One Year in Guatemala!

The first salad out of my garden!

Ooops, looks like I’ve been slacking on the blog again lately! But I’ve been busy, I promise!

I was lucky enough to have my parents visit me at the end of July. I was pretty excited, since I wasn’t sure coming in to Peace Corps that Dad was going to be able to come visit me or not. And it had been almost a whole year since I’d seen him! Although they were only here about five days, I made sure to keep them busy- visiting some of my favorite families, building a chicken coop with my host family, teaching a cooking class, going to a soccer game. Then I took a week of vacation to go home! Which was amazing. I visited family in NY, went to our family reunion in OH, met my new cousins (so cute!), spent time with friends. Enjoyed the August heat and humidity. Ate fresh sweet corn (they basically only eat what we call field corn here). Went to Wegman’s. Played with the dogs. All in all a wonderfully spent 8 days. On the way back to Guatemala, I ended up on the same flight as a Peace Corps staff member, who told me that the new group of volunteers had arrived in country earlier that day. It’s crazy to think that exactly a year ago I was arriving as well, wide-eyed and not having a clue as to what I’d signed up for, or what my life was going to be like for the next two years. And here I am with only 15 months left!

When I arrived back in site, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much my garden had grown. A week of good rain and sun sure does wonders. (Haha, and on days when I feel like not the greatest volunteer, I just look at my garden and think that at least I’m providing a good example of what a family garden should look like!) I was able to take advantage of some Swiss chard and carrot greens for a recipe that I taught this week (thanks Mom!):

White Beans with Greens

1 pound white beans, cooked

1 handful Swiss chard, chopped

1 handful carrot greens, chopped (ok this wasn’t in the original recipe, but I had more than I knew what to do with, and it turned out really good!)

3 tomatoes, diced

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

Brown the onions and garlic. Add tomato and let cook for a few minutes. Add greens and cook until wilted. Add beans. Flavor with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Quick, simple, delicious and nutritious. People here eat SO many black beans that I’m trying to get them to branch out a little bit to other colors. We’ve also done a red bean recipe with tomato sauce and chili powder that went over well. So there’s a taste of what I’m trying to teach these ladies.