July 18-20: Pizza Party

Wednesday

I spent the day in Estelí on Wednesday in order to get some shopping done. I had to buy a lot of groceries for the pizza and cookies I would be making on Friday, and I also wanted to get some cowboy boots made since Estelí is a huge leather city. However, since Thursday was a holiday, most of the boot makers were already off work preparing to travel to Managua. There was no one to measure my foot and help be with the design and such. Just when I resigned myself to not being able to buy boots, I came across a little tiny leather shop that had a really beautiful pair of boots on display. It turned out they were a handmade pair in my size. It was as if it was meant to be. They fit as if they were made for me. Plus they only cost $35, which is unheard of for HANDMADE leather boots. I made off like a bandit.

New boots

Then, I went to the grocery store to get the ingredients I needed for pizza and cookies, which is a lot easier said than done. Stores are not organized the same way as in the US, and items are obviously not called the same thing. I ended up leaving without a lot of items on my list because the store either didn’t have it or I couldn’t find it. It was very frustrating.

Thursday

Thursday was a political holiday in Nicaragua. July 19^th marks the end of the revolution in 1979, but Nicaragua’s actual Independence day isn’t celebrated until September. Thursday is a day when a lot of people head to Managua to participate in a huge political rally. Since there is so much traffic to Managua, the country is essentially shut down and no buses run during the actual day. President Daniel Ortega spoke also. I was also told that if you hold a job funded by the government, no matter what your political beliefs, you are expected to go to Managua. The rally is mainly for the Sandinista party, which is who won the war and is currently in power. I want to stray away from voicing my opinions on the government here, but I encourage everyone to look up the basic history about Nicaragua. The US has had a lot of involvement in the government here as well.

Since no buses were running, only the employees who wanted to and could get to the office by bike or taxi came. It was more or less a day off. Alvaro took Greg and I to my host family’s home in Sabana Larga, so we could talk to them about doing a cooking test with their ovens. We spent several hours there and were even fed lunch.

Me with my host family in Sabana Larga

Greg drove the truck home since there was barely any traffic, so he could learn to drive a stick. He only stalled it once, which makes me pretty jealous since I am still struggling with learning. The dirt road we drove on was perfect for shifting practice. Then, Alvaro took us up a mountain near San Isidro, so we could have a great view of the whole city. It was pretty cool.

San Isidro

Thursday was also the beginning of the religious “holiday” known as the “Day of the Children”, so I went with Greg to mass at Alvaro’s chapel outside of town. It was really cool. The priest was very animated, nice, and easy to understand. I really enjoyed myself. Then Thursday night I spent about 3 hours making homemade pizza sauce out of approximately 6 pounds of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, oregano, and onion. It tasted spectacular!

Friday

Mili, Alvaro’s and Ubania’s three year old daughter, got baptized on Friday in a church in Managua. We were all invited to go, so I had to be up at 3:30 in the morning in order to be there by the start of the 7:30am mass. The service was very simple but interesting.

Mili's Godparents, the priest with Mili, Alvaro and Ubania after the baptism

After the baptism, Mili’s godparents took everyone out for breakfast at a place called GHOP, which is George’s International House of Pancakes. I of course got pancakes with eggs, sausage, and ham. It was really great, especially since it was real sausage and not just cut up hot dogs.

Then, I went back to San Isidro with Ubania and the kids on a bus, so I could make the pizza dough and cookies. I made the dough first, so it could rise for a few hours. I made a chocolate chip cookie dough, but used M&M’s for the candy instead of chocolate chips due to availability here. It was also hard because I could not find brown sugar, so I had to make it using molasses and ordinary sugar. I also didn’t have a mixer, so everything was done with my hands, which was interesting. Finally, I didn’t have any measuring cups, so I was guesstimating. It turns out I didn’t do that awesome at it because too much baking powder was added. The cookies spread out too much. I managed to fix it though by adding more flour since the cookies were really sweet since I was using real sugar. I also let the oven cool down a little bit (I was using the wood fired barrel oven that was just installed in our back yard).

As for the pizza, I made two giant pizzas: one Hawaiian and one vegetable. They turned out great, especially since I used real mozzarella cheese. Normally pizza here does not have tomato sauce on it, and people just use ketchup. Then everyone hung around after work for a pizza party. They loved it and brought their families. We even had left overs.