SWEET dinner parties!

My first "lunch date" in my house was with my host mom, brother, and sister and my project partner (see picture to the right). We really ate like kings--bread, oatmeal juice from a packet, some unrefridgerated pop, and a mango that we stole from my neighbor's tree! My family loves making fun of how much I don't know how to cook! But I am excited because my host mom is an awesome cook and she is going to teach me how to do rice, beans, peas, chicken, ham, asopao, arroz con leche, the works!

The other really fun "dinner parties" that I had involved about 8 of the neighborhood muchachos. They all bring as many little pesos as they can (usually about 5-10), and we buy plantains and salami. Then, THEY were actually "cooking" (all we did is fry everything)!! Granted, there was a lot of wrestling and running around my house, but they were generally well-behaved (to my surprise). They played my board games, read books, and colored so much that I ran out of paper. The only problem--they also went through about 10 plantains, a BOTTLE of ketsup, and THREE packets of juice! I love having them over but they eat me out of house and home! And now I have little muchachos over literally everyday...so I think I might have to start taking some days off =)