From left to right: laundry station complete with view of estuary, shower, and part of the bathroom.
Backyard wildlife.
Backyard wildlife.
The estuary I cross to get home during low tide. (My house is in those trees.)
I spent Thanksgiving with a group of Peace Corps Volunteers that had arranged a potluck in a town about an hour north of Estero. The original plan was for the three gringas in Estero Del Platano to make fish tacos, drink boxed wine, and have smores on the beach for dessert. The actual plan was better, complete with pumpkin pie and me being uncomfortably full, as Thanksgiving should be. During the usual round of "what are you thankful for" I expressed my deep and sincere gratitude toward my mosquito net. Mosquitoes being the least of which I am thankful for protection from. The houses in Estero have roofs made of palm branches and the walls typically don´t reach the ceiling. Every evening when the lights go out the creatures of the night begin to scurry. I´ve taken to wearing earplugs just so I´m not wondering about the sounds and their proximity to me in the safety of my net (and because we have a rooster that crows whenever he feels like it). The bats I find to be the most annoying. They make high pitched screeching sounds and seem to enjoy doing flybys very near my head. Every morning I also wake up to a healthy pile of bat poo in the same place atop my mosquito net. Thank goodness for the net. I woke up this past Sunday morning to a very large dead rat on the floor. Apparently my family had put some poison out, I´m just glad he didn´t die some place hidden...
My room, ironically missing the net because my host mom took it out to be washed.
Craving things from home, I was inspired to make cinnamon rolls on Thanksgiving morning. Normally these are a dish my mom reserves strictly for Christmas morning, but since all the ingredients are easily and inexpensively available here, I thought I´d give it a go. All went well until I encountered my family´s oven (and I´m lucky they even have a oven, most people don´t). Rolls that should have taken about 20 minutes to bake took about an hour. Fortunately the flavor was right, almost like moms. My family was very pleased and I´ve since been further inspired to bake. Saturday I made a cake with my 12 year old sister, but ended up getting a lot of help from other cooks too, including my host father (and they say Ecuadorian men don´t cook.) He was so excited about the cake that after I copied it in Spanish for a neighbor, he copied it from her. Despite the cake taking almost 2 hours to bake, it was moist and delicious. I´m thinking I´ll try sugar cookies this week. Helpful cooks from left to right: neighbor girl that just showed up whos name I don´t know, my brother Edwin (10), and my sister Wendy (12).
My host father Efrin showing his niece Selina the proper way to stir frosting.
A Saturday morning spent picking up trash in town.
And plalying on the beach afterward.
And me teaching kids how to throw the disk, of course. :)
With Much Love,
Dayna
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1 comment:
Keep baking. And come up with excuses to bake cakes with help from your host padre. I think his secret plan is to make birthday cakes for his wife & family. ;)
I wish you had Chaz there to keep the bats and rats far away.
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