DAY 7 (Champollap):
Today we go to San Pedro to the market. Then we return to Champollap and visit the closest of Elizabeth's three schools. Here's a visual sampling of the day.
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We've just gotten out of the van in San Pedro.
Elizabeth explains to this girl that No, her mom [I] can't sponsor her to go to the United States.
(Elizabeth isn't sure who this girl is. She says, "Everyone in Champollap knows who I am.") |
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Babies ride on their moms' backs tied up in an all-purpose
square of fabric called a maletera (a variant of suitcase). |
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Beautiful embroidery. Women whip these maleteras
into place lickety-split, like making a pony tail. |
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| There's always time for puppies. |
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| For sale at the San Pedro market. |
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Guatemalan women start learning to carry things on their heads when they're little girls.
(Boys and men hunch over and use their backs instead.) |
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To help support and balance the load, sometimes women
twist a cloth into a donut-shaped crown.
Other times they use nothing. (Can't tell in this picture. Didn't ask.) |
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One of our happiest food discoveries: pupusas.
(This painting is on the wall at the restaurant that we
sought out for these wonderful stuffed fried pancakes.) |
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| Pupusas, hot off the griddle. The whole lunch came to $7. |
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| Jalepeno cole slaw. The bite that keeps on biting. |
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| My favorite photo of the trip. |
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| Back in Champollap, heading to school. |
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The director of the school shows us the room -- complete with bars on the
windows -- where they'll install the computers from Elizabeth's project. |
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| On our walk home, we smell bread and follow our noses. |
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| Is any other smell as enticing? |
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Back at Elizabeth's house, buns and cookies in hand.
Elizabeth has the whole top floor. |
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| Strangely, all of these buns and cookies had the same slight sweetness. |
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| A view from Elizabeth's window. |
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You have to watch your step when walking through the corn field
that is Elizabeth's back yard. |
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| Corn toes! |
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| I got shorter here. |
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| A girl from Elizabeth's reading group. |
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Some roads in Champollap are becoming more passable,
one brick at a time. |
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| No more potholes. |
fabulous pictures!!!!! What stuffing is in the papusas? It seems like stuffed pancakes would be easy to make here. As for that jalapeno coleslaw, it is the bite that bites you back! How wonderful for Elizabeth to be able to share these things with you -- from her school and the computer lab project to the markets and her house and family, just the whole experience. She couldn't possibly express it to you in words and pictures. But now that you've seen it, tasted, it, smelled it, ridden in it, you can really enter into her life.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wend. I especially love this batch pictures.
ReplyDeleteYou've described so well entering into Elizabeth's life for those two weeks. It was a privilege.
Pupusas have whatever you want in them: chicken, beef, cheese. I had the chicken. Very flavorful. Here's someone else's picture of a cheese pupusa to give you a better idea: http://www.food.com/recipe/pupusas-220460/photo
(Have something delicious nearby before you click; you'll need a bite of something immediately.)
I checked out that link. Papusas are more like stuffed tortillas than stuffed pancakes, as I was trying to imagine. If I use enough cheese to hold two tortilla shells together in the skillet, then add some chicken, it might work for me without actually having to make the tortillas. Mmmmm... sounds good.
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ReplyDeleteWhat you're describing (with the tortillas) would be more like a quesadilla, delicious too but very different. The pupusas were made from a batter and very like thinnish pancakes. No shortcuts to that taste experience. You could always hop down to Central America to see for yourself. I know a great tour guide....
ReplyDeleteOooh... that sounds wonderful! (hopping down to Central America)
ReplyDeleteChamollap el lugar mas bonito de san pedro sacatepequez
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