Photos from my morning bike rides

I very well may be the only cyclist with a helmet in these parts, but it doesn`t stop people from saying wishing me well along my morning workout :)

Walking the unpaved, manure dotted streets of Orocuina, I often find myself focusing on where to put my next step and forget to look up and appreciate the amazing mountains that surround the town. All of this changed recently when I bought a bike! My ¨new¨ patch work 10 speed has proved to be well worth the 1/4 of my monthly stipend investment, allowing me to take in the beautiful scenery and get some exercise along the Orocuina Choluteca highway.

One of my favorite things about this incredible valley is its vegitation. During the ¨winter¨ the hills come alive, trees flower and grow leaves, grasses turn green, and vines pop out of seemingly nowhere to overgrow fences and mountain passages. In the ¨summer,¨ the rains stops, trees hibernate, and brush takes over where the vines wither back. While many consider this dry period a ¨lack of life,¨ I come to find that the sea of sage creates a perfect backdrop to allow small details to pop out that might otherwise be missed.

Enjoy the photos!

Sunrise

I see more cows than cars on the morning ride

¨Burro¨ in the Ocra

Watermelons

Home Sweet Home, Orocuina

International ¨Relations¨ and Miscommunications...

While I am NO Carrie Bradshaw and am the least bit interested in putting my love life, or lack there of, on display... I had to laugh tonight and share this sweet story:

I have been acquaintace ¨friends¨ with a guy in town for probably four or five months. This means we say hi, do the mandatory cheek kiss in passing and we ask one another about the other`s family. On Valentine`s Day we saw each other in passing and upon seeing me with a rose asked about my ¨boyfriend,¨ who I said was good. I explained though that the rose I had bought for Benicia and was looking for chocolates. He joked and said there is no chocolate here in Orocuina and that he`d bring some by the next day. He never stopped by, and I assumed all was well. Cheque! I, however, learned an important lesson about ¨Catracho communication¨ tonight when this ¨friend¨ showed up at the door with a rose and package of chocolates. Thank goodness he was too shy to come in and said he would stop by some day to talk. Super sweet, but super nooot good considering I just want to be friends and this friend thinks I have a boyfriend!!! (**This is funny in that I am sooo no streetwise; however, I am chalking it up to still being a fairly new single... **)

In the spirit of international amor, I thought I`d share some fun tips I seem to be picking up along the way:

1. Open communication and Respect are KEY (while this is true for any relationship, it is all the more important when exploring and navigating different cultures and belief systems.)
2. Humor is maybe even more important! Chances are, one or both of you are going to say something completely inappropriate, possibly in an even more inappropriate setting, and you need to be able to laugh at your self and each other... really, otherwise why are you together?
3. Curiosity. Having the chance to learn about other cultures and parts of the world from someone you care about rocks! So take it all in!
4. Did I mention the importance of open communication?

That being said... when it comes to politely declining relationships here in Honduras, my sound, humble piece of advise is: LIE!

While my foreign friends and I have repeatedly told guys in our towns that we are not interested in dating (and even have gone as far as to lie and make up a boyfriend), without the physical presence of a man by our sides, our fictious Don Juans don`t amount to much. While I know that many, many Honduran males have another if not multiple partners beyond their ¨main squeeze,¨ I am suprised to find out that men expect some women... ie. THIS woman to have another as well. I was informed tonight that ¨In order to be left alone, Amandita, you need to invent a husband. A novio, boyfriend, will not do, you must have a husband, with a ring.... even then a picture or recording of him professing his love would help!¨ (Says the oh so wise Benicia)

Well Benicia is probably right, it is a bit late in the game to be making up husbands... so for now I better work on my communication!! (and perhaps appreciate the chocolate :) )

Baking Cheez-its in the Mountains

There is something about the mountain air that makes everything more enjoyable! (Including baking in 85 degrees!) This weekend I went ¨home¨ with Benicia to Las Peñitas. A caravan of five, we wove our way up the mountain where we spent the afternoon relaxing in hammocks and visiting with family and friends who heard we were in town and stopped by. I was able to spend lots of time hanging out with my god son Bryan, who is one of the most content babies on the planet!

Bryan, ready to be ¨shipped out,¨ and his cousin Michelle

Besides visiting family, one of the main reasons I spent the weekend in Las Peñitas was to learn how to make rosquillas!! My quest to learn the art of rosquilla making began quickly after arriving to Honduras and falling in love with the quirky Catracho ¨cheez-its.¨ There was only one problem... no one wanted to teach me how to make them!! Even the Doña from whom I used to buy a dollar´s worth of rosquillas daily told me ¨you don´t really want to learn, it`s too much work.¨ After sharing my plight with Benicia`s family over Christmas, her sister told me, ¨come back and we will make rosquillas.¨ Cheque!

Rosquilla making began Saturday night when we cooked the dried maiz that we would use to make the dough. The corn is boiled ever so slightly to soften and then left to soak overnight. At 6am I am in the kitchen to find that Benicia has already ground the maiz by hand in the mill. At 7am Allie shows up and we begin to make the dough or masa. The primary ingredients in

rosquillas are:

• Maiz (corn)
• Cuajada (a soft cheese- delicious!)
• Butter or lard
• Eggs
• Milk
• Baking soda
• Salt

Cooking in the campo takes some creativity. After realizing we did not have a whisk to beat the eggs, Ally fashioned one using a corn cob and a branch.

Ally and I are milling the cuajada

Making rosquillas turned out to be a great arm workout as nearly everything needed to be passed through the mill, including the dough when it was finished. (I will save the ¨gun¨ photos for another time :) ) Finally, when all the ingredients are milled together, it is time to give these crackers some shape!

We filled 10 trays with donught shaped cheez-its which we then carried a quarter of a mile hike up the mountain to bake! *** Note trays become heavy when hiking uphill in 85 degree weather!

Michelle and Rosita even help, carrying firewood!

Probably my favorite part of making rosquillas was baking them! Ovens here are best described as adobe domes. To heat the oven, a fire is started inside, and when the wood burns down, the ashes are swept out with leaf brooms. The food is put inside to cook and the ends of the oven are quickly closed to trap the heat inside. Because they are fairly expensive to make, only a few people in the community have ovens and often share with their neighbors.

Heating up the oven

La dueña of this oven is a kind woman who joked around and fed us melon while we waited for the oven to be ready and the rosquillas to bake.

La dueña of the oven

Within 15 minutes of putting them in the oven, the rosquillas were done! One by one, we removed the trays with a long pole and the crackers were transferred into a plastic pila to cool. The result: my Catracho cheez-its turned out fantastic! We shared a bin with la Doña and her family and headed home to enjoy our hard work with coffee!

They`re ready!

All in all, it took us 7 hours to make approx. 250 rosquillas... meanwhile, most women who sell these national snacks make at least triple that amount by 12pm to sell on the buses and in the markets. I now have a much greater appreciation for those who make and sell rosquillas!

Ready to be eaten!

Just like cookies, a few came out stuck together ;)

Later that afternoon we headed to Ally`s house to share rosquillas and visit. She armed us each

with a plastic bag and sent us out into the backyard to collect

ocotes to bring home.Unfortunately for the U.S., ocotes don`t make it to the states. These little, acidic fruits are a great snack and are especially good when they are cooked in brown sugar! I also got the chance to try

cashew fruit for the first time. Growing in trees, the fruit looks very much like a red bell pepper with the cashew nut attached below. The fruit was... interesting! While I am not sure I would eat it again on its own, I bought a bag yesterday at the market to make refresco.

We got home just in time for sunset and I headed off to find a good spot on the edge of the mountain to watch the show. Work has been extremely trying these past few weeks, and for the first time in a long time, I have found myself doubting my work and my role here. Being able to get away, reconnect with people, and be in nature has helped me put things into perspective and return to work refreshed and motivated. It also reminds me that I am not only here to help create change in Honduran communities, but I am here to create change within myself.