The Pizza Lesson

Ready to bake!
Originally uploaded by StormyPetrel

Every six months we (Peace Corps Volunteers) have to submit a report about the work we've done in the past half-year. The bulk of the report is dedicated to itemizing work that corresponds directly to one of the stated goals of your project. In my case, that's whatever work falls under A) HIV/AIDS Prevention; or B) Maternal and Child Health.

A lesser part of the report is for reporting so-called "Secondary Projects." This is work that doesn't correspond to one of the stated goals, but that has contributed to the development of your community anyway. For example, the english classes I taught last summer qualified as a Secondary Project.

My sitemate Brent (a Business volunteer nearing the end of his service) recently gave me the opportunity to do a really fun secondary project. A friend of his, Elsa, recently rented out a little shack with a gorgeous view of the bay and started up a small eatery. Brent was working with her to improve the menu and suggested pizza. Currently there is only one place in Trujillo to get pizza, and it is both bad and overpriced.

Elsa said she didn't know how to make pizza, so Brent said that he had a friend who made pizza and could teach her. That friend? Me. Last Wednesday, we showed up at her restaurant at mid-morning and I taught her to make pizza. I was completely hands-off, just giving her directions and feedback. She made three small vegetarian pizzas, which were delicious! Tomorrow, Elsa is debuting pizza as an item for sale at her eatery. I can't wait to go over there and get a hot slice!

Ready to bake!
Originally uploaded by StormyPetrel

Calentura

Today my alarm went off at 5:30am. I got dressed, had a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, loaded some food and 2 liters of water into my day pack, and left a little before 6:30. I met up with Brent, Alan, Alan's wife Amanda, Jacob, and Cara. Amanda, Jacob and Cara are med students from Indiana doing a several week study abroad program through their school. Today we were hiking to the top of the highest mountain in the Trujillo area, Calentura (1325m).



When we set off (around 7:15am due to some oversleepers) the top of Calentura was cloaked in dense gray clouds. But we were hopeful that by the time we arrived at the top, the sun would have burned off the clouds and we would have a magnificent view of the coastline, from Punta Betulia to Laguna Guaimoreto and out past Punta Caxinas to the Bay Islands.



The only path up Calentura is a dirt road originally built by the U.S. military for a radar station during the 1980s. The U.S. station hasn't been used since the early 90s, but it's been replaced by radio towers and a cell phone tower owned by different companies operating in Honduras. With businesses needing access to to maintain their equipment, the road is kept in passable condition (though passable in Honduras means you need a strong 4x4 to make the trip).



As we climbed, the temperature dropped and the fog thickened. Several times it poured on us and we huddled under the nearest giant fern until the rain passed. The giant fern itself was also a sign that we were getting higher up. The vegetation went through a couple distinct changes as we climbed, from the coastal tropical vegetation of palms, banana trees and their relatives to the tall trees, vines and giant ferns of low mountain rain forest (if there are any forest ecologists out there, perhaps you can help me better explain this).



The climb was pretty unrelenting, and since we started at more or less sea level we climbed the entire 1,325 meters. Brent, Jacob, Cara and I reached the top at 10:30am. We were glad to have reached the top, but disappointed because we couldn't see anything! The fog was as thick as pea soup. It was also cold and very windy. We were very underdressed in shorts and t-shirts. As we waited for Alan and Amanda it began to pour and the temperature dropped further. Finally at 11:30am, teeth chattering and covered with goosebumps, we decided to head back down. We bumped into Alan and Amanda who continued on to the top. Shortly after passing them, around noon, the fog started to lift. The sun came out. Jacob and Cara headed back up with my camera. But Brent and I were too hungry to wait any longer, and walked on down.



The moral of the story is bring layers when hiking in to a cloud forest, and wait until the afternoon to see if the fog will lift! I plan on making the climb again in a couple months, and hopefully can get some more pictures.

Friends on Sustainable Development

Fellow volunteers Luke and Annie wrote an excellent blog entry about sustainable development - what it is, how it's done and other related issues. We Peace Corps volunteers think about this stuff a lot. I've been meaning to write a similar blog entry for some time, but they did a great job so I'll just point you to it:

http://lukeandannie.blogspot.com/2008/01/sustainable-development-work.html

UPDATE: They have another interesting post on the history of foreign influence in Honduras.

Food

Some honduran food I've tried:

Sopa de Caracol

This is arguably the best-known Garifuna dish. It's a coconut milk-based soup with Caracol (conch) meat. I'm trying to track down a good recipe so I can make it for folks back home. All Garifuna soup is coconut milk-based, and you can get it with Conch, Shrimp, Fish, Crab or just plain. Served with tajadas (fried plantain or green banana) and rice.

Pan de Coco

Another Garifuna staple, Pan de Coco (Coconut Bread) doesn't actually taste like coconut. It's your basic dinner roll made with coconut milk instead of regular milk. There's a couple old Garifuna ladies in Trujillo who walk around carrying Pan de Coco, Pan de Yucca and Tableta de Coco in giant buckets on their heads.

Pan de Yucca

Pan de Yucca is not so much bread as semisolid pudding. Made with yucca, dulce de caña (molasses) and cinnamon, I can never resist buying one when I see one of the bread ladies in town.

Tableta de Coco

A dessert made of shredded coconut and dulce de caña. Very sweet, but very tasty.

Casabe

A traditional Garifuna flatbread made from mashed Yucca. It's hard and flavorless by itself, but very tasty when topped with garlic butter.

Calaguala

A juice that is made by an old Garifuna lady in Guadalupe. As far as I know, she's the only person in the area who sells the stuff. It's made from a fruit of the same name that grows wild in the mountains.

Guifiti

Guifiti is guaro (cane alcohol) or cheap rum infused with a secret mix of herbs. There are several bars/clubs in Cristales that sell their own homemade Guifiti, and each is a bit different.

Atol de Maiz

A sweet corn porridge made with, uh, corn, and dulce de caña and probably some other stuff too. It's served piping hot by a lady from San Martín (an outlying neighborhood in Trujillo). It would be great on a cold day, if we ever had one.

Baleada

The best known Honduran snack. Flour tortilla, refried beans, cheese and mantequilla (a semi-churned cream similar to sour cream). Especiales (specials) come with eggs and/or meat, too. There are great baleadas to be had in certain parts of Honduras, notably Santa Barbara, Tela and Comayagua (of the places I've been). Trujillo has them, but they're nearly as good.

Plato Típico

Typical plate. Beans, queso seco (honduran cheese), eggs and/or meat, corn tortillas, tajadas and mantequilla.

Machuca

Another Garifuna dish. Machuca is mashed plantain served with seafood soup. You take a bit of the mashed plantain (it's the consistency of lumpy play-doh) on your spoon and then dip it in the soup and eat it. I love the stuff.

Iguana

As in big lizards. Kids go into the mountains and catch them "by chasing them and jumping on top of them," according to my counterpart, Kenny. Then they take them home and cook them up and eat them. I had Iguana in Olanchito and am not in a hurry to have it again. But Kenny insists that the Garifuna way of preparing Iguana is far superior and that I shouldn't dismiss the dish until I've tried it.

Lichas

Lychees in English. I'd had these fruit before but they'd always been removed from the rind and pitted so I had no idea what they actually looked like. These things are sold by the bagfuls all over the North Coast. Lychee rinds litter the roads. I've never seen a lychee tree, so I'm not sure where they come from...