Saturday, October 13, 2007

Feast!


Day 16
Weight: 225.5 lbs.
Food Intake:
  • Breakfast:
    • small cup of banana juice
    • polenta (grits)
  • Lunch:
    • glass of mango juice
    • Homemade Barley Bread Veggie Pizza (flat bread made from barley and yeast covered with diced tomatoes and enchilada sauce, garlic, green, red, and yellow peppers, and several types of grated cheeses
    • 1/4 cup of smoked and salted almonds
    • 1/4 sliced fresh avocado
    • 5 dates
  • Dinner:
    • several glasses of fruit punch
    • stewed squash
    • cooked potato and cheese casserole
    • corn bread
    • potatoes
    • BBQ pork
    • BBQ chicken
    • BBQ ribs
    • Chocolate French Silk Pie
    • a couple chocolate chip cookies
    • 4-5 crackers with different kinds of cheeses on them
    • Butternut Squash Soup

Today was a huge feast day for the village. I'm not sure what they were celebrating, but nearly everyone had a part in cooking something. The smells of the cooking fires all over the village loaded even the very air you breathed with delicious food of some kind.

I focused on planning the completion of the mud brick storehouse and collecting materials to accomplish that task. I also took some time to acquaint myself with the primitive masonry tools in my hut.

The eating in the village started simply enough with a bowl of polenta (grits) and banana juice. But by lunchtime new things were emerging from the village ovens. Lunch consisted of a nice spread of almonds, dates, and their own version of a pizza. It was very good, very filling, and quite colorful. But all of the excitement was geared to peak at dinner. For the dinner feast I have only imagined such piles of food as they placed on the big tables. Cooked whole pigs, chickens, seemingly acres of meats and vegetables, confections and baked goods. Juices of all kinds. There were torches placed all around the eating area that night. The bonfire blazed and it seemed that everyone danced, young and old. Drums and musical instruments provided a constant rhythmic backdrop to this festive occasion. I ate and ate and ate, and still didn't sample even half of what was laid out. By bedtime, I felt really stuffed and treaded back to my hut with the music and laughter in the distance.

The breeze around my hut was cool and the stars twinkled. I fell fast asleep on my nice cloth hammock (a great improvement from the old raft hammock I used to sweat in). I began thinking of my next big project. After the storehouse was finished, I had decided to begin work on a grist mill and bring the industrial revolution to these people.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ahhhh! This is so exciting! A village full of people, who aren't industrious yet!? What great improvements you might be able to teach them. Very rare to find such an isolated place!!! (In my own experience, I found that even in a town with a population of 45, which can only be reached by hand-propelled train-carts, in a 3rd world country... everyone still had a cell-phone.) Although I am a bit puzzled... still no fish? Everyone, everywhere, eats fish. Why aren't these people fishing!?!?