More Classes for Lani

“If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.” –Ludwig Wittgenstein

Since my last entry on my many lessons in everyday life in Libertad, I have learned a ton more. Since it seems like I don’t have any basic skills whatsoever here, they were very impressed with my natural ability to shell beans. I was glad to have one skill that I could show off a little, even if it’s something as simple as popping beans out of their shell. They look pretty too:

Cleaning Fish

A skill that I learned this week that will come in handy in my future here in Libertad and in the United States was how to prepare a fish from the moment it is caught to the moment it is put in the frying pan. (My 8 year old host sister still is supposed to teach me how to fry it… though it seems to follow the pattern of most of the recipes here: lots of oil in a pan, flip, remove, eat.)

They were hesitant to give me the knife to clean the fish with, worrying that I would cut off a finger or my entire hand, but I convinced them that I’d be careful. My host mom patiently showed me how to scrape off the scales, how to make the slits to… I’m not sure what the slits are for, and how to slit open its belly to pull out the guts. Pulling out the guts is the best. I love getting my hands dirty and inspecting the insides; one can see the stomach, heart, liver, lungs… I thought that lungs didn’t exist in fish (and I’m still sure that they don’t) but they insisted that one could see the fish lungs. After pulling out the guts, you clean out all the blood and rinse it off in clean water. Then you squeeze some lime, put some salt in the cuts to preserve it and give it some good flavor, and set it aside to fry (next lesson).

Besides preparing fish, I’ve also learned how to peel and de-heart yucca, peel ñame, and peel plantains. I definitely got made fun of a lot in these processes because I usually ended up peeling off more meat of the plant than the skins. Unfortunately peeling plantains stains your hands brown. Apparently lime juice is supposed to take away the stains, but it didn’t work for me.

Washing Clothes

In Mexico, my host mom also taught me how to wash clothes by hand, but she didn’t trust me and always rewashed my clothes after I had “washed” them.

Here, we have a washing machine, but it only does part of the work. We put the clothes in the washing machine (which we borrow from our neighbors; they just carry it over) and then pull them out sopping wet and rinse them in another big bin, then another bin with fabric softener. Lastly we hang them wherever we find space, inside out, so as not to let the bright sun damage the colors. It’s not that hard, but the process is long and with about ten people in the house there is an awful lot of clothing. They always laugh at me when I help with the laundry, but I don’t like just sitting around and watch. 

 One plus of helping with the laundry is that it cleaned my plantain-stained hands right up.

Truco

This was my most entertaining lesson of late.

Libertad recently celebrate its 81st birthday. Part of the festivities was teaching traditional games such as dominos. I was pulled into a game of truco by the older generation of men. It was 7 old men and me. They wouldn't explain anything because they said I would catch on as I played. The first round went like this: three cards dealt out to everyone, then we passed our cards all around, then there was yelling, cards thrown down, and pieces of corn taken from the center. Super.

Second round: three cards passed to each person, all the cards handed around again, then we each said a number, and then we each played our turn one card at a time. Again, a bunch of yelling and then a rock taken out of the center.

After a few more variations of this I had to put feathers in my hair. 

Let's just say it was confusing as heck. 

I eventually figured it out a little bit more but after three hours I was pretty tired. I asked them when the game is over and they said “Oh, never.” Ha! I asked for a replacement so I could go home, eat, nap, and shower. When I came back they were still playing and I played for two more hours. They probably played for 8 hours straight! Impressive stamina.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of this lesson.

Still many more classes for me to go including cow milking and kiosko building!