Friday, April 22, 2011

Friendo y Comiendo: Issue 05

A few weeks ago I had an idea - to attempt making habichuelas con dulce for Easter. So I called up the 'rents and told them to send me those galleticas that you put on top. These things >>>

A week or so after that I called 'em up again and asked if they had sent the cookies. "Ay Jessica a mi se me olvido eso!" So the day after this conversation they went to buy the cookies to send to me, although by this time it was unsure if they would even get to me in time for Easter.

(First, a small digression: habichuelas con dulce, or 'sweet cream of beans' [whoa the english translation is not appetizing at all!] is a Dominican dessert that is traditionally made around Easter time, usually made in big batches to be shared with family, friends and neighbors.)

Anyway so luckily I received the package a few days ago, just in time for me to experiment making this thing. So I called up Mami & Papi again so they could explain how to make it... and between all the laughs (they were laughing at the thought of me making habichuela con dulce) I got the main gist of it. Mami asked if I had batata: No. She asked if I had a blender: not exactly. She asked if I had evaporated milk: Nope. How was I going to make this crap then?? By using the PC motto we learned in our PST Orientation: adaptability, flexibility, and humor. (Well, I don't know if that's the motto at all, PST was a long time ago but I'm pretty sure that was it.)

So back to my attempt. I woke up early and soaked the beans in water. I started cooking when I got back from my field trip with the music school, at around 8pm, at which point I put the beans to soften by boiling it in water with a cinnamon stick and 10 cloves.

About an hour and 45 minutes later (or about 2 Dexter episodes) I decided they were done and took the pot upstairs to my host mom's kitchen. She was going to let me use her food processor, YAY! I put the beans in there and watched as it became a paste. I poured the paste back into the pot with the bean water and went back downstairs to my kitchen, where I proceeded to mash this together. I then strained this to get all the bean skins out, and what was left was a thick cream, to which I added two individually sized Pal Suds (milk containers). I put this on the stove to boil and added 1/2 a teaspoon vanilla, another cinnamon stick, 5 more cloves, some freshly grated nutmeg, 2/3rds cup of coconut milk (I bought coconut milk powder in Baku) and half a cup of sugar. I let this boil for about half an hour, and BOOM! DONE. I filled a bowl with it and grabbed a bag of cookies and took it up to my host mom, who said she would try it in the morning. I then had my first serving of my first habichuela con dulce! Behold:


*They look a lot less red than they should. Why? because I didn't find red kidney beans, I used what looked like pinto beans from the bazar. Also, there's no batata or raisins in there. Basically this is an Azerbaijani version, with ingredients available in this country. Except for the cookies of course. Those are straight from DR. (Well, made in DR but imported by someplace in the Bronx, bought by my family in Pennsylvania and then sent to me through the USPS.)

The final taste verdict: Awesome. It's delicious! I'm so proud of myself. I should start calling myself "GRANO DULCE"! (Anyone from the Heights remember that guy? Grano Dulce? He had a giant pot of habichuela con dulce that he pushed around in a shopping cart around the 170s with some speakers that always blasted "AYYY! YO SOY GRANO DULCE!" I always saw him on St. Nicholas.... No? No one knows what I'm talking about? Alright then movin' on...)

Happy Easter people!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Who Volunteers? Part 2

This is the second installment in a series of blog posts where I talk about who volunteers, why, and what it is like to be a Hispanic PCV.

I have found that people, in general, like and support the idea of volunteerism. After all, altruism is a facet of many of the world's cultures and religions (according to wikipedia of course). But what differentiates those of us who think about it from those of us who put the thought into action and volunteer?

Two things: time and money. Volunteering is a privilege of the middle and upper classes. How many people can afford to work for free? Those with disposable incomes who make enough money to be able to support extra-curricular activities. Actually, I should probably add a third requirement: a lack of commitments. You know who's not joining the Peace Corps? Poor people. Why? Because when you are making near minimum wage, the last thing you're trying to do is work extra hours without getting paid. You know who is joining the Peace Corps? Fresh out of college students who don't have real bills yet and can get their loans deferred by volunteering (*cough*yourstruly*cough*). According to the Peace Corps, 84% of current volunteers are between the ages of 20-29, and 93% are single. I don't know if Peace Corps has statistics on the socio-economic levels of its volunteers, but that would be very interesting to see.

Right before joining the Peace Corps I was living with my cousin in NYC. I suggested to her that she should think about joining the Peace Corps too. This was met with laughter. My suggestion was in jest - because I knew very well that a working class single Dominican mother of 2 young children is probably the least likely person to volunteer. Why? Time, money, commitments...there's just no way. When my cousin isn't working, she's taking care of her kids. And when she's not doing either of those, she's exhausted and basks in the few minutes of the time she has to herself.

The other day I was speaking with my parents and told them they should join the Peace Corps together. Again, laughter. And I quote: "Ay si, ahora mi'mo. Tu tiene que 'ta loca. ¿Y quien va paga' to' lo bile?" WORD.



Disclaimer: Obviously you should know that all this shit comes straight out of my head and by no means am I trying to play off any of my theories as fact. I'm speculating based on my personal experiences and observations...I mean, this is my blog not an academic paper sooooo yea.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Yaz Geldi, Time for Frisbee

After months of uncomfortably cold and crappy weather, spring has finally begun to rear its head in Zaqatala. While it has been raining on and off for the past few days, last week we got to see a sneak peek as to what spring/summer will bring. The sun was shining, it was warm enough outside to not need a jacket, and people on the street looked happier.

As I've mentioned before, I have a Youth/Game Club where I get together with some local kids and hang out and play games. The week before last a few of the kids suggested we play frisbee, and so this past Friday I made sure to bring one with me, in addition to the pile of other games I usually carry. I recently found a bag of those shape-bracelets in the stack of things I got from the AZ6 PCV's who left last year, so I decided to start the club with a small contest; the winner would get one of the bracelets. I pulled out my book of sudoku and ripped out an easy puzzle for each of the kids, enticing them to finish as fast as they could to win the 'secret' prize.

Even though sudoku is prevalent here in Azerbaijan, I underestimated how long it would take to finish the puzzle. I was hoping there would be a winner after about 15 minutes, so we could spend the rest of the time playing frisbee outside. It took about four times that long. After sitting around for an hour, Könül finally finished and won the bracelet. Some of the kids wanted to keep going so they could finish their puzzle; one boy asked if he could have more so he could do them at home! How cool is that?!? I love sudoku so I was super happy to find that they (well, at least some of them) liked it too!

So anywho afterwards we all went outside and started throwing around the frisbee in a circle. After a few lessons on how to throw it correctly (I barely know how to throw it myself), I organized the group into teams so we could play ultimate frisbee. I've never actually played ultimate frisbee, so most of the rules either came from the kids who had played before or I just made up based on some faint recollections of hearing someone explain it to me.

So I made two goals across the 'field' (we were playing in a driveway/parking lot) and placed the frisbee in the middle, making each team run from their goal to the frisbee to decide possession. (I'm preeeetty sure this isn't how its actually played but then again - who actually cares as long as we're playing something amiright?) I explain that you can't run with the frisbee; if you catch it you must stand in place and throw it to someone else, although you can 'pivot'. We start playing and everyone's getting really into it... when suddenly one of the girls throws the frisbee into the air...... and it lands on top of the roof of the building next to the lot. GAME OVER. We literally must've played for 3 minutes before we lost the frisbee. In fact I spent more time going over my fake ass rules than actually playing the game! It was hilarious. As someone who (as you can probably tell) isn't really that big a fan of ultimate frisbee in the first place, I didn't really care that we lost the frisbee. The girl felt bad however and I assured her that it was okay, it happens to everyone, I can get another frisbee, [insert other comforting comment here] etc.

At the same time that this is all happening, there is a çayxana next to our 'field' where there is a table of men clearly talking about and laughing at us. They seemed to be quite amused with our frisbee playing. When the frisbee landed on the roof, they let out a big "AY DAAAAA!" in unison.

Anyway so with the frisbee gone I went to plan B - the YD staples of Ninja and POW. I tried to introduce Big Booty (the game, not someone's derriere) but they weren't really into it so we stuck with POW instead. After about a half hour, a truck rolls into the parking lot that is now our play area and parks right beside the building where our frisbee landed. The driver gets out, and the dudes that were making fun of us start shouting something at him. When the driver gets back in the truck we realize that the men have convinced him to try to get our frisbee back for us! He backs up the truck to get closer to the building, gets out of the truck and proceeds to climb on top of it and onto the roof where he reaches over for the frisbee and throws it down to us. All the kids start clapping and shouting "ÇOX SAĞ OL!!"

We finish the day throwing the frisbee around in a circle - havin' a good ol' time.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT TASTE

My favorite store here in Zaqatala is the Karvan Market in the center of town. They have a wide selection of goods as well as a separate section of the store for non-food items such as laundry detergent and TP. They are always getting new shipments, which means that unlike some other stores, you are guaranteed to buy something made relatively recently and not from the 90s.

Every few days or so I make sure to walk down the aisles of the market to see if there are any new items stocked on the shelves. April has been a great month for this! The title of this post refers to a bag of chips called "Tornado" that I found and bought for 70qepik (about 87.5 cents).
I bought the Paprika flavor, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Tornado's were pretty much exactly like Bugles. The best part of these chips were its ridiculous packaging, as shown in these pictures. For real? Parental discretion is advised? Do the chips spit out F-bombs before you bite them?

Other than the wonderful bag, considering that most of the time the chip/snack selection consists of Lays' original or 'baharat' (pepper) flavor or these nasty crouton things, I'd say this is definitely a delicious development in the Zaqatala snack department.

Other fabulous additions to my snack repertoire include Pocky-like chocolate covered sticks, which now come with hazlenuts or coconut sprinkled on as well. I have spent so much money at this market... could it be that because I keep buying these new things that they keep stocking new things? Is that how the law of supply and demand works? My knowledge of economics never surpassed the introductory 101 level so I clearly don't know what I'm talking about. On that note, I'm going to end this post and go eat my newest purchase: peanut-flavored Cheetos.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Kukuruku!

One of the activities I got goin' on 'round here is a Youth/Game Club - basically I meet with a group of young people every week and we hang out, play games, talk, all around have a good ol' time. I have amassed a small collections of games in my time here (most from past PCV's), and every week I try to switch it up with what we play. For a while we were pretty much only playing UNO, which got old real quick. UNO sucks. Then I introduced another classic game - Pick Up Sticks... which the group renamed "Terpendin!" (which basically means 'you moved it!'). This has become surprisingly popular, and we now play it at least three times every week.

But on to the title of this post... so a few weeks ago, I was especially tired of the horribleness that is UNO so I made the kids teach us another card game. What they came up with has now become one of my favorite group card games evah! I present to you... KUKURUKU!

Everyone gathers around a table and places a deck of cards in the middle, face down. Starting with someone of your choosing, each player turns over a card from the deck. When a card between 2 - 9 is overturned, nothing happens, and it is the next person's turn.
When a 10 is drawn: every player must shout KUKURUKU!
When a Jack is drawn: every player must grab their nose.
When a Queen is drawn: every player must touch their hand to their heart.
When a King is drawn: every player must make a salute.
When an Ace is drawn: every player must slap the pile of overturned cards.

The last player to do the given action must take all the cards from the overturned pile. The game ends when there are no more cards to overturn. At this point everyone must count how many cards they have collected, and the person with the most cards is the loser. Now the fun part begins! The loser must get up from the table and face away from the group. A leader from the group must point to each person and ask the loser what he/she should do. Basically it's like the loser is blindly choosing dares for people to do (including him/herself), without knowing who is doing what. Once everyone has been assigned a 'dare,' its time to watch everyone do them! Here's an example of some of the things the group has come up with:
- run laps around the building
- do push-ups
- recite a poem
- sing a song in front of everyone
- dance for a minute
- do jumping jacks

We played Kukuruku today... I had to jump on one foot fifteen times, and then I had to do three forward rolls on the hardwood floor. It was awesome! The best part is that we always play this game in a mixed gender setting, and since the dares are random sometimes the boys are the ones that must sing or dance and the girls must do push-ups or run. Since everyone is assigned a dare, it's really inclusive because the 'loser' isn't the only one that has to do a random task; we can all laugh at our common ridiculousness!