kellita the señorita the ibby dibby dow: Tamale-tastic

my favorite kids at the school...every time I saw them they yelled..."KELLY!!!! PHOTO PHOTO PHOTO!!!"

Did you know it was possible to overdose on tamales?

It is.

And I did.

The traditional food during holidays in Guatemala is tamales. They take hours to prepare, and are enjoyed for days afterward. Friday afternoon we had a cooking class at the school, and learned how to prepare everything. There is no use of a blender to mix the ingredients, but everything is ground by hand. Once ready, the ingredients are wrapped in large leaves, and baked. Every family recipe is slightly different, variying the meats, veggies, saucees, etc. Mike, one of the Mountain School coordinators, warned us we would be eating tamales until they started coming out our ears. I thought he was kidding.

After preparing them, I headed to dinner with my family, where I helped the women finish wrapping their tamales, ate two, then headed back to the school. Our tamales were ready then, and we ate one of them as well. Full of tamales, Ethan, Hayley, and I posted up on the porch, enjoying the soothing serenade of the crickets, and the annoying musical lights on the Christmas tree (which we soon turned off). We had good chill time giggling and telling stories. At 11:30, we headed down to Nuevo San Jose to Hayley’s family’s house to celebrate Christmas. Here Christmas Eve is a much bigger deal than Christmas Day, and we were told it was best to be there for the midnight celebration.

We arrived at the house just in time for…you guessed it…more tamales. Now, eating a tamale is quite like the fullness you might feel after eating a burrito at Chipotle in the US. It’s not as big, but it’s packed with flavor and feels somewhat like a rock in your stomach. It took everything in me not to regurgitate my previous three tamales while consuming the fourth. After we finished, the pyroetcnics started.

At midnight everyone came out of their houses into the street, yelling and screaming, and lighting off more fire crackers than I’ve ever heard. The kind that sort of sound like a machine gun and kind of scare you because that’s not out of the realm of possibility. And it's always kids setting them off. You never know when it will happen, or if one will hit you. Imagine a bunch of 5-9 year-olds running around with candles and firecrackers, and dodging them, and that's what it's like. Then, fireworks in the sky, music, and dancing. It was so much fun to see the excitement of the kids as they celebrated the night. We finished our time with a dance party, which was mostly Hayley and Ethan dancing and the kids laughing at them. I couldn’t move for fear of barfing on people. The boys disappeared into their bedroom and reappeared with blanket capes and scary masks. It was too much fun.

Once back at the school, I suggested we have a slumber party in true Christmas Eve style, much like Michael, Jess, and I had as kids. Ethan demanded that everyone change into their pjs before reuniting to figure out the slumber party plan. We all bunked up in Ethan’s room, looking up dirty words in the dictionary in true Christmas style.

I woke up late and still full yesterday, and ran to breakfast. Imagine my excitement when we had…you know it...tamales for breakfast. I thought I was going to die, but I made it through, and spent my morning in the hammock reading and soaking up some rays. I had been invited to church activities with my family, but after such an activity-filled week, I declined. I joined in at the end on my way to lunch, praying for something other than tamales, and was overjoyed to help the women make tostadas for the whole church group. Guatemalan women know how to work quickly and efficiently, and had fed the whole 100 person crew in a matter of moments. I was overjoyed as Victoria made her way to me, yelling “these are for the student” as she guarded the plate from the passing grabbing hands.

I missed being at home with the fam for Christmas this year, and the less sickening full stomach of turkey and stuffing, but feel so lucky to get to experience it in a different culture.

Later note: The tamale factor came out on top when I barfed them all up on Monday night.

Below are some photos from last week which I couldn't post due to slow internet.