Food Cultural Exchange

E tla!

That means "whats up" in the local slang in the area. Anywho...today was a pretty cool day. I went to one of my assigned high schools this morning to begin this week's assignment, which is interviewing teachers at my two schools one-on-one to get to know them better. This is kind of a bad time to do this assignment though b/c the teachers are preparing for the end of the quarter this Friday. Thankfully my principals fully support me in all that I do, so they nudged (aka forced) the teachers to take a little bit of their free time to talk with me. I felt bad, but then got over it b/c I REALLY enjoyed getting a chance to talk to them. I think in the end, they saw that it was harmless too.

This afternoon I attended a circuit-wide principals meeting. The Circuit Manager (which is the individual who is the head of my school district) has taken a liking to me and wants to make sure all the area prinicpals know why I'm here. She created a circular about me and what I'll be doing here for the next few years. She didn't clarify that I've only been assigned to two schools, but she did make it clear that if other schools want to "use my services", they must speak with my principals first. I'm actually pretty happy with everyone in my circuit wanting to work with me, b/c this (HOPEFULLY) means more teacher will be interested in attending the workshops I'll be putting together sometime next year (when the new school year starts in January). Also, I prefer to be busy than just sitting around twiddling my thumbs.

Anywho...I was given the opportunity to introduce myself to the circuit principals at the meeting. The Circuit Manager asked me to briefly introduce myself, but I had NO IDEA she was talking to me. The meeting was in English and Sepedi, so I kept zoning out when people spoke Sepedi and then payed attention when I heard English. Thankfully one of my supervisors was sitting behind me and nudged me to say "sweety...she's talking to you". Haha...I think I'm getting better at understanding Sepedi, but only when I'm paying attention :)

So I've got'n more creative with fixing food for myself b/c pasta, potatoes, and fish patties can get pretty old pretty fast. Today my host sister (and now friend) gave me an advocado the size of an eggplant (I'm not kidding) and it was ready to eat. The ones I laboriously plucked from the trees a week ago aren't ready to eat yet. Anywho, with the one she gave me I decided to make some guacamole. And I didn't want to eat the quacamole with bread, so I decided to make some homemade tortillas. Yep....that's right....I said tortillas.

Peace Corps provided all of us with a cook book (I think I mentioned this in a previous post) and one of the recipes was how to make homemade tortillas. Not to float my own boat, but THEY ROCKED!!!! Once I was finished I took some to my mom and one of my sisters. I showed them how to dip it in the guacamole, and they liked it! I told them that people in Mexico (I haven't found a clear way to explain what Latin America is) eat tortillas with the majority of their meals like they eat bogobe with every meal. My mom liked it so much that she had me put some on a plate for her to eat more later.

Let's just say it was a great moment for me. Even though guacamole and tortillas aren't necessarily a part of "my culture", they did become a HUGE part of my diet in America. I felt good sharing the dish with them. It made me feel warm and gooey on the inside.

Later...