Cooking in Guyana....Egg Balls!

I feel like every month I get addicted to a new Guyanese food.  There are so many that are so delicious.  We really can't complain too much about food here at all.  My new favorite thing is called an egg ball.  It is a hard boiled egg covered in cassava or potato and then lightly fried.  Some people will eat it with sour (a tangy sauce made of either mango, tamarind, or cucumber).  Enjoy!




1 1/2 lb cassava a.k.a yuca
2 tbsp butter
6 eggs
salt and black pepper to taste
flour to roll balls in

Boil cassava and 5 eggs in salted water for about 25 to 30 mins until cassava is fork tender, drain.  Mash cassava until smooth, take out the lumpy bits that cannot be mashed.  Peel the eggs and set aside.  Add 1 raw egg, butter, salt and pepper to the cassava, mix well.  For egg balls, cover the eggs with the cassava to form a ball.  The egg should be completely covered by the cassava mixture.  Roll in flour and fry until golden brown.  Serve these with mango chutney or mango achaar.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.jehancancook.com/?p=207

Across Four Rivers

A Piranha bit your finger??!!  What?! 

A Piri captured from the river..many people are missing toes who live near the water

Okay, let me back this story up for a second.  I know I said last month I didn’t have that many new things to report, but silly me.  This is Guyana and I am a PCV, just when you think you’ve seen mostly everything, something else comes up and bites you, or perhaps someone sitting in the same speed boat. 

I was charged with the task of carting some supplies for our mini Camp GLOW all the way from town to Moruca, an Amerindian village about four or so hours away.  Transporting already can be stressful, but add some hula hoops, a canvass, and a large box filled with arts and crafts and you triple your trans p fun.  Luckily, I had some volunteers to help me along the way, which made everything a bit easier.  It was my first time on the other side of the country, the largest region/area of Guyana called Essiquibo.   

View of the Essiquibo River from the speed boat

Catching a speed boat

The Essiquibo River is so large that you need to take a speed boat for 45 minutes to get across it.  It is a beautiful ride, but not calm and tranquil at all. In fact, I would say the Essiquibo boat ride, or at least the first one I rode on was the antithesis of tranquil.  I got all of my stuff loaded on to this speed boat and waited for us to leave.  Gradually we pulled out of the stelling and on to the main waterway.  The boat picked up speed jerking everything inside towards the back as the stern lifted high out of the water.  Each wave pummeled the boat back down towards the water, creating quite a bumpy ride.  This would have been a lot more fun if I wasn’t terrified that my bag, which was leaning slightly out of the boat at the very front, would go flying into the rough waters.  As furiously as I was willing my bag to stay in the boat, the Guyanese were also on a mission not to get soaked by the spray of waves raining down on us.  Each row was issued a tarp that everyone strategically hoisted at the right, or not so right moment, to avoid being drenched.  Unfortunately, the tarp blocked any sort of vision I had of my bag, especially when we hit the worst bumps.  This of course was not helpful to me, the mad woman sitting poised for action, ready to leap into the water if my bag decided to jumped ship.  Everything ended up making it across the river safely and I waited for a car to take me on the next part of my journey.  I did almost forget my hula hoops, but luckily someone noticed and I caught the speed boat before it left. 

Another volunteer and I made it to the next stelling in a bustling town called Charity.  We had been waiting for our next speed boat to Moruca at the dock and had been chatting away.  We failed to notice the cause of commotion that was happening right near our boat.  A little while later, we stumbled upon an interesting scene as we boarded.  There was a young, teenage girl sitting on the boat gingerly holding her hand that was wrapped in a bandage.  A woman sitting next to her was feverishly cleaning a beautifully decorated white wedding cake with a toothbrush and vodka.   Perplexed?  So were we.  It turned out that the teenaged girl was resting her hand on the side of the boat,  NOT in the water.  Apparently, a super hungry Piranha hurtled itself out of the water towards this unsuspecting girl’s hand.  It did some damaged and chomped on this girl’s finger, which sprayed blood across the boat.  To make this very anomalistic situation worse, the wedding cake that this woman carefully carried on mini bus and speed boat (no easy feat), received the brunt of the onslaught of blood.  For some reason the lid on the container the cake was in was off at the time of the attack.  Thus we found the frantic woman trying to scrub droplets of blood off of a wedding cake.  It was a very bizarre situation, most likely exacerbated by the determination of the woman to serve the wedding cake, blood and all, to guests at the wedding the next day. 

Organizing sessions

Mini Camp GLOW at Moruca Secondary

"What we learned from camp"

Doing some stress relief

My friend and I eventually made it to Moruca for mini camp GLOW and it was pretty awesome.  It felt very different from our week long camp GLOW, but the girls in Moruca enjoyed it.  It was also amazing to see our GLOW girls take on leadership roles and run some of the camp sessions.  Mini camp was much more relaxed than our week long camp, which was welcomed.  It meant our GAD taskforce group got a chance to bond and enjoy Moruca.  Moruca is one of the largest Amerindian communities in Guyana.  It is a really beautiful village and we were even able to see some monkeys and go for a swim.  Apparently they also have toucans, but they must have been hiding while I was there.  Some of the other GAD members took the boat back towards town a day earlier than I did with some of the camp supplies.  The boat ride is very early (5AM) so everyone was half asleep.  When I finally met them in town, they told me that once the boat got going, the lid to the arts and craft box blew off before they were awake enough to realize the glitter and notebooks scattering everywhere.  They had to turn the boat back to collect the lid.  

 

A villager paddling a corial or dug out canoe

A 5am boat ride is the only ride out of Moruca, but it is beautiful

Perfect view of what they call the rivering savannah in Guyana

I spent the rest of the week in town for a GAD taskforce meeting.  I must say, we are pretty good eaters as a group.  We ate lots of fall themed ice cream flavors at Brusters and did some serious damage on an Indian food lunch buffet.  There was a big Halloween/Birthday party on the weekend, so we all used our PC resourcefulness and created some very unique costumes. 

Mario and Luigi

Dori the fish and a flamingo

I made some Halloween crafts with the kids so they got to partake in some festivities as well

 It was a lot of fun, but I was also yearning to get back to my site.  If I had known what awaited me, I might have considered staying away a few extra days.  My neighbor greeted me when I came home and said she missed me and that my house had some foul odor emanating from it.  Uh-oh!  I cautiously entered my house and prepared for the worst.  I did indeed find the remnants of the worst.  Somehow a large rat found its way into my bedroom and decided to produce copious amounts of poop and die underneath my bed.  Then something (probably my cat) ate it and the whole thing was just a dried out, shriveled up, stinking mess.  When you get home exhausted at 8pm from traveling, the only thing you can do is get rid of the dead body and pour bleach all over the floor.  Luckily, I have two bedrooms, so I decided to sleep in the rat-free one.

Once again, I am back at my site, but not for long.  This weekend I have the next mini camp GLOW in Black Bush.  I am also attending a woman’s networking event at the end of November and of course we are all getting together for a big potluck style Thanksgiving dinner.  I am so happy that I have had the opportunity to travel, but I feel very out of the loop when I return back to site.  You kind of lose the groove of fitting in and just being a part of things.  I am looking forward to January to stay put for a while.

I hope everyone enjoys their Turkey Day with their friends and family.  Please know that I am forever thinking about you!  I am beyond thankful to have you in my life and for all of your support and encouragement while I am here in Guyana.  It really does mean everything to me-in case I haven’t had the chance to tell you yet.  :-)  Gobble Gobble!

-KB

Coooking in Guyana...Roti!!!

I have been making tortillas in Guyana because I constantly crave Mexican food.  It is funny though because my co-workers will call my tortillas "hard roti."  It is not too far off of a description.  Roti is a softer version of a tortilla and you usually eat it with curry or dahl (lentils).  The thing is when ever I try to make roti, it comes out tortilla like.  One time I actually showed my neighbors (that it looked like cardboard) and they felt bad for me and sent me over some the next day.  My host mom is really nice and will pack me with a set of roti to go when ever I visit. 

My host mom's delicious roti!

• 2 ½ cups all purpose white flour (plus more for dusting)
• 1 Tsp. cumin
• ½ Tsp. curry powder
• 2 Tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup warm water
• ¾ cup vegetable oil

Sift together flour, cumin, curry powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and slowly add 1 cup of warm water. Mix with your hands until a moderately soft yet workable dough forms.
Flour your work surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Rest for 15-20 minutes.
Divide the dough into 8 small balls and flatten them with the palm of your hand. Place dough back into the bowl, cover with damp cloth and rest an additional 10 minutes. Do not stack the dough.
Dust your work surface with flour. Roll one ball of dough into a 4 inch circle. Rub ¼ teaspoon of vegetable oil onto the dough and sprinkle with a pinch of flour. Fold the dough into thirds, rubbing oil on top of each fold. Ensure not to press hard on the dough when folding as you want to keep air between each layer.
You should now have a long piece of dough folded onto itself twice. Loosely roll it up so it looks like a croissant, oiling the dough as you go. Coat the dough in another ¼ teaspoon of oil and place on a flat surface covered with the damp cloth. Repeat until all the dough has been folded and rolled, rest for 10 minutes.
Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium heat in a cast iron skillet or a tawa if you have one.
Flour your work surface. With a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a four inch circle. Place the dough into the frying pan.A trick to I discovered to flaky roti is to constantly turn the dough as it cooks. Use a spatula to hold down the edges as you rotate, ensuring not to press down on the centre. After 10 seconds turn the roti and continue to turn. Toss it back and forth every 10 seconds for about two minutes until it has puffed up and light browning begins to appear.
Now comes the hard part. Traditionally, when the cooking is complete, you quickly pick the roti up with your bare hands and clap it between your palms to remove the air. It takes a lot of practice to get this right and it hurts! I did this process wearing oven mitts, and I recommend doing the same.
Place the cooked roti in a colander with a piece of damp paper towel on the bottom. Cover the colander with the damp cloth.
Repeat the process until all your roti is cooked. Eat immediately.
To store roti, place it between damp paper towels in a sealed container in the fridge. To reheat it, cover the roti with a damp paper towel and microwave for about 30 seconds. The damp paper towel helps it to stay moist.

Recipe adapted from http://www.munchinwithmunchkin.com/2012/01/18/guyana-style-roti/

Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy Guyana

I just realized I completely skipped over September as far as any blog posts.  Part of it is because I have become so busy and the other part is that my life here has become much more normal, or at least normal to me.   Even the cockroaches are starting to bother me less. (I think they have sensed this and are trying to mess with me.  One crawled up my arm while I was cleaning my dishes and another one came out from under a shelf at a store and tried to crawl up my foot. I did a pretty quick ninja kick on that one though and kept on shopping like nothing happened.)  I know if you came here and lived with me for a week, I’m sure you would come up with a whole bunch of things you found different or strange (I can only imagine!).  I still am discovering new things but at a much slower pace than when I first arrived here.  I was visiting another volunteer who lives close to our training site and it really made me see how far I’ve come.   We were so timid and lost when we first arrived and now we are fighting with mini bus conductors charging us extra for a ride.  

Swimming in the conservancy

  
  I am also finding that I am acting much more like myself, instead of trying to tip toe around cultural norms.  There are still some things I would never do or say here, but my co-workers now know I like Soca music (we may or may not have had a wining demonstration in my office-google wining if you want to know), that I have a pretty good sense of humor and laugh at myself a lot, and will voice my opinion if something is bothering me. 

One of my co-workers lives near me and we frequently bike home together. She has taken me under her wing and will take me to the market, to church, or other events. One night, I invited her over for shrimp quesadillas.  She showed up very early (atypical for a Guyanese) all dressed up with her hair done and I was looking like a hot mess (when do I not?)  still covered in flour rolling out dough for tortillas.  It was a comical situation but she had a good time and really enjoyed the quesadillas.  I never thought a 40(?) year old would be one of my best friends here, but so it is.  She told me we have to make chicken quesadillas one time at work.  My plan of getting a Chipotle in Guyana is working; spreading the love of Tex-Mex food one Guyanese at a time!  Muwahaha!!

Quesadillas!

I think the more you learn to relax and feel comfortable in a situation, the more you start to have fun with it.  Like now instead of being freak out, grossed out, or annoyed by people’s comments out on the road, I either ignore them or joke with them.  “What a white girl??!  Where?!”  I am really close to awarding points now for people’s comments.  “White Meat” will always get negative points but a recent comment of “I’ve got some strong dark coffee here and need some milk” might be awarded an 8 or 9.  Of course a courteous, “Hello, Good Morning, How are you doing?” will always get a 10 in my book.  You just never know what people will say.  Like one day some guy was biking near me and kept looking at me.  I was waiting for some strange comment and he smiled real wide.  It was a good smile and he said “I’m sorry but can I ask you a question?”  I said sure and braced myself.  He laughed and said “why do you wear that helmet?”  I laughed too and explained it is Peace Corps policy.  He just laughed again, smiled really wide, and rode on.  For some reason his smile was contagious and I smiled the rest of the way to my destination.  


 

I’ve also come to terms with the fact that I don’t live in a particularly beautiful or exotic part of the country.  I am not out in the jungle like some of my fellow volunteers.  I have categorized my site as a country, inner city.  If you can imagine some run down houses and lots of trash around an inner city area mixed with fields for farming and cows, goats, roosters, and donkeys running around, that is where I live.  It is the 3^rd largest town/city in Guyana and I have access to internet, electricity, running water, most American foods (always at a price though), and various businesses such as clothing stores, bars, clubs, restaurants, banks, there is even a Church’s Chicken.  Some people have houses like ones in America, complete with swimming pools.  While things might seem like I’m still in the States, the culture here is completely different.  That culture and the people definitely make living where I do worthwhile.  The good thing is that some volunteers do live out in the jungle and there are a lot of really awesome places to explore.  So while I might not live out there, I can always visit.  If you ever want to go on a rain forest adventure, come on down! :-)

 

Fishing in the Back Dam with some Kiddos

 

I recently had a discussion with a fellow PCV about being happy here in Guyana.  PCVs experience a lot of ups and downs, so sometimes that answer can change d  I really thought about it though and I would say I am very happy here.  I have enjoyed most of my volunteering experiences in the past and so far, Peace Corps is not an exception.  Part of the reason is that I really like what I do and have flung myself head first into as many things as I can possibly manage.  This is nothing new for me and I am lucky to be in a location where there are many different organizations that I can work with.

Doing sugar and pressure testing with the Cancer Society

 I really enjoy teaching my nursing students (some days are better than others).  Right now I teach Health Promotion, Epidemiology, and Research.  My favorite course is Health Promotion, but I try to make the other classes as fun as I can.  For instance, last week in Epi I was talking about tracking new diseases, such as one that makes people turn into zombies.  My students probably think I am really crazy, but it is worth it sometimes to get a laugh or two.  I am also working on my “mean teacher” capabilities.  I am pretty close in age to my students and am a little more relaxed than some of my co-workers, so the students will sometimes take that too far.  I have busted out “mean teacher” and I was pretty proud of myself when I told a student he was “takin his eyes past me” (This means disrespecting me).  There is a term here called “busin” (think abuse for pronunciation) and people will bust out all sorts of insults like: you don’t have manners or you are being disrespectful, in order to shame or embarrass someone back into the right way to act.  I don’t have those skills yet (and probably would sound stupid saying most of them) but the taking your eyes past me comment was a start and he actually did cut out his actions. 

I still write my weekly health article and am also involved with Mental Health and Cancer Awareness events for this month. 
 

My nursing students participating in Cancer Awareness Week

 
Our PC GAD group (the people that organized Camp GLOW) is also now getting ready for two mini camps, so we are really excited about that.  The other week I attended an Amerindian Heritage Festival in a village where our remote volunteer group had their training.  There was music, food, local crafts, and a ton of people.  I ate Tokoma worms (they tasted kind of like shrimp) and all of us PCVs went swimming in the black water creek. 

About to eat Tokoma Worms!

Walking across a wood slat bridge

mmmm tastes good!

Traditional woven Amerindian Earrings

 This past weekend I also went “bush fishing” for the first time with another PCV and some local children.  All of my neighbors laughed when I came home decently sunburned with NO fish.  I also experienced my first Guyanese funeral (unfortunately my co-worker’s father passed away).  We sat wake for a few nights, which is where people mainly gather outside a person’s house and they play cards and dominoes.  Then a bit later the family of the deceased brings everyone food-kind of the opposite of what we do in the States.  Although I didn’t know my co-worker’s father, it still made me really sad to see her upset, especially at the funeral.  I know grief can elicit all types of reactions, but here it was much more extreme than I have ever seen.  I think at least 3 people “dropped” or fainted and some people burst into screaming fits and had to be held down.  The wife of the deceased went into such a fit while she was passing me and I had NO idea what to do. I moved over so people could put her on the bench and I tried to fan her with my program.  Probably not the most helpful, but that was all I could think of at the time.  It was interesting to experience, but I hope I don’t have to attend many more funerals while I am here. 

As you can see by this loooonnnggg post to catch you all up, I have been keeping myself pretty busy.  I think I will remain that way until the end of the year with our Mini Camp GLOWs, teaching, holiday get togethers, the School of Nursing’s graduation, and finally Barbados!    I know January and February are going to bring a lot of self-reflection and evaluation because it will be close to my 1 year mark and half way through my service.   It’s all so crazy to think about.  I hope everyone at home is enjoying the beautiful fall weather.  My body was expecting the weather to cool down a little and then Guyana decided to crank up the heat and humidity instead.  Rainy season should come again by mid-November so it hopefully will be a bit cooler then.  It is admittedly weird to be craving chili and hot apple cider when it is still 90 degrees outside.  Good bye for now!

-KB