Operation Hummus = Success

I finally hunkered down and bought the absolute minimum ingredients to make hummus, Nica style. 2 cans of garbanzo beans, a lemon and almost a whole head of garlic. No sesame tahini or olive oil, and I used the blender. And it worked! Even better is that Nicaraguans have a weird aversion to garlic, so I don´t have to worry about anyone eating any of it.

So last Monday was the Purísima. Several families set up altars of the Virgin Mary in their homes. A ¨professional¨ altar-making guy actually came to our house to help out. He set up a big screen of mountain scenery behind the Virgin Mary statue and put a ton of flowers that were cut down from nearby trees around it. For the past week my family had been collecting food, candy, plastic cups and bowls, little towel, toys, trinkets, keychains, combs, earrings and whatever else they could think of to hand out to the masses of people that would come. At 7pm we officially opened the doors. Groups of 2-10 people came in one at a time, stood in front of the altar, and sang sections of songs dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Before anyone could sing, however, someone had to yell, ¨Quien causa tanta allegría?¨ (Who causes so much happiness) and everyone would respond ¨La concepción de Maria” (The Conception of Mary). After they sang what minimal segment of the song they deemed deserving of their ¨brindi¨ (treat), my host sister or mom would hand each person a little gift, which was picked appropriately and meticulously based on age and gender. For a good majority of the night there was a massive mob of people waiting outside for their turn to come in and sing. Unlike trick-or-treating, everyone partakes in the Purísima- parents, babies, small children, teens, old people, town drunks, non-Catholics who don´t know the songs. For a lot of people, the prospect of free food for their families is worth waiting in lines with their small children until midnight. I put up some pictures and a video on facebook if you want a better idea of the whole ordeal.

Tuesday was the actual Immaculate Conception. We went to a 2-hour mass in the morning and then packed up and went to the nearby river. The river is conveniently located behind a family´s house, and they take the liberty of charging an admission fee. They have essentially claimed ownership of the river, which I didn´t know was possible. It was really beautiful- situated in the middle of dense jungle. But then all the noisy kids came, and the drunks, ruining the peace.

My host mom bought a large green bird from a man walking through the streets carrying a shoebox of them. We already had 2 little green birds, but the anomoly of this one being able to talk (supposedly, it hasn´t said a word yet) was a selling point. The 2 birds got kicked out of their cage to accommodate the new one; they now roam around the kitchen floor trying not to get stepped on.

My host sister and I put up the fake Christmas tree the other day. Complete with lights and tons of decorations. Wasn´t quite the same as a real tree with Christmas music playing in the background, but it will suffice.

I´ve been walking a few days a week with my host mom. She´s showed me a bunch of new paths and windy roads that pass through neighboring villages. Yesterday we stopped at a sugar cane mill. We walked right up and poked around, watching the workers make candy/a block of pure sugar with it. My mom walked right up to a big vat of the processed sugar, stuck her finger in, dug out a big glob, handed it to me, and then repeated for herself. No one thought anything of it. We also passed by a house that sells milk and I carried back a Coca Cola liter of warm milk, fresh from the udder.

I went to a rosary praying session (they have become increasingly frequent since the Immaculate Conception) with my sister yesterday and they gave everyone a plastic cup of candy. Included in mine were two gold coin candies, which I assumed were chocolate. I got back and took out my secret stash of peanut butter to dunk the chocolate in. When I unwrapped it, to my surprise, it was pink! Gum. Talk about disappointing.

This morning when I was running I saw a guy wearing Boston College athletic shorts, almost identical to the ones I have. I was so excited. I stopped and said, ¨your shorts are from my university!!¨ He sort of laughed with me and looked at me like I had ten heads/was white, not to mention I was running at 6am on a Sunday. Anti-climactic.

Tomorrow I´m going to the beach with the teachers from the school for their end of the year party...even though I didn´t teach this past year, they invited me anyway.