The Taste of Mexico- A Week in Mexico Part IV

(originally posted at all His wondrous works)

Kara and Kara speaking today, giving you an idea of what our job has been all week. Our job is to keep everybody full and the kitchen in good order. Nothing new for us, right? Well, actually, down here this job starts with a trip to the local market, where nothing is the same as back home (except the Dave's bag). The fresh morning air was a wonderful way to start each day.

Picking out what we needed for the day's meals was the (fairly) easy part; paying for it could have brought some difficulty, but good thing for this Kara's developing Spanish, we were always successful in making our purchases.

By Valentine's Day, we were enjoying this job so much, we decided to really celebrate. 

the fruit salad was papaya, watermelon and pineapple- yum!

Usually sticking to familiar American meals such as spaghetti and pizza, Friday we tried an authentic Mexican meal, tinga, which is chicken with a tomato chipotle sauce, wrapped in tortillas and topped with lettuce, avocados and sour cream. 

we think they all enjoyed it :)

this picture is a bit deceitful, since it was taken just before we were finally finished with cleanup

Now, there is just a bit of a downside to all this food preparation, which to this point we have made no mention of.... yes, there were mountains. of. dishes. Were it not for the good company (we are not talking about you, Grant), we might have been tempted to complain once or twice. Actually, the one real complaint that we think we can be justified in making is the.... white tile floor, which was actually never completely white no matter how hard we tried.

Now, by Saturday, with many memories and heart to heart talks to remember for years to come, we did decide that we would prefer a break. These feelings fit well into our plans since we had all decided to make the trip to Zamora to go to the market. It was a fantastic cultural experience. We ended it by enjoying a scrumptious chicken taco dinner- and NO dishes.

Now, one thing that is different in Mexico is that the main meal is lunch and is usually served around 2 pm. This leaves supper much smaller and to be served much later... or not at all if you don't really feel like it. The two of us decided we liked this idea- we might even take it home with us. So, its heading into the usual time for supper and you turn to your family and say, should we have supper tonight... or not? Well, we might have decided to try skipping it a few nights, but then there was always Grant's stomach to deal with. Well, and Hannah's, too, as noted here with the Cheetos and M&M's (you can't see the milk)- and that was actually after the evening meal! (we just love you guys, we really do :)  )

Usually Grant (and others) were up for going out on the town in the late evening for tacos or bread or ice cream, which is where Saturday evening found us. The four little "cowboys" seen here are actually just our two sweet little boys sitting in front of a mirror, enjoying their ice cream (and their new hats).

Truly it was a blessing to serve our families, Grant and Hannah, and the Ixtlan community in this way; if there was a way to repeat the week, we would. The only thing we can't figure out is why most of every day was spent in the kitchen and why we never had time for anything else. What are we going to do when we get back home??