First, let's talk about tamales!
I had the wonderful experience of learning how to make Costa Rican tamales with my host family. In the U.S., I have had tamales, but I have learned that they are different here. Instead of corn husks, Costa Ricans use banana leaves. The process is an all-day, intricate system. There is not a recipe or any type of directions. The women amazingly know the recipe by heart after making dozens and dozens year after year for the holidays. I compared the tamale making to what many families in the U.S. do with Christmas cookies, which too can be very detailed and an all day process!
First, the pork was cooked the night before with a variety of garlic and spices. The next day, early in the morning, the masa (dough of the tamale) was put in a giant pot and placed over an outdoor fire to thicken. Below you can see pictures of the masa over the outdoor fire and the giant spoon I used to stir the mixture until it was the right consistency. Meanwhile, the carrots, sweet peppers, cilantro, rice, and meat continued to be prepared indoors.
The ingredients were almost completely prepared, and before we started the assembling process, we softened the banana leaves that we used to wrap the tamales. The family had already cut huge banana leaves from a few trees, but they are a bit tough and you can't use them to directly from the tree to fold the tamales. To soften them, we placed the giant leaves over the fire. The heat from the fire made the leaves malleable to work with. We also had to cut long pieces of string in order to tie the tamales tight. Then the teamwork began! We created an assembly line. One person with the masa, another with the meat, another with the rice, another with the carrots/sweet pepper/cilantro, and two wrapping the final product. Each person with their ingredients moved around the table placing the appropriate amount upon each soon-to-be scrumptious tamale. We wrapped up each tamale with two pieces of banana leaves and tied two tamales together with a string. Once the assembly was finished and the wrapping and tying complete, we did it all over again! We made another batch of masa, cut more string, prepared more ingredients, and went through the whole assembly line again! After two full batches, we collected the tied bundles of tamales, which they call a piña (which doesn't make sense to me because piña is the Spanish word for pineapple and there is nothing pineapple-related to these tamales at all. So I started calling the bundles "bananas" because we were using banana leaves. The family thought that was hilarious and now they call them bananas too. Anyways...I digress, lots of laughter with the word choice and the influence I made with my Spanish-learning questions.) So we placed the "piñas" in the boiling pot of water outside over the fire for about 10-20 minutes to cook thoroughly. We took the batch out of the boiling water (very hot!!) and let them cool while another batch was added. After several batches the tamales were finally ready to eat and they were absolutely delicious!! |
To continue celebrating the holidays, on Christmas Eve we went to a family member's house. We ate a big meal and I taught a bunch of the teenagers how to play some of my favorite card games! I also had a personal dance lesson. I have two years while I'm here to perfect my Latin dancing! One of my personal side goals while in the Peace Corps. We danced and danced and stayed up until midnight to wish everyone a Feliz Navidad. We woke up Christmas morning, ate some tamales and had a Secret Santa gift exchange. We ate a big lunch with baked chicken and a white cream sauce, and we attended church Christmas evening. As much as I missed my family back in the States, my first Christmas away from home was truly special. What a beautiful experience to share the holidays here in Costa Rica and also exchange some of my own traditions. | Making tamales was a fun tradition to learn. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the process and share something new to celebrate the holidays. To continue with the tradition sharing, I also shared my own family tradition. In my house we always make dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies. It's usually cookie overload at our house, which I love! To me it's not Christmas without a few cookies to pass around. To share a little "taste" of home, I made snowball cookies (translated to bolitas de nieve) with my host brother and sister. It was fun to say we had a little "snow" in Los Ángeles this year. Below are a few pictures of making snowball cookies! And a little update before all the holidays... Since my last update in October, I have been busy working on my diagnostic report in my community. I have been starting conversations, talking to community members, both adults and youth, asking what they like, dislike, and desire in their community. I've been learning and asking questions. Some of my work has taken place through formal interviews and surveys. However, a lot has also taken place through personal observations and casual conversations. All this information I use to write up a report about what the strengths and needs are of the community. I also use this information to create a future work plan with new projects and community goals. |
Below you can also see some pictures of recent activities with my Peace Corps friends. We went to La Fortuna and climbed a dormant volcano! And then I swam across the volcanic crater! So cool! We also celebrated Thanksgiving in the capital as a group, and I went to the beach for a high school class trip! I also saw my first sloth and first monkeys in my town! Lots of good things have filled these past months!
That's all for now! I hope everyone had a very blessed Christmas and the new year brings peace and love to you and your families. Thanks for following my adventures! Look for updates in 2016! Pura Vida, Emily |