Spillin my Beans

I just made refried beans for the first time ever and they turned out nothing like the locals make it. Per Marinita's instructinos, I put them in the licuadora with some of the liquid that they cooked with, put some butter in the pan with some onion... then threw in the liquid beans to fry them up. You know what was missing to make them turn out just like Marinita's? A huge chunk of lard. That way they would have turned out nice and thick instead of soupy. But you know, if I'm makin 'em I just cant knowingly do that to myself. I'd rather just eat her beans and not watch her prepare them. They really do taste pretty awesome the way she makes em.


So it's lots of Salvo campo food for me for the next few days. I didn't go to the grocery store. And frankly, nor can I afford it. I have less than $10 in my peace corps bank account at the moment. I just need to make it 6 days or so til pay day.

Despite that fact that I have no money, I'm good. Looking forward to all the things I've got planned for September and October. Thursday Jamie and I are heading over to our friend Hollie's site in Usulutan to help her out with her Youth day camp-like thing she has going. I'm doing my HIV/AIDS thing, Jamie's gonna do a workshop on Yoga and relaxation techniques... Should be good. And this weeken also coincides with our 1 year anniversary of being in our communities. We will have to celebrate that a little.

What else is new?

If you recall, Marinita's and Chepito's kid came from the states with his family a while back. Well, while they were here they bought my host parents a very nice brand new big expensive beautiful white refrigerator to replace their 20 year old stinky little yellow one. My host mom had it plugged in and was using it a bit while they were here. But as soon as they left, and ever since it has been unplugged almost all the time. It uses too much energy she says. Because she doesn't want to only use it and get rid of her yellow one. She likes her yellow one, which maybe was actually white once uon a time. Because with that one she can put whatever in it and doesnt care if it gets dirty. The new one she doesn't want to get dirty and can't use it in addition to the yellow one because the electric bill skyrockets. So instead, it just sits there unplugged and she uses it to put some things in.... like veggies and bananas. That just get all moldy from being in the hot refri. I think that will ruin it anyway. I said why don't you sell it then? She said oh no... because if they ever come back they wont want to buy me more things if they see I didnt appreciate and keep what they have bought me before. LoL... The whole thing I just think is kinda funny.

Milton turns 4 on Monday. I think I'm gonna bring him a pinata. He's been doing great. I have been teaching him his colors and number and the "magic words"- please and thank you and excuse me. Now he knows better than to just walk into my house and say, "Give me the coloring book." He says "Can I use the coloring book please?" without me having to give him a look or anything. What a good sweet boy he is... I want him to have what he needs and someone to teach him about how to be a good person forever... I've said to his mom in a joking manner about how I want to take him with me... Ok i wasn't really joking, but it's not the kind of thing you can seriously ask a mother... "Will you give me your adorable cute son and let him go and never see him again?" So I say it like I'm joking... And she always makes it clear that that's never gonna happen. Sigh, saying goodbye to my little man is gonna be hard.

But perhaps it's a little too soon for me to be thinking about my goodbyes. I just know the second year is going to fly by though. And my neighbors and friends in my community are already calling dibs on what they want to buy from my house when I leave. Guadalupe wants my hammocks. The clinic wants my tables, etc.

I had a nice weekend in San Sal. Noel and I went to my friend Alayna's despedida, who's done with her 2 years and going on to new things. I spent Saturday recovering and going to see Planet of the Apes at the movies. Sunday Noel and I went to the art museum, which wasn't bad... and free on Sundays. But man... the entire weekend I was just over-indulged with food and beverage. That's what happens to Peace Corps Amy.... spending several weeks in my site straight, I go into the city and get overly excited about what is available to me...

This weekend I had pizza, cheetos, tons of chips and guacamole, two visits to McDonalds, Noel's very bacony carbonara pasta, waffle, Hebrew National hotdogs that traveled all the way from San Diego and into my belly, popcorn at the movies, an assortment of appetizer junk ordered from Bennigans, and Wendy's on my way to the bus terminal.

GROSS! How can I not feel disgusting after all of that? And an even better question, how can I control myself and not go nuts when I get to the city? GROSS GROSS GROSS. Ok, well I suppose not all weekends are like that... this one was exceptionally worse than others.

Haha, and I say I don't want to put lard in my beans!