Around the world

Around the world; a Nation Hopper's journy to teach on all 7 continents.




Wednesday, September 21, 2011

'Fagitas'. It's what's for lunch.

Holy crap today was busy. I honestly think this is the first time I've stopped moving all day. P Ui and I went to the market this morning... No, I have to start at the beginning. There will be a party at the big house on Friday for everyone who has a birthday in September. I have been asked to make some American food, for 40 people. Now, I do not have the patience to sit and grill 40 burgers, nor is there a grill big enough. So I decided on fajitas and black bean and corn lettuce wraps (one of my favorite things to make at home). I talked with Nathan and Joy (Joy has a stand at the morning market and speaks ridiculously good English. I had lunch with the two of them yesterday.) and they felt reasonably sure I could find everything I needed, except for tortillas, which makes sense. So I googled a recipe and decided that since I am a New Mexican, making tortilla's should be. Like, in my blood, right? I thought it would be a good idea to do a test run to make sure I could actually make everything mentioned above so that way, come Friday, we were not stuck eating toast with peanutbutter and bananas.

Back to the market. P Ui and I buy blackbeans, corn, lettuce, a bucket of garlic, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, flour, etc etc. All the things needed to make pork fajitas (yes, I know pork is not normally used to make fajitas but its what everyone here eats.). We get back to the house at 9:15 and P is surprised when I tell her I'm going to get started. But it took 2 hours and 45 mins to make everything. P and Yi Op helped wash and chop veggies. Yi helped me make salsa via mortar and pestle, the meat was sitting in lime juice and garlic in the fridge, the corn was kerneled by hand, and the beans cooking. It was time to make the tortillas. I had the recipie, I had the ingredients. I did not have measuring instruments. I used a bowl to measure out cups of flour, and eyeballed the salt, baking powder, and veggie oil. I was sooo skeptical as I flattened out the dough. But I put the wok on the stove and cooked the first tortilla. Imagine my surprise when it came out tasting exactly like a tortilla! Haha! Everyone from the office (Ging, Walai, Blah, P Pete, Khun Rut, Noo, and Nathan) came over for lunch. Khun Rut, Ging, Nathan, Walai, and P Ui were the only ones who liked my 'fagitas', everyone else had rice and Thai soup.

I had a lesson with the staff and it went really well considering I had spent all morning in the kitchen instead of preparing a lesson. They read through their homework, I split them into groups and gave each group a stack of cards. On the cards were words that, when put together told a story. They had to put the words together to make a story, keeping in mind all the grammar stuff that I am oh so good at (again, heavy sarcasm). The two stories turned out very different and they were even more surprised when I brought out the original and showed them that even though we all had the same words, when put together differently they make completely different stories. I hung out at the office before the little girls got back from school. It's been pouring since the end of the staff lesson, so I couldn't take the girls outside for some games. They were having such a hard time focusing and it was pretty tough coming up with fun games to play inside.

Jack and Sue got here today. They came by at the tail end of the lesson. Jack, Sue, Nathan, Walai and I went back to the big house for dinner. We had left over 'fagitas' and I ate toooo many tortillas, I couldn't help it. They taste like home. Now it's to bed for me, even though its only 8:30 :)

Countdown for India begins! 17 days! Walai told me that I had better come back, or she will fly out to India and kiddnap me!

The cook's husband killed a snake today! It was about 2 1/2 feet long and green. He wailed on it with a broom, I don't know how it was still alive when he threw it over into the next property. That's the first live snake I've seen. Knock on wood.

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