Dinners and Chiles en Nogada

Last night (Friday) I had the chance to cook dinner for the family that had me over last week. It was kind of funny--since I don't have a lot of space in my apartment, I had to ask them if I could borrow their kitchen to cook for them. And all week, when I would invite people to the dinner, I'd have to say it was in someone else's house...not a normal party invitation! But it went over well; we had about 10 people, with lots of conversation til past midnight. I have no pictures, but hopefully will get passed some when I get to the office on Monday...

Today, the 28th of August, is the Day of Chiles en Nogada, a famous regional dish that is very popular. It is a chile stuffed with a mixture of fruits, meats, and nuts, topped with a creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. In a neighboring town, they have what is billed the "Largest Chile en Nogada in the World." It is actually made up of 2000 chiles en nogada and shaped to look like one giant chile. Here is a picture of them making it. This dish is incredibly labor intensive due to the number of ingredients and having to hand-cut them all (you have to remove the inside brown peel on the walnuts, etc.).





And looks like they are setting up for another concert tonight in front of our local church...not sure for what. But I will probably go check it out and see if I recognize anyone from the neighborhood.

Community Integration

One of the aspects that I really like about Peace Corps is the community integration. Many times, I think that Mexicans are more welcoming than Americans. Mexicans have been very welcoming to me as a stranger, and I know other volunteers have similar stories.

Lots of volunteers get invited to visit people's homes or over to dinner (like me going to Acatlan a couple weeks ago). This does happen in the US, but it just feels like a much rarer occurrence, especially for casual or new acquaintances. Case in point--last Friday, we were talking about regional dishes at the office, and on the spur of the moment, I am invited over to someone's house to dinner with their family. How cool is that? Yes, I've been to friends' houses in the US, but it seems like it takes longer for us to warm up to people. And even then, only the closest of friends get the choice treatment. I'm sure lots of factors play into it, but it is interesting to see a cultural difference.

If I take one thing back from my experience, I hope to bring part of this open culture back with me...

Flour carpets--not for my house

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to a pueblo magico called Huamantla. Mexico has various little towns with this designation; usually they have a unique cultural aspect that is very colonial or pre-Hispanic. In Huamantla, they have a long tradition of a festival called La Noche Que Nadie Duerme, or basically the Night Where Nobody Sleeps. I only went during the day (since I had no hotel reservations, I would have had to sleep on the streets, if I slept at all), but I got to check out some of the festivities.

This festival involves building these giant, long "carpets" made of colored sawdust, flour, and flowers throughout all of the major streets (bigger versions of the one two pics shown below). Early in the morning is a parade of the Virgen, which passes over these carpets. Here you can see these guys marking out the carpets near the Zocalo...once they start, you can't even cross the street!



There was also a competition for kids to build a little block of carpet. Here is one of my favorites, because it makes a good cover-picture for La Noche.



During the entire month of August, the town also is hosting its annual feria, or county fair. They had a ton of rides and stands, though things didn't pick up until the evening. There were some very odd looking Disney-themed trash bins, too...

Weekend trip to southern Puebla, Cheese Fair!!

So a very abbreviated account of an awesome weekend:

A fellow volunteer was visiting with a couple of people from his office. I was invited to spend the weekend with them (and I happened to know all of them from before). We spent Friday exploring Puebla and saw several things that I haven't had the chance to visit! One was this house that housed someone during the 1910 Revolution (I have to brush up on the details), and was attacked and shot up. Bullet holes are still present!



We then went down to Acatlan, a decent-sized city in the mountains in southern Puebla state. We stayed with the family of one of the Mexicans in their really nice house. It was the first house that I've seen with lots of big wood supports, etc., which was cool to see. They had these giant moths (as big as my hand!) that they said always show up when it rains.



Saturday we went up to the family's ranch with a ton of their friends (local and from Mexico City). We hiked up a riverbed to try and find a swimming hole, but it was just too dry. Along the way we found a pregnant cow, recently dead, who had tried to push her baby out unsuccessfully. I'll spare the pictures, but the rancher and some of the guys managed to pull the (dead) baby cow out...

Saturday evening we had basically a barbecue at the house with lots of music and eating. It was good times! Some of the hand-made ice cream that we had (melon flavor).



Sunday after returning to my site, the fellow vol and one of the guys from his office went with me to a local fair in my town. Even though it was late, the last day of the fair, and people were closing up their stalls, it was packed!! I had never seen so many people in my little town!