted our first treats to turn out. I wanted her to invite me back, you know. I had just discovered I could make these delicious snacks in no time on my table stove so knew it would work out fine.
Next, we found a recipe for honey wheat bread. Sarah already knew how to bake bread, but wanted to try a variation. It turned out tasty, only honey is a little pricey when you could just use sugar, but I did like the wheat flour. After that was brownies- good, then two tries at biscuits. I must add, too, sometimes we don't have all the ingredients needed but that doesn't stop us. I like being able to buy from the shops in the village that way whatever we make could be easily made again later, or in the case of the brownies, right away. (I learned quickly that we should at least double every recipe.) Back to the biscuits, the recipe called for cream, so I thought the closest substitute would be sweetened condensed milk. We'll just say we intended to make rock hard, dense, but sweet biscuits. I was all about trying again, using the recipe on the back of the baking powder tin, which turned out a little fluffier, but as soon as we finished, Sarah was giving her brother money to go buy a can of sweetened condensed milk and asking what else we put in those last biscuits. Ha ha! Who knew?
Just in time for my birthday, we made a yummy chocolate cake, which has been made now in a few other houses. We even made cakes for GLOW Club, which is another post I need to write... next time. Anyways, I'm getting pretty good at throwing things together to make a cake and love not having to buy a box of cake mix. Woot woot! I really like using fresh coconut water in place of milk. After the cake was cinnamon rolls which I mentioned in the PCT visit post. Then, we decided to take a shot at sugar cookies. We knew the sugar might cause some problems, but didn't anticipate how hard it would be to get the cookies out of the pan/pot. Hold up! I think I forgot to explain our cooking situation in more detail. We put a large pot over the fire, then make one on a piece of zinc to place on top, using firewood and corncobs as a heat source. When baking bread, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and in this last case, sugar cookies, we place the dough on a banana leaf and cut out around each individual one, leaving us to grab the hot baked goods with our bare hands once they are done or need to be turned. The bread and biscuits weren't too bad, but maybe it's the sugar that made the cinnamon rolls hard to grab and the sugar cookies the worst. The sugar cookies liked to fall apart as well, and only after we were done did I remember usually you keep cookies in the pan awhile to let them finish cooking. Since I know there is a less painful way to make cookies I'm not sure I want to try over the fire hearth again, but Sarah may think it's worth it to make such a sweet treat.
Our most recent attempt, stress on attempt was to make fudge. Now, I'm not sure why I let Sarah mark pineapple fudge when looking for recipes to try, as I am well aware fudge can be tricky to make. She asked about it more than once though and when Mikah and Larka were here to visit, we had bought a pineapple to make pineapple salsa, so I thought we would give it a try. We made one batch with and one without cocoa, and oh brother, how different they came out, from each other, and from what fudge should be. The white fudge was too soft and the chocolate was too hard, rock hard. Here's a better explanation of how hard it was. First of all the nuts we sprinkled on top moved around even though we put them on right away. I was excited about the nuts, too. Magdalena had pulled some kahune nuts- can I break a second and tell you the wonders of the kahune? This tree is beautiful to look at, you can roof your house with its leaves, feed your family with the center of the trunk (kahune cabbage, one of my favorite meals), plus it produces nuts galore which are a favorite as well. I'm sure there are more uses I have yet to find out about- busting them even, a skill I have yet to master, and we chopped them up to put on top. They sunk right in the liquidy blond fudge. I'm curious as to why there was such a difference. You needed a spoon to eat one and the other I was scared the little kids were going to break their teeth as they stuck their heads in the pot to lick, I mean scrape with their teeth the bottom and sides. And then, I'll never forget Mikah's reaction when opening the container we had brought back to try, one on top othe the other, making a bigger mess. I felt a little better when trying some fudge at the Cacao Festival that was a little hard and grainy, too, plus Sarah said the boys liked what we had made, they're teenagers and will eat anything. I told her though, next time, we'll just make pancakes. Loves and Hugs!

Paulina, Paulina where does your garden grow?

It took awhile, but Paulina can now say she has her own garden. And this is without the assistance from organizations in town. When Paulina first told me she wanted help with a personal garden we went straight to town in search of a small grant to get started, needing help with materials such as fencing and tools, even a scale so she could possibly sell the vegetables. This girl's a thinker, let me tell you. Neither organization was able to help which was a bummer, but the hardest part was having to tell Paulina the bad news. The men we talked to spoke too much and too fast for her to get the message so I was the one who had to say, "No," when she asked, "Are they going to help us?" There was a training offered which we decided to wait for but neither of us ended up going so I instead got a Peace Corps gardening manual to look through and we already had some seeds, just needed time to start. So one Saturday morning we decided to go for it. We planted some seeds in plastic bottles at first thinking that would give us time to dig up a spot since her father's fenced in garden was now full of cabbage. But while collecting soil for our seedlings we decided the spot we got it from was a perfect place for a garden. It's back in the bush a ways but Paulina walks past there everyday when going to bathe. Maybe it's too shady as well but she was willing to try it out and I'm no gardening expert. I'm learning right along with her and I feel like she asked me to help, not because she needed it, but because she wanted me there. Notice all the we's and us's which make me so very happy. Helping with a personal garden can be seen as a Peace Corps secondary project and I feel like all I'm doing is spending time with a friend. I couldn't think of a better "job" to have. How I love my life! Another example of this is baking with Sarah Ack, which I'll write about next time... Loves and Hugs!

DRA Retesting

Since it's already the end of the school year I decided I should retest those students who were in reading groups to mark any improvements and get a better idea who I should try working with during the summer. I also tested the Infant I students to get a heads up for next year. I started with the young ones and honestly was a little discouraged. Of eleven, two could actually read, a few knew their letters and sounds but couldn't yet for words and some barely even knew their letters. I'm hoping to work with the three that are the furthest behind in the afternoons, taking them out of class. Oh! And I have to mention how advanced one student was. What a difference pre-school makes; he transferred here from town and really had a head start. Makes me hopeful for years to come at Santa Teresa.
Now, the Standard I students, that was a different story. All 15 identified as struggling readers showed improvement!! One boy went from a pre-primer level to Grade 2b! Woot! He, along with three other girls will no longer read with me in the afternoons. I'm so impressed with Mr. Perez, knowing he's doing such a great job with them in the classroom. I even made little comparison graphs to hang in the office. When I told him the results he talked about how he's letting the students read to each other at the front of the class and how he's now trying to get them to work on expressions. What a boost! How I love to celebrate success! And it's motivation to retest the rest. Loves and hugs!