Monday, June 13, 2011

Americouli Satchmeli!



Last weekend the other members of my cluster and myself all got together to make "American" food for our families. Being that the only really American cuisine are hamburgers and all that jazz we made our version of Tex-Mex and quasi-Italian inspired Americanish food. We made for them beans and rice with a little seasoning from home, salsa!, a salad with lettuce in it which I had never seen before here, homemade tortillas and chips, noodles without butter or oil, and an amazing pasta sauce made from fresh veggies in a saucepan. It was an experimental endeavor to say the least, and hardly really equated to the dishes back home just because of the difference in ingredients, but it was wonderful and our families seemed to really enjoy the whole operation! By the way hand making tortillas is quite the undertaking and one that I feel I am now an expert at from our hours of practice that day. :)

After the meal the two guy volunteers and us two girl volunteers all cleared the table and were doing the dishes together. Because of the very different dynamic in the homes here, my grandfather explained to the guys that this was a women's job and they should sit down. In the spirit of sharing all aspects of American mealtime traditions the boys continued to do all of the dishes and encouraged us girls to enjoy our evening and they finished all of them. :) Riotous laughter and some misunderstanding as to why this was happening were our families' greatest reactions to this little cultural exchange.