Familiarizing with Food

When I was at training at The Mission Society last summer, they kept talking to us about how important it is to become involved in the everyday culture wherever we go. The way I have done that is through food. This should come as no surprise to you, because I love to cook and I love to eat. Before I came I joked about eating rice and beans everyday. I knew to expect it, but what I didn’t realize is that is literally what I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday here. The first week I was praying “Lord, please don’t let me get tired of eating beans and rice”. And he sure answered my prayers. When the team from Asbury was here I was talking to a lady about how I felt like I was missing something or craving something, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. A day later I realized I had gone 4 meals without eating beans and rice, and then it hit me… I was missing eating beans and rice. So I thanked God for His provision.

To raise money for the youth group, every once in a while they sell food in the church. Last week we sold empanadas and I was asked to help in the kitchen. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to learn something new. By the end of the process, they handed the kitchen over to me and I was making the empanadas all by myself. I was so proud of those empanadas. I also learned how to make fresh fruit juice Costa Rican style, which is one of my favorite drinks here. We also sold snacks at the youth movie night. They asked me if I could bring something so I volunteered to make cupcakes of course. Cupcakes are an unknown dessert here in Costa Rica so all week everyone was asking me about them. I decided to take advantage of the local flavors as my inspiration for the cupcakes. I made a vanilla cupcake with guava filling, and a chocolate banana cupcake. I made 50 cupcakes and every single one of them sold. I have a feeling we will be selling cupcakes again in the future.

Another thing that I have grown to love here in Costa Rica is going to the “feria” (the local farmers market) every Saturday morning. I love walking through the rows and rows of farmers yelling “watermelon, papaya, squash, onion”. The first week was very intimidating because I went the son of the women I am living with. He handled the money, but I had to pick everything. But each time I go I get better and better at dealing with the workers. I absolutely love the feria. Unfortunately this Saturday I won’t be able to go because we are taking some of the youth to the beach on an evangelism trip (more to come on this next week).

Overall, I have loved learning about all the different foods and flavors here, and I can’t wait to keep adding more and more recipes to my repertoire. Also sorry for the lack of pictures. My goal this week is to take more pictures. And by more I mean take pictures period since I haven’t taken a single picture yet.

P.S. Happy Holy Week!