10/3/11
Dear Everyone,
Lizzie and I are not due to be up for another hour, but Carolina and Victor are already awake a whispering under their breath. There is something so comforting and homey about the adults speaking softly and trying not to wake the sleeping children. They both have such beautiful voices when they whisper, especially when they use Safiki instead of Spanish. Safiki is like no other language I’ve ever heard before. It’s all just syllables mushed together, if that makes sense. It is beautiful.
This weekend was pretty relaxing. I mean as relaxing as it gets when you’re trying to not to tear your skin off from scratching. Saturday we piled the fourteen of us into a five-seater truck, and went into Puerto Limon so we could use the Internet café to plan our ISTs (Independent Student Travel,), which are coming up the weekend after next. Three other girls and I are going to Banos, which is supposed to be a pretty awesome volcano, where you can get twenty-dollar massages. I need a break from the constantly being itchy, dirty, and sweaty okay!?!?!? Anyway, it turns out that in the entire town of Puerto Limon there is not a diet coke to be found! Plenty of regular coke, but not a single diet! I’m going through aspartame withdrawal.
During dinner, we learned that Carolina only attended school from ages nine through eleven. She also told us that neither she nor Victor can read, although they can write a little. I’m not sure if she meant in Spanish or Safiki. Safiki doesn’t have it’s own characters, but we hear someone sounded out the words with our letters about one hundred years ago.
After dinner we asked Carolina to play cards. After some discussion, Lizzie and I decided to teach her Gin, as poker needs chips, go-fish needs a lot of talking, blackjack needs a lot of counting, and war is boring. I guess it was sort of a gamble, trying to teach someone who can’t read to play a pretty number-oriented game, but she’s intelligent, and caught on quick. We started by laying out possible threesomes/foursomes on the table, and then progressed to an open hand. The second round we played closed-handed, and she won. It was actually a very enjoyable night. I’m going to leave her the deck when we move on to China.
Sunday, Nikki and Haley visited us before breakfast, and when Carolina called us to the table, we saw that she had made food and places for all four of us. She’s such a sweetheart.
Later, we went down to the river with Andrew and Ben, and ran into Michele and Haley’s host-family. The little girls decided to slick back Andrew’s hair with red, in the traditional Tsatchilla style. They opened these pods they picked from trees, and took out the “achote” seeds. They smushed the seeds with their fingers, and placed them on a giant leaf. They had Andrew kneel on the ground, and they rubbed them into his hair for several minutes. My hands are still dyed red…
That night we finally had “the log (see 9/30 post)!” It tastes like nothingness, and truly sits in your stomach like a log! I even got to help make them! Here’s how it’s done: First several plantains must be boiled. The families here all have a special tool they call the “lehrohnsah” (sounded out.) It’s like a large cutting board with one propped-up end. You sit on the non propped-up end with your legs curled around to one side. Using a rectangular rolling pin-type-thing, you roll out plantains like dough, until they have a matzo-ballish consistency. Then with your hands, you roll the dough into a plantain shape, and there you have your log! Enjoy the recipe!
Love,
Katherine
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