Avy’a Paraguáipe!

This past month has been flying by it seems. The hours at times, not so much, but the days and weeks, yes! And it’s very much due to being busy, finally.

Bread Baking with Maureen and Socias

Yesterday my PCV friend Maureen came to visit. She is an expert breadmaker having completed a course with SINAFOCAL (a group that’s part of the Ministerio de Justicia y Trabajo – Work and Justice Ministry – that helps capacitate Paraguayans in new skills) and her womens’ group. She brought their most popular recipe – Pan de Queso - cheese bread. We purchased the ingredients. Then the bread was sold to the participants of the class to cover the costs, and to earn a small amount of money to help fund future breadbaking and gas costs for the industrial oven.

maureen teaching

Maureen’s demonstrating how to make la corona (not just a cerveza, people!), the crown of flour, with a space inside to mix wet ingredients. And that’s me  kneading the mess out of the dough. It was a cold day, so the bread was slow to warm up and rise.

kneading the bread

The ladies absolutely loved the class. I haven’t seen them so into something like this before! While we waited for the bread to rise, we had an impromptu meeting, and later while the bread baked we got to sit around and socialize a bit, too! Laughing, sharing stories, half-heartedly competing to make the better batch of bread. And the best part?! The bread was delicious! I was concerned we wouldn’t sell the 124 pieces we made, and we’d have to peddle our bread to the high school or around town. But no! They bought the bread at a price of 6 for 5,000 Guaranis. Or 1 for 1,000Gs (incentive, eh?!)

And yet another win. The ladies are talking about having regular baking get-togethers. And trying new recipes like Torta de Coco (Coconut Cake).

divying up the bread

Semana Santa – Holy Week

Semana Santa is a special time to be in Paraguay. For one reason, it’s CHIPA WEEK! Another reason, Jesus.

We all know who Jesus is, so let’s talk chipa. Chipa is a bagel-shaped food, that consists of cornmeal, flour, Paraguayan cheese, anise, and probably pig fat if I had to guess. It’s baked in an electric oven, or during Holy Week, in the giant tatakua, an outdoor brick oven. Tata means fire.

Host family invited me over to make chipa on Wednesday afternoon of Holy Week (Chipa Day). This year, the Ministry of Education ruled that students would be required (loosely albeit) to attend school on Wednesday. Traditionally, no one goes to school that day because it’s the unofficial, but really official, chipa making day. You can imagine people were up in arms about this change in tradition. I’m sure attendance was low that day.

The dough had been mixed when I arrived, so I got to work kneading and forming the chipa shapes. I am good at this. Naturally. Then host sister Karin and I began to decorate the chipa in humorous ways. Chipa Artesania we called it. Chipa with “200″ written across it – The Bicentennial Chipa. Chipa with XOXO (the chipa made with amor). Chipa with a chicken sitting on it. Easter eggs? I don’t know.

Here’s some of our work. We made about 70 pieces. Que guapa.

chipa before

North Carolina chipa

impersonating the chipa ladies with their baskets

amado and tatakua

And that’s host dad Amado being super guapo and preparing the tatakua. First you heat up the oven big time, and then you clean out all the coals, ash and kindling with a special broom. And then in goes the chipa trays.

Apart from chipa making, I attended the viacrusis, sort of the like the walk of the cross, telling the story of Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The theater event took place around the plaza of the church, and the actors were youth ages 15-18ish who participate in activities in the Casa Paroquial.

church, valenzuela

viacrusis

Friday I laid low, and on Saturday had a delicious meal of pork, sopa paraguaya, salad and wine with my family!

English Class

I have wrapped up two terms in my school-year-long English Class. We’re taking a break for now in May, and will resume in June.

So far we have learned greetings, how to introduce yourself (name, age, origin, what you do, what you like to do in free time), numbers, clothing, colors, alphabet, and forming basic sentences. The day we were learning the alphabet, we played Hangman.

the letters spell out caca. haha!

playing memory to practice the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet.

I gave an exam last week. I was pleased with what they’re understanding at this point, but mostly that they’re getting over being nervous about talking.

Leathergoods Class at AMUR

Today we completed 4 weeks of an 11 week course in crafting leather goods or marroquineria. That refers to smaller scale projects like wallets, belts, keychains, termos. Our first project was a wallet. And next up will be a cellphone case. And finally, a termo. Here’s our class at work. A teacher from IPA (Instituto Paraguayo Artesania) comes out weekly to teach a 3.5 hr class. AMUR pays nothing to IPA for the course, but the participants in the class must pay for materials, which in this case with leather, can be expensive. The participants also pay a cuota, like dues, for the course, which AMUR uses to pay for the professors travel costs via bus and a meal.

leather class

NCAA Tournament

I realize it has been a while, but I forgot to post this picture and say GO HEELS! I’m proud of you!

watching a game live at the PC office. that's just diet coke in my Zack's coozie!

Bicentennial Kick-off

Bicentennial celebrations have officially begun. There was a lighting of the Antorcha de La Libertad (Freedom Torch), lots of school kids attended, dancers fainted.

paseo de los ilustres valenzolanos

That’s the new municipal plaza structure with a walkway honoring past citizens of Valenzuela. There are plaques along the way. The work was inaugurated on the symbolic 100th day of the mayor’s service.

What’s cooking?

Yeah, so I’m always playing in the kitchen a little bit. Recently I did a lasagna luncheon for my host family, mbeju (my favorite Py-an snack food), baked spring rolls, Paneer with homemade cottage cheese and an awesome spinach salad with green apples, beets, raisins and almonds.

mbeju

lasagna lunch with the family

spring roll filling

spinach salad

curry veggies with homemade paneer

Tags: AMUR, cooking, leather, Valenzuela