Visiting Tamales
Amazing the number of things that one can see and experience in one day. I got up this morning, fell down the muddy steps (unfortunately, everyone worried that I had hurt myself rather than laughing, as I know those of you who know me and my tendency to slip would do), and then prepared for the rest of the day.
I spent it in the home of Don Wilfredo and Doña Haydalina Herrera Mendoza, and their family, accompanied also by Erick and Byron, the 20-year old guides from El Roblar, as well as Arlen, Byron’s 26 year old aunt, and her daughter Dorita, who is the god-child of Wil and Haydalina. (It’s that kind of small community, everyone seems to be someone’s relative!) We spent the day talking, cooking, eating, exploring. I chatted with Don Wil about his experience working for the Sandinistas during the war before the revolutionary triumph in 1979. I discussed life in the states with his daughter Dina while shucking corn to make sweet tamales. I encouraged eight-year old Wilton as he milled the corn to make the masa we would spoon back into the corn husks and cook to make the tamal. I beat Erick 18 times at dominoes. I had explained to me both lombricultura (worm farming to make organic fertilizer!) and how to make a hybrid plant (I totally want to try it!). I learned a couple of new games, puzzles, I’ll be excited to share with you all…
It was all and all a lovely day, lovely to the point that I realized I am really starting to feel at home, that I know the community, the people, and could spend days and days here. I feel less pressed about what I need to do, and more able to just enjoy the slowness and calmness, even in the presence of much work to be done.
On my way up to the casa, following El Byron and La Arlen and La Dorita (for some reason here, everyone is referred to as ‘El’ or ‘La’ whoever, literally ‘the’ so-and-so), I realized that I don’t know when the last time I just showed up at the house of one of my friend’s. Stopping by is almost always pre-empted by a phone call, a chance meeting, an email; most everything is a pre-planned get together, often decided upon weeks in advance! Here however, things are completely different. There are no phones in the houses, no way to check and see if someone is available other than to walk the three kilometers to their home, where you are welcomed with open arms, warm food, and good conversation. People are willing to drop what they are doing to enjoy another’s spontaneous company. Just showing up is not seen at all as an intrusion, but a welcome surprise. This highlighted for me the busy-ness and isolation of our 100-mile-per-hour American lifestyle, where the likelihood of stopping by is unlikely from the standpoint that people are rarely home! And if they are, we surely don’t want to interrupt plans they may already have by dropping by unannounced. The fact is that this commitment to the privacy of others often leaves us home alone, prohibits us from experiencing the joy that can just be a spontaneous afternoon with people we love. Today, I was really reminded what a loss it is…
Just one of many observations I’m sure I’ll make this year, am already making… Thanks guys, for putting up with all of them!
I spent it in the home of Don Wilfredo and Doña Haydalina Herrera Mendoza, and their family, accompanied also by Erick and Byron, the 20-year old guides from El Roblar, as well as Arlen, Byron’s 26 year old aunt, and her daughter Dorita, who is the god-child of Wil and Haydalina. (It’s that kind of small community, everyone seems to be someone’s relative!) We spent the day talking, cooking, eating, exploring. I chatted with Don Wil about his experience working for the Sandinistas during the war before the revolutionary triumph in 1979. I discussed life in the states with his daughter Dina while shucking corn to make sweet tamales. I encouraged eight-year old Wilton as he milled the corn to make the masa we would spoon back into the corn husks and cook to make the tamal. I beat Erick 18 times at dominoes. I had explained to me both lombricultura (worm farming to make organic fertilizer!) and how to make a hybrid plant (I totally want to try it!). I learned a couple of new games, puzzles, I’ll be excited to share with you all…
It was all and all a lovely day, lovely to the point that I realized I am really starting to feel at home, that I know the community, the people, and could spend days and days here. I feel less pressed about what I need to do, and more able to just enjoy the slowness and calmness, even in the presence of much work to be done.
On my way up to the casa, following El Byron and La Arlen and La Dorita (for some reason here, everyone is referred to as ‘El’ or ‘La’ whoever, literally ‘the’ so-and-so), I realized that I don’t know when the last time I just showed up at the house of one of my friend’s. Stopping by is almost always pre-empted by a phone call, a chance meeting, an email; most everything is a pre-planned get together, often decided upon weeks in advance! Here however, things are completely different. There are no phones in the houses, no way to check and see if someone is available other than to walk the three kilometers to their home, where you are welcomed with open arms, warm food, and good conversation. People are willing to drop what they are doing to enjoy another’s spontaneous company. Just showing up is not seen at all as an intrusion, but a welcome surprise. This highlighted for me the busy-ness and isolation of our 100-mile-per-hour American lifestyle, where the likelihood of stopping by is unlikely from the standpoint that people are rarely home! And if they are, we surely don’t want to interrupt plans they may already have by dropping by unannounced. The fact is that this commitment to the privacy of others often leaves us home alone, prohibits us from experiencing the joy that can just be a spontaneous afternoon with people we love. Today, I was really reminded what a loss it is…
Just one of many observations I’m sure I’ll make this year, am already making… Thanks guys, for putting up with all of them!
posted by Hilary King at
4:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home