Happy Easter!

"Mommy, what do we do on Easter?" My three year-old asked me this morning.

All this talk of Happy Easter and she wanted to know what the big deal was/is.

It's about Jesus. And how he loves us. And sometimes we hide Easter eggs for fun too.

It's about getting a family photo, right?

This morning on Facebook there was a combination of "He is risen!" posts, and fancy Facebook-worthy Easter baskets. 

Last year on Easter weekend I had the inspiration to make Easter baskets for the girls. I went to Walmart, the one place I assumed would have candies or things to color eggs, but there was nothing. I was surprised and a bit disappointed they didn't have anything. So we didn't do anything.

A few weeks ago I went to Walmart and they had an entire section of Easter stuff.  Chocolate bunnies and candy and baskets and bunny ears. Maybe I just missed it last year? This weekend, once again last minute, I thought about making Easter baskets. We went to Walmart, and it was all gone. The day before Easter. I missed the boat.

We bought a few candies as an afterthought.

This morning I was feeling badly that we didn't do fancy baskets, or dye Easter eggs (Mommy, we need white eggs to color, not brown). All Ellie has been asking for is to hunt for Easter eggs. Luckily this morning I remembered we have a bag of plastic eggs in our Christmas decorations box. Michael filled them with the candy he bought, but them in a container the girls already had, and voila, Easter "baskets." 

The girls have been hiding the plastic eggs and looking for them since we got home from church. "I'm having so much fun," says my 5 year-old.

We weren't sure what time church started this morning. We thought 8am. Or maybe 7. We showed up at 8:45 and we caught the last 10 minutes, just in time for tamales afterwards.

At the kids table eating Easter tamales

And some pictures, because, cute dresses.

Happy Easter from Guatemala!

Only here...

Only in this context would a middle-aged man make a comment about how much weight I've lost, immediately followed by the question, "Are you still nursing your baby?" while gesturing and cupping what would be a breast, if he had any.

He was concerned that I wasn't eating enough and or course, as he told me, that is important when you're a nursing mom. I joked that I only eat tortillas and beans as my new diet, which in retrospect wasn't that funny since we have staff who literally only eat that every day. But we all had a good laugh and moved on. It struck me how this conversation wouldn't have happened in the US, at least in any of my circles.

It's interesting to be in a culture that has mixed messages about breastfeeding. On the one hand, it's a common part of daily life, and me deciding to nurse wherever and whenever, in general, doesn't get a second glance. It's seen as a natural and expected way to nourish a child. There's no shame. I see moms nursing their babies all the time (interestingly, most often indigenous women). It's just what it is, food for a baby. If only the US could figure it out. It's so frustrating, the double standard that breastfeeding offends so many people, but women dressed overly sexy is not a problem. What most often looks silly here is trying to cover that feeding process up for the sake of others.

Then there is this other part of the culture that pushes formula and bottles. Our nurses at the hospital where Ruby was born had no clue what to do with me since I refused formula and wanted to exclusively breastfeed. I had to explain to them it was not only OK, but necessary, to wake up the baby every few hours so I could nurse her. I had to fight hard to not let them give her formula and to allow her to be in the room with me in the middle of the night so I could feed her when she needed.

Yes, I've lost weight. Yes, I'm eating well. Yes, I'm still nursing my baby.

Our New Favorite Bread: Gallinas

We discovered our new favorite panaderia (bakery) by chance.

 (The moto is parked right in front of it in the picture). Michael was walking to work one morning, stopped by this panaderia, and bought some bread. It caught his attention, partly, because it was the first local bakery we have ever seen that has a guard out front (usually in the mornings). We quickly discovered they are one of the few in our area that make things with whole wheat flour (integral). If that wasn't awesome enough, we discovered our new favorite bread.

They're called gallinas (hens), as the baker explained to us, because of what look like plumas (feathers) on the bread. Pan dulce (sweet bread) is super common and cheap here, and eaten during coffee breaks or as breakfast. You can usually buy a few simple pieces of pan dulce for less than 50 cents. I like pan dulce if it's super fresh, but after a day or two they are stale and chalky to me.

But these gallinas are so much better than regular pan dulce. They are slightly sweet, like pan dulce, but softer, like the bread part of a cinnamon roll. The outside is hard, covered in sesame seeds, with a slightly sweet coating, and the inside is the delicious, soft but thick bread. And, bonus: they are 2 or 3 times bigger than regular pan dulce.

These things are so good, and are 2 for 5Q (1Q=about 12 cents), which means these cost about 30 cents each. When I think about the $5 pastries at Starbucks, this is an amazing deal. I find myself wanting to walk to work just so we have an excuse to stop by and buy them. They are that good. Que rico!

Boxbol and a Mayan Ceremony

Last Sunday we headed to Nebaj with our team. Two of our projects and two of our staff are in Nebaj, so it was a good opportunity for most of our team to see and learn about another part of Guatemala.

On the road to Nebaj, there are always interesting things to see...

...like lots of watermelons.

We like to make our team do ice breakers, because we're the bosses and we can. :)

While the neighbors watch from afar, curious as to what the heck we're doing.

We learned to make Boxbol, a traditional Quiche dish. (We tried it the last time we were here, which I wrote about).

The corn dough is stuffed inside green leaves, rolled, and cooked.

It's served with a variety of sauces, usually a red tomato or a nutty one. It's super delicious.

Ruby thought so, too.

Cooking on the fire.

A few of the guys, learning how to make tortillas.

We celebrated birthdays since our last time together as a group.

We happened to be in Nebaj at the beginning of what is a sacred time of year for the Mayan culture. The 5 days of the New Year were beginning. We heard from some Mayan spiritual leaders about some of the traditions.

Meanwhile, Hazel made a friend. At first, this little girl was watching Hazel from afar as she colored. I suggested to Hazel maybe the girl would like to join her. 

Though a bit shy, Hazel handed the girl a crayon without saying much, and the girls colored together for a long time.

Breakfast one morning was "atol blanco," a white corn-based gruel. With BBQ corn chips on top.

On our last morning, we attended a Mayan "cleansing" ceremony. Our friend gave us a demonstration before we went (I, unfortunately, got food poisoning and was sick in the van while the rest of the team was participating in the ceremony). 

With 5 branches, the spiritual leaders whack each person on the head, hands, and legs, to help cleanse each person from their sins (this is how I understood it). 

Our boss, Cesar, who joined us for our retreat from Honduras, volunteered to serve as an example for us.

As always, I'm always thankful for the team and their ability to just hang out with our girls. It's a special part of the memories we are making, these team retreats. It's often humbling to be parenting in all of our impatience and stress in front of our team, but they have a lot of grace.

World Fellowship Sunday

We are not Mennonites, but we have worked for Mennonites and have attended a Mennonite church for several years. We appreciate the Anabaptist perspective on many things.

(Quick history lesson: Anabaptists rejected infant baptism of the Catholic tradition and believed that baptism should be delayed until the person was old enough and able to profess their faith. Anabaptism means being baptized again.)

Today was World Fellowship Sunday. Each year in January, Anabaptist churches around the world celebrate their heritage. January 21, 1525 was when the first Anabaptist baptism took place in Switzerland, and the yearly celebration is a time to celebrate worldwide the connections among other Mennonites.

Our church here in Guatemala celebrates this with a large potluck, emphasizing the different countries represented among the congregation. The idea is to make a dish typical to each home country. Two years ago I made chocolate chip cookies. Typically American, right? (I think last year we may not have attended, since Ruby would have been a few days old).

This year we wanted to stay away from chocolate, so we went with some other American classics: baked macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and a blackberry cobbler.

It was fun to see all the countries represented, and the food was delicious!

Verenika, a Russian-Mennonite traditional dish of pasta filled with cheese.

Chile Rellenos. Delicious!

Horchata from El Salvador and delicious rice from Belize.
And there were pupusas. Yum. 

The pasta salad was actually an American dish.
Guatemala included refried beans, tortillas, and bread with shredded chicken, among other foods.

Paraguay represented with tasty sausages and potatoes. 

Ruby enjoyed the tortillas.

Tacos al pastor

Our favorite little taco stand makes for a good Saturday lunch.

"Tacos de Lengua (tongue)"

This kind of meat is called pastor. Pastor means "shepherd," the name given to Lebanese and other Arab merchants who immigrated to Mexico City in the early 1900s. This is shawarma, a type of food that came with these immigrants to Mexico: layers of raw pork on a vertical spit, partially cooked by the vertical broiler behind it. The meat is marinated in spices, along with dried chiles and pineapple. The pineapple is on each end to drip the juice and marinate the meat. Shavings are cut off and served as needed.

The meat is fried up and served with cheese in little tortillas.

We add whatever condiments we like. Today I added pineapple, pico de gallo, green salsa, cilantro, and squeezed lime juice on top. Que rico!