Cooking with Mama Sandra

A JOURNAL ENTRY BY EMILY SCHROCK

One week ago, my Mama Sandra asked me if I wanted to cook a traditional meal with her. I was excited and told her I certainly would. The next day, my Mama was ready for this traditional meal preparation to begin. All morning a neighbor kept coming with containers of what I concluded were ingredients.

I thought it was extremely awesome how it is a community effort that makes many things function in Nicaragua. Different families have their specialty and it works well for collaboration.

Well with the right ingredients, my Mama Sandra put me into action. It was fun to be able to do something with her and to feel helpful. There wasn’t elaborate communication going on, but we were accurately communicating. I am so happy that this is starting to occur. Two weeks prior, I couldn’t say that.

Well we made different parts of the meal that did not seem to relate to each other, but were all mixed at the end to make arroz a la valenciana, also our neighbor prepared ajiaco desde hoja de quelite. This also was great to try.