Saturday 11/22/08

This morning I woke up and finally learned how to make pinto. I’m sure you’ve read the word pinto several times now if you’ve been so kind to actually read my “chatty Kathy” blog. Anyways, pinto is a traditional breakfast plate that we eat all the time. It’s a simple plate in which you cook the rice and beans together rather than separate. I eat it almost daily. After learning how to make pinto and letting it digest, I hopped on the elliptical while my family watched Beauty and the Beast. There is a certain innocence of the people here in La Virgen (the campo, aka the country). I think the fact that three teenage boys still watch Disney movies (by choice) and the fact that my middle brother Andres who is 15 looks like he’s 10 best explains this innocence (although, it is still difficult to comprehend if you are not here). There life is simply different than what I’ve been exposed to and their experiences have left them with a sweetness and innocence that is indescribable. I headed to the internet café (as I could tell it was going to be a movie marathon day) and finally had the chance to talk to my parents via Skype rather than e-mail (I can tell I’m getting anxious to see them as it almost brought me to tears by simply hearing their voices). While at the internet café, I copied a basic sugar cookie recipe so that I could teach my family to make Christmas cookies (something they’ve wanted to do). We spent the afternoon making sugar cookies. I couldn’t find cookie cutters anywhere in town and so we had to use a cousins, Karen (aka la loca), play-do cutters, so our cookies were “mini-cookies” to say the least. Everyone enjoyed being creative and making their own shapes with simply a knife. After making homemade frosting (since there is no such thing as pre-made here) we all frosted cookies and licked our fingers like 5 year olds. We spent the rest of the day watching Rocky, eating dinner and working on a 500 piece puzzle. If you didn’t already know this about me, I’m somewhat obsessed with puzzles and so I didn’t go to sleep until we finished. The boys were shocked at how fast I worked (as I had my sections done 10x faster than they’d finished a small section). Andres, my middle brother, would continually look at me and then tell his brothers, “She’s just lucky”.