Food Security

It was food again that engendered the possibility of another food security project. My neighbors invited me to dinner for some Llapingachos, and I of course accepted, saying no can be very offensive. I brought along my oatmeal cookies to have the critics´ test. While chatting over dinner my neighbors mentioned that they wanted to build a garden and needed my help. So they told me they bought seeds for the garden but we are going to have to create it in my backyard. Well ok, for me that sounds great! I will go out of my way to help anyone one who wants to plant vegetables…even if they will be planted in my own backyard. This was great news, another possibility for an income enhancing women’s project. If they have success with the garden, they would like to sell some of the vegetables in the city, though I will definitely be encouraging their personal consumption of the ohh so nutritious vegetables.

Llapingachos: Stuffed yucca patties with hard boiled egg, and cheese

Yucca: Also known as cassava, a starchy tropical root vegetable. It contains a large amount of dietary fiber. It has a thick bark like skin which is peeled and then the yucca can be boiled or fried.

It was food again that engendered the possibility of another food security project. My neighbors invited me to dinner for some Llapingachos, and I of course accepted, saying no can be very offensive. I brought along my oatmeal cookies to have the critics test. While chatting over dinner my neighbors mentioned that they wanted to build a garden and needed my help. So they told me they bought seeds for the garden but we are going to have to create it in my backyard. Well ok, for me that sounds great! I will go out of my way to help anyone one who wants to plant vegetables…even if they will be planted in my own backyard. This was great news, another possibility for an income enhancing women’s project. If they have success with the garden, they would like to sell some of the vegetables in the city, though I will definitely be encouraging their personal consumption of the ohh so nutritious vegetables.

Llapingachos: Stuffed yucca patties with hard boiled egg, and cheese

Yucca: Also known as cassava, a starchy tropical root vegetable. It contains a large amount of dietary fiber. It has a thick bark like skin which is peeled and then the yucca can be boiled or fried.

Calabazo

An admirably artistic neighborhood friend also went to teach the students and their parents today. She is one of the gems here in Esmeraldas (known as the green province), a gatekeeper of the history and culture of her African Ecuadorian roots. She is a naturalist who creates works of art from what nature supplies her. One of the main types of art she works with is calabazo. Calabazo is plentiful here and was traditionally used to make bowls and utensils. Maria fears the loss of this traditional craft and wants to share her skill with the younger generation. Today the students and their mothers labored over calabazos making pear shaped ornaments and flower designed calabazos. It was touching to see the children so eager to learn their ancestral craft and share time with their mothers laboring and learning as a team. I hope that the lessons continue over the next months and the girls and their mothers can pass on this invaluable craft to their daughters and granddaughters of the next generation.

I must admi,t my entrepreneurial mind kept thinking how we could turn this small group of about 12 mothers and children into a group of artisans profiting from a culturally rooted activity, uniting the women of the community. I hope to encourage the progression of this group of women. I have been thinking and thinking of ideas to make their arts marketable. So far I have been thinking of talking to some of the artisan
stores in Quito which sell the artwork of small groups. Maybe these could be used as a bird house and marketed to the abundance of birders who visit the country. Any ideas on the aesthetics of the artwork or ideas for selling are much appreciated!

Sugar and Oats

This morning I decided to whip up some oatmeal cookies. Usually this would be a simple task, but with my campo oven I could only bake 4 small cookies at a time, greatly lengthening the process. I wanted to bring some tasty treats to give the kids after my first nutrition workshop. Since oatmeal cookies incorporate a whole grain, this was the perfect dulce.

To begin the educational aspect of nutrition, I started with my beloved students in a town up the road. We are currently working together in our Esmeraldas Leyendo Program. They are a great well behaved group, mostly young girls, who are always eager to learn…what more could a teacher ask for? Yes here I am known as profesora, though this is not really my main function, I enjoy teaching and believe the greatest possibility for community engagement and betterment is through young people. Today we worked on the three main food groups using the analogy of our body as a house. A house needs energy, protection and to be constructed just like
our bodies. In our bodies our proteins construct our bodies, the carbohydrates, fats and sugars provide energy and the fruits and vegetables give us protection. The kids then divided pictures of foods into each of the three categories to enforce their understanding. So today we started with the basics but fundamentals.

Kid Approval Oatmeal Cookies: Approved

*** (my 5 year old judge offered his dad some of the cookie, which means he wasn’t enthralled by it) Though the others seemed to like them.

Papaya

Today I prepared papaya seeds as a laxative, I feel the need to give myself a good parasite cleansing here and there. The seeds had a horseradish taste, but they did the trick. Then I treated myself with a delectable papaya, in Ecuador they taste worlds better, much sweeter and juicer. The papayas also grow very large, some grow about the size of a baby, so I guess you must be creative in finding ways to take advantage of such abundance.

Papaya

Facts: A native to the American tropics, first cultivated in Mexico. The fruit can be eaten green or ripened. Also the leaves can be steamed and eaten as a green vegetable while the seeds are a pepper substitute. Folklore claims that the papaya fruit and seeds can be used as a contraceptive especially if eaten in its unripe form. The seeds can also be used as a laxative to remove parasites, though dangerous in large doses. The fruit also contains papain, an enzyme which helps digest proteins. The fruit contains many nutrients and antioxidants including vitamin C, flavonoids, vitamin B, folate and pantothenic acid. It is also full of minerals including potassium and magnesium. These nutrients aid in cardiovascular health and protect against colon cancer.

Waste

The by product of our lives and all we consume. I have been amazed to find that it takes me a whole week to fill up a plastic grocery bag of trash (a miniscule amount to my accumulation back in the states). Most of my waste tends to be organic food wastes which gets chucked out the back door for the neighbor’s chickens or dogs to eat. At home I was determined to throw all of my waste into the huge compost pile outback, but here I figure I can aid the food chain in a different way with my debris. One downside here is the lack of recycling. It pains me to know that a perfectly recyclable product will be thrown away…which begs the question. Where will it be thrown? Here in my town the trash is collected erratically by donkey cart. A man comes along with a donkey and rings a little bell and you throw what you have in the trash cart. The trash apparently ends up somewhere in the side of a hill. Though the waste removal practices are not the best, people tend to be much more efficient at the first two Rs, reduce and reuse. I once imagined totting my plastic bottles all the way to Quito where I could find somewhere to recycle, until I realized that my neighbor actually wanted them. The government is implementing new environmental taxes on plastic bottles and bags, leaving consumers to reevaluate the sustainability of their purchase decisions.

College

Ramen noodles are claimed to be a dsetitute college kids staple, which still hold true as a “poor student” in this school of life. The other day while shopping I came across some ramen noodle knock offs “Loveme fideo”. Even better, they were only 9 cents a piece. Considering it costs me $2.50 to splurge for the most affordable spaghetti noodles , I couldn’t pass up an offer for 9 cents. The whole Italian cooking thing hasn’t caught on here. Its always rice and more rice, and when there are noodles they will unequivocally be accompanied with rice. I can’t imagine that these Asian style noodles are the paradigm of health food, but plain white rice needs a substitute now and then. So I made my healthy spin on ramen noodles, reminiscent of those exam cramming days in Centerville Hall.

Food Chain

As I sit here writing this blog a gecko just dropped from the ceiling, a rat ran across the ceiling beam and a huge thump slid down the roof while a dog tirelessly barked at my back door. I then heard some screeching meows and a crying whine. I would suspect the cat had been staked out on the roof waiting for the rat and took and unfortunate fall right into the dogs prowl. I’ve been trapped into a triangle of prey. The not so welcome rat, that has been a common evening visitor, was apparently found out by a neighborhood cat. Which in turn got the dog a little excited. A Tom and Jerry chase by far more amusing than any cartoon.

I will have to admit, I am cheering for the cat. Especially because tonight the rat took a short pause to stop and plop a terd on my books, as if mockingly saying, “Nanny nanny boo boo, you can’t catch me.”