Pupusas!

This weekend we embarked on an epic mission as we set out to make pupusas for lunch. Pupusas are a traditionally Salvadoran dish that consists of corn tortillas encasing a filling. We filled them all with cheese, but you can put beans, meat or a combination in too. Leo's parents are from El Salvador so it is usually a treat we enjoy with them, but we decided we were going to try and make them ourselves. . .

Beginning at 10 am Charity, Cecilia and Debonney worked to get the dough, cheese filling, and salad all ready to be put together. Mary and I joined in when the ingredients were all ready to start making pupusas.

So the process:

1. Oil your hands so the dough doesn't stick.

2. grab a small ball of dough (just a little smaller than tennis ball size) and roll it into a ball

3. push into the ball so you have a little pot like bowl

4. put the cheese filling in the dough bowl

5. fold the sides all up around the cheese

6. flatten out the ball so that it is a flat tortilla like structure (make sure the cheese remains in the center so it doesn't ooze out and melt when it cooks.)

7. Rub some oil on either side so it doesn't stick

8. Put in on the skillet/pan to cook

9. Let cook until the sides have begun to brown and cheese starts to leak

10. EAT

In the end we finished around 2 pm and had made 106 pupusas. That's a lot of pupusas- if you were wondering. Although we are not quite ready to begin our own restaurant, and have not exactly conquered the feat of keeping the cheese inside ever time, they were delicious and a lot of fun.

Anyways, here are the pictures!

Charity doing the official cooking

 Mary making pupusas :) The left is the cheese filling, the right is the corn tortilla dough.

Pupusas waiting to be cooked

And the best part. . . LUNCH!



A Face Lift

My room got re-painted! Charity's parents own the house right next door to the children's home. This is where I keep all my stuff, and sleep a majority of the time!

It was a tan yellow color with a brown comforter, but now its bright green and feels much more lively :)

rain

Its been raining here. A lot. In the last 5 days we have had over 26 inches of rain fall. That's over 2 feet. The kids only had a half a day of class the entire week. 


I've been living here over a year, and even though I know the people here live in poverty, things like this remind me of that fact. The biggest thing though, is not the fact that its been raining, but that rain can cause such destruction to homes that are not built out of sturdy material and on solid ground. Johanna works here in our home cleaning, doing laundry, and watching the kids. This week part of her home fell down the side of the mountain when the ground underneath gave way to a landslide. Thankfully her and her 4 kids weren't hurt, but the whole house has been removed now to save it from more damage. Keep them in your prayers, and the other people too. They aren't the only ones who have been effected in this way. Today Charity and I went to visit Johanna, and some other people too. Houses with dirt floors turn into mud, metal and plastic homes protect from the wind, but don't do much to keep out wet. And things get wet, but there is no way to dry them again. You can use a towel to soak up water, but you have no way to dry it out to use it again, so eventually everything is wet, and you are stuck with what you've got. One woman we visited said her kids had been in the same clothes for 3 days because she doesn't have anything dry to put on them. 


Its so hard to see how rain, something that we need to survive, can also be a cause for such problems. Just 6 months ago I wrote about how we were desperate for the rain to come and bring us running water again, but here we are praying for the opposite. 


These photos don't do justice to the amount of water we have accumulated, but I will share them anyway. We are truly blessed to have such a sturdy house that keeps us dry and warm. But please do keep the other people here in your prayers as they try to find a place to put all the water. 

On the road to recovery

Mary is back home and on the road to recovery! 


Last Sunday she was playing soccer with the girls when she fell on her ankle breaking the little bone and dislocating the big one. What a welcome to Nicaragua after being here just a week and a half! Everyone was hoping they could set it and put it in a cast to heal, but the doctor was concerned by how close it was to the ankle joint, so they decided to operate. 


Surgery went well on Friday and although it was scheduled as an outpatient, it was decided (not because of any complications or anything) that it would be even better if she would stay the night. So less than 24 hours after being admitted she was out and on her way back home. She has been doing well, and her pain seems to be tolerable. Continue to keep her in your prayers, and we are believing that in 4 weeks she should be able to put weight back on it, and start walking! 


Here are some pics from the hospital: her in the bed, and her ankle (the side without the stitches) the morning after surgery.

Then back at the house!

And its great that she doesn't have to have a hard cast, its just wrapped up and stabilized with a foam board type of thing. 

Those beautiful ladies

I changed the template for the blog. Its still one they have as a choice here with blogspot, i'm not ready to try and search somewhere else or make something more complicated. (Too high tech for me) but i was in the mood for a change.


So these are the big girls. Not included are the 6 'babies' and Ezequiel. Charity took the picture a few weeks ago when we were celebrating Independence Day at Covenant (the English speaking church). 


From left to right they are:
Debonney, Samari, Solimar, Luviana, Amanda, Jhoselin, Yorbany, Joely, Cecilia