Ayer estuve una tortillería (3 Delicious recipes)

I made about 55 tortillas yesterday.

They are delicious.

Today I made a black bean dish to eat with them, and salsa roja to top. These I took to Dennery for the Peace Corps Thanksgiving dinner. Read about that above!

For now, let's focus on what will quite possibly be the best homemade flour tortillas you will ever eat.

This weekend I started making tortillas. I now consider myself an expert. I tried two different recipes, looked at about twenty, and came up with something that got all I wanted. Using just shortening gave the tortillas a very nice flexibility, but no flavor at all. Using just vegetable oil made the dough pretty unpliable. Some compromise, some addition, and I now have a flour tortilla that made a Colombian say "You're not from the States!"

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup powedered skim milk
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil (I used soybean oil because it's the cheapest here)
1Tbsp shortening
1/2 cup warm water

Instructions
1. Mix dry ingredients together completely. (Powdered milk has a tendency to clump in general, so mix it well with the flour to prevent this)
2. Add vegetable oil, mix well. Things will start clumping a little.
3. Cut in the shortening, mixing in little by little. Mixture should now pack and crumble easily.
4. Add a water a little at a time. Mix in well until it all forms one big sticky blob. It shouldn't be wet, but nice and sticky. This way it will roll out well a few steps down the line.
5. Knead the dough for at least the length of one country song. Pull the dough apart into 10-12 clumps and roll into balls. Cover them with a damp paper towel, let sit for at least twenty minutes.
6. Sprinkle some flour on an even, clean surface (counter or tabletop work well) and put flour on a rolling pin. Take one dough ball, pat it down a little, and roll it out with the pin, so that it looks like a vertical oval. Flip it and turn it 90 degrees, and roll it so that it more closely resembles a circle. Use more flour on the pin, work surface, and tortilla as necessary. Roll it very thin, maybe 1/16th of an inch. It will thicken when heated, but making it thin in the first place makes it nice and bendable.

7. To cook the tortillas, heat a skillet over low-medium heat. Place a tortilla on the skillet, let it sit for about a minute, or until it puffs a little bit in several places. Flip it (there may be some brown spots on it now, this is normal and delicious) and let it sit for about 30 seconds or until the entire tortilla is a lighter color than it started out.

8. Eat! Eat! Eat! If you will serve them in a little bit, place them on two paper towels still attached, over a large sheet of aluminum foil. After you put each cooked tortilla on the stack, cover it with the rest of the paper towel, foil, and top with a towel or dishrag. If you want, you can freeze or microwave them. Serving suggestion:

Black Bean something or other
(serves a lot, so if it's just a meal for a couple people pare it down by half or so)

Ingredients
1 cup dried black beans
dash crushed oregano
dash crushed basil
dash salt
lotsa water
2 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
1 1/2 cup corn (I thawed my frozen corn, or you can drain and rinse a can of corn)
1 cup diced tomatoes (I used canned, since fresh tomatoes are really expensive here)
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp onion powder
(I forgot to add other spices, so add some cayenne or chipotle powder or something)

Directions
1. Prepare beans according to directions on package (soak, cook over low-med heat), but add salt, oregano, and basil when it's cooking. Drain, set aside.
2a. Preheat oven 400 degrees.
2. Dice bell peppers, removing seeds.

3. Toss corn and bell peppers with oil, onion powder, and other spices.

4a. Oh no! The oven isn't turning on! Now I have to
4. Scoop 1/4 bell pepper mixture onto skillet or frying pan with lid over medium heat. Cover, cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Put cooked mixture into large casserole dish or bowl; repeat with the other 3/4 of the mixture.
5. Drain canned tomatoes or dice fresh tomatoes, remove seeds. Add tomatoes and beans to bell peppers and corn, toss well.
6. Scoop into delicious homemade tortillas, top with

Salsa Wouj
(This uses the local hot pepper, which I think are the same as habañeros, but I'm just going to call them hot peppers. I say salsa wouj instead of salsa roja because it's now a sort of creole sauce.) (I just found that they are called [elsewhere] Scotch Bonnets, and they are closely related to habañeros)

Ingredients
3/4 cup diced tomatoes
1 small hot pepper, diced, all but 2-3 seeds removed
1 clove garlic, diced
Dash black pepper
Dash cayenne
Dash onion powder
(again, if I had chili powder or cilantro, those would go in there. Also, I don't like onions, but if you do you can certainly use onion instead of onion powder.)

Directions
1. Make sure you use gloves (or a plastic back around the hand holding it, which is what I do) when cutting the hot pepper. Seriously. I am not kidding. I should know (my eye and hands have learned my lesson for me). Wash your hands and your knife and your cutting board thoroughly after cutting it.
2. Blend all ingredients together until there are no chunks
3. Wash hands again. Pour mixture into small serving dish. Wash hands again. Taste to see how spicy it is. Wash hands again.
4. Warn people that this is either spicy or very very spicy (if it's medium spicy, it takes a couple seconds before the heat hits; ) depending on the outcome.
5. Use to top black bean something or other that's in your delicious homemade tortilla; enjoy!

So there you go, a Melaney-style Thanksgiving dish.

It's late now, so I'll post pics of the steps and write about Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

PCV/JOCV Conference and Barbeque

Today was awesome. Yesterday was awesome too. Maybe tomorrow will be awesome, we'll have to wait and find out.

Yesterday I went up to Babonneau to spend the night with Ashley so I wouldn't have to get up super-early to get to the conference on time today. I met up with her and Scott, Lois, Elaine, and Karen, all PCVs, at a faux-Starbucks cafe by the cinema. We chatted, ate, and had gelato (!!), then Ash & I went back to her place. We stayed up talking girl-talk (not Girl Talk) and exercising. It was nice to chill with someone one-on-one, since I haven't done that in a long time and that's the kind of interaction I've been craving lately.

Today we went to Rodney Bay to a hotel where volunteers from both US Peace Corps and the Japanese Oversea Cooperation met up, met each other, and shared presentations to stimulate discussion about the issues we're facing as volunteers in St. Lucia. JOCVs do very similar work, and have a similar mission to the PC. I really enjoyed both presentations I sat in on, one about the Maths Achievement Program two JOCVs have been working on, and one about Libary and Reading Programs that two PCVs have been working on. They gave me a lot of insights and ideas for what I should be doing in order to get some of my project ideas accomplished.

Afterwards, we were supposed to go to Gros Islet for a beach BBQ, but it started raining so the JOC Country Director very generously volunteered his house, which was only a ten minute walk from the hotel. Altogether there was a lot of food, from what the hosts provided and what we bought for the cookout. The best pictures I got were of food (you should expect this by now of me), so here they are:

Veggies, dips, delicious cookie and brownie by Sam (the PCV who organized the event), green tea cake made by one of the JOCVs, and THE BEST SUSHI I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE I am not kidding I don't usually like sushi that much but dang this was amazing. It was homemade, btw.

American contributions to snacks!

And the main course. I had a cheese veggie burger with pickles, ketchup, lettuce and hot pepper mustard. Justin and Ashley were concerned about the amount of the pepper mustard on my burger bun, but it left my mouth only mildly warm. It was delicious.

I ate about 27 cookies and brownies, as did everyone else along with all the other food. We went home stuffed and very happy.

The best part, though, was when a bunch of the JOCVs practiced one of their traditional dances for us. They'll perform it next Saturday when they host Japan Day at Town Hall in Castries, to share their culture with the people of St. Lucia. This is called the Fishermen's Dance, and it's sure to bring in lots of fish!

Tomorrow I might go over to Albert's house. He's a bus driver (the first one I met, he taxis for Manman) who lives down the road, and he invited me to come over to chat with him and his girlfriend. I also need to start practicing my tortillas for Thanksgiving, so I'll walk down to Super J and back for flour and shortening (which will be my exercise for the day--it's about 35 minutes each way at a brisk pace).

a week without a computer....

Last Sunday my power cord went out and my battery died, just before I was about to call my mom and write a post. So this past week (until today) I've been without a working laptop, and have barely gotten to even check my email.

Well that is taken care of (the power cord magically fixed itself, it seems), so here are a few photos I've been meaning to post.

Two Fridays ago I went to work at Belle Vue Combined, but the computers still were not in, so I ended up writing the titles and authors of all the chapter books in the reading room on little slips of paper by hand. It was exciting! I found more than one silverfish (and had to kill a couple of them). One was already dead, in this here book:

This was the last page in the book:

The next day I went to market (like I do most Saturdays, although not yesterday) and bought all of this food for $12 (which is a little over $4 in USD). All those green golden apples, all 14 of them, were had for $1. That's enough to make juice for three weeks. My juice costs only a few cents per glass to make, and it's a wonder that people buy Fruta and other expensive sugary not-one-hundred-percent juices. Pictured: Three cucumbers ($5), four oranges ($1), five passion fruit ($1), one bag of méwé in a bowl ($1), 14 golden apples ($1), one bag of string beans ($3).

Today this little guy was crawling outside my front door when I was coming in from hanging up my laundry. It was almost the size of my palm. I didn't want to kill it, but I didn't want it coming in, so I went inside and closed my front door and sprayed some Bop (insecticide, to kill and prevent bugs, "Get serious, use Bop!") along the edges of the doorframe (there are large gaps between the door and doorframe).
Sometime last week I came home to find this little guy in my sink. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I got it in my hands and took it outside, where it hopped in some bushes and away. I was sure to wash my hands and the sink thoroughly afterwards (frogs can carry samonella, if you didn't know).

Of course, the "events" that I will remember the week by are not captured in photos. But they include (in brief): figuring out what I'll be doing at VF Infant ("the sound of B is buh; bee buh bee buh bee buh bee buh"); having a horrible experience subbing for a third grade class that start out well but was entirely out of control by the end; spending the night in Rodney Bay at Haley's with some other PCVs and going to the weekly Gros Islet Jump Up (so many white people!) and getting ripped off on bus ride home.

Actually, when that last incident happened, I could have argued about it, but I was tired. It made me frustrated though, and I said "I hate being white here!" and then of course it hit me. Not the bus, but that that's part of why I'm here, is to experience being a minority, and to have people think I'm foolish and having people try to take advantage of me. I guess me not arguing it doesn't get me anywhere, but at that moment I looked at the situation and I thought that arguing wouldn't get me anywhere either (I had already given the driver a 5 dollar note for two people, expecting $2 change, knowing that it might only be 50c change, but he didn't give me any, and insisted that the fare was $3 per person, although at night the fare should be $2.25 per person). But I'm finally in a place where I can't know how to get everywhere all the time, and I have to rely on the help of people I don't know (look at the Halloween adventure!), and even though it's not my first time being in a minority, the situation is even more pronounced. It's beginning to give me a new perspective on what Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Middle Easterners experience all the time when they're surrounded by people who look and treat them differently.

Late night, totally worth it.

A little over two hours ago I came home very tired from an Election Night Party at a little rum shop down the street from me. Everyone there was very excited, and everyone here (as well as the rest of the world) was hoping and hoping that Obama would win.

A little less than an hour ago CNN announced that Obama had won. Although at this point I was at home sitting on my couch, I felt an immediate energy rising up from myself and everywhere. It was glorious.

Now I'm still waiting for the acceptance speech, even though I'm behind on my sleep and my cooking for the week. But it'll be worth it.

Thank god. Thank everyone who voted. Thank everyone for the support from all over the world. Things were going to get better either way. It's just better this way.

Here's the speech FTW!

Vieux Fort Schools; Halloween (not related)

Yesterday I was scheduled to go work at Belle Vue Combined (the same grades as an elementary school in the states, up to grade 6), but instead I went with the teachers at Vieux Fort Primary to their development day activity.

We went to students' houses in Bruceville and the Mang in Vieux Fort Town to see what conditions the kids were living in, so we could understand the challenges they face at home that might interfere with their education, or likewise the support that helps it. These neighborhoods are pretty much the slums of the Vieux Fort area, and are located in or near downtown. Much of Bruceville is referred to as "shanty town" because the houses were built haphazardly on a bit of land with no planning. They are built on concrete or wooden stilts a few feet high usually, and the houses are thin wooden sheets, only a step above plywood. Roofs are sheet steel, and the fences are patches of long rusting sheet steel about 4x4 feet, nailed together. It seems like most people have an electricity connection, though some don't; many (perhaps most in this neighborhood) don't have running water. Trash is strewn all over the ground (there were a few times when the other teachers and I were taken aback when people just tossed it on the ground. One teacher asked if there was a bin around that she could put some trash in, and the resident told her to just put it on the ground). Some people have animals like goats, pigs, and chickens. Goats are usually tied up; the others are let run as they may.

As we went along meeting parents and grandparents we had a survey sheet to fill out. It asked questions like: Mother/Father/Guardian's employment; parents' and siblings' education levels; whether they had electricity, water, books, newspapers, radio, television (Miss Sherene always skipped over the one about computers); where and how often they went to church, and whether they had a Bible; and if children were given chores, help with homework, and did other activities with parents (many said they took their kids to the beach or shopping regularly).

At each home we were greeted warmly (sometimes too warmly: one woman was bathing in a fenced area where the outhouse is. As we walked to the front door of the house, she called from behind us, "I'm busy, I'm not doing laundry," so we looked and there she was, completely naked and dripping from her shower. We tried to get out of that situation quickly, though she was not at all uncomfortable with it), and parents were not shy or dishonest about what they had or didn't have. Most had nice things to say about us and the kids. One mom we spoke with (and other groups reported similar conversations) told us that her son, a boy that I've been working with personally, insists on doing his homework by himself even though he can't read or write (yet!! I'm working on it with him. He's in Grade 4), and also that every night he asks for KFC for dinner. KFC is very expensive (between $10-15 for combo meals, $20-30 for family dinners), especially considering that similar meals would cost less than half if made at home, and many families have only one employed member, if that, and are seriously scraping to get by. Most families said that they or the older siblings help our students with homework, but that doesn't necessarily show when we look at their work in class (this is one of the reasons I think an after school tutoring program would be so helpful).

After the visits, we went back to the school for lunch (the third free lunch I enjoyed that week--It's nice because I cut back on my expenses, but then again I end up having left over food for over a week that needs to be consumed), then we went to visit three other schools in the district. (I had already visited all three before, and I ended up knowing more about them than my coworkers.)

The first was Vige (pronounced Veezhay), a rural school with four classrooms and 55 students in grades K-6. The VF Primary teachers were agap at the size and at the effort those teachers must have to put in to teach not only mixed-ability classrooms, but mixe classes too.

Next we visited Belle Vue, a school I work at on Fridays, helping mainly in the computer lab. The fact that this school has a computer lab says something about it. It also has a learning center with televisions, projectors, board games, and books; murals a paintings all over the school yard of educational games for kids to play and learn at break and lunch; a school garden of fruit and vegetables (I'm not sure if they sell the produce or use it in the kitchen); and two little meditation gardens where kids can go read and be in a peaceful, relaxing area outside. The classrooms were not as bare as those in VF Primary. The effects of this stimulating learning environment shows: Belle Vue has pretty good test scores for the area.

Finally (after school got out at 3pm) we went to Blanchard, a school that is participating in a test program called SET, where classrooms are made with themes to promote the idea that learning is fun. The VF teachers also liked these classrooms, but overall they were most impressed with Belle Vue. It's supposed to be a "sister school," in that they serve similar demographics and have similar resources, but in truth Belle Vue and Vieux Fort Primary stand on opposite ends of the District 6 spectrum of primary and combined schools.

After our visits to these schools, we went to a hotel bar where the principal bought a round of drinks for everyone. I felt bad because I ended up making everyone leave early. I was going to a Halloween party in a different town (about two hours away) that started at 6, so I had planned on going back home quickly after we were done so I could leave just after 4. Well, we didn't get to the bar until about 3:40, and so by 4:15 I told the principal that I had to go, and that I would catch a bus back into town, but he rounded every one up and we went back to VF Primary.

I didn't get home until about 5, and I didn't leave for Canaries until 5:45. It was already dark, and I took a bus to the mall where I thought I could catch a bus to Soufriere, but apparently I had to go all the way into town to get that bus, so I wasted about 20 minutes and $1.25 on that misconception (it does work that way for buses into Laborie on the same highway, so it wasn't unfounded, just wrong). I had to wait another 10 minutes once I got on the bus for it to fill up, and I spent the hour ride into Soufriere worrying because as soon as I left the house and tried to call my landlady to let her know I was going, my phone died (thankfully I had asked someone at her house to let her know just before I left). I knew there was a chance that the bus up from Soufriere that should pass through Canaries might not run often that time of night (I got into Soufriere a little after 7. So early, but because it's already dark there's no one out and fewer buses), and I knew I would cry if I couldn't find a ride, but the thing that kept me going was knowing that this was an adventure. Thankfully a woman in Soufriere walked me to the cemetery where I might be able to get a ride, and luckily a bus passed just as we were there, going to Canaries. When I had spoken to Jason (a PCV who also lives in Canaries) the other night on the phone, he wouldn't tell me exactly where the house was, instead saying I should just call him when I got off by the police station. It turned out the bus driver didn't have a phone either (his was stolen at Jounen Kweyol), but the first person I asked when I got off told me exactly where the house was, so that wasn't a problem. It was a stressful but very exciting journey, alone at night to a place I'd not only never been, I didn't even know where it was! I arrived just before 8.

No one else at the party could believe I was able to get buses at that hour. I changed into my costume, and everyone loved it. One of the neighbors, a boy about 11 years old, told some of the PCVs that my costume won. Unfortunately in my rush from home I forgot my camera, but here's a pic someone else took. What you can't see in the pic are the wings from the mesh laundry hamper, the white bands around my joints on my legs, and the lyre pattern in white paper on my back. This was the reference I used.

Last night was a ton of fun, though. It was nice to be around people I already know, and to just hang out and enjoy being social. This morning those of us that stayed in Canaries over night made a breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and golden apple juice (I used the green golden apples left over from last night's bobbing for golden apples).

When I finally got back home around 1:30 or 2pm today (Saturday) I had to take a nap before cleaning up my mess of an apartment. But now it's clean, and now I'm enjoying a more relaxing weekend.