Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tortillas

Tortillas are the staple food here in Guatemala, and it becomes even more apparent when you live out in the boonies like I do. It seems that the poorer of an area you are in, the larger and more essential to the meal tortillas become. Here is a copy of a conversation I have had a bunch of times with a bunch of different people in my town. Every time the phrase “eating tortillas” was used in conversation, here I replaced it with “drinking water” so you can get a better idea of what this interaction sounds like to them. Here we go: 

Person from Santa Lucía: “In your country you guys drink water, right?”
Me: “Uh, ya, but not like you do here.”
Person from Santa Lucía, with a look of slight confusion and worry: “What do you mean?”
Me: “Well, we don’t drink water every day, let alone with every meal. It might be a part of a meal maybe once a week.”
Person from Santa Lucía, laughs in amazement, then: “But here you got used to drinking lots of water, right?”
Me: “Ya, I like drinking water now, but it´s not something I need to survive.” 
Long pause, then Person from Santa Lucía: “Huh, well, let´s go _________________” (fill in the blank).
Me: Ya man, let´s go do that.  
 
Here are some other fun tortilla facts:
o Wa (pronounced kwah) is the q´eqchi´ word for tortilla. It also means food. One time, I went to a friend’s house asking to buy some tortillas and was given an entire meal.
o Xorok (pronounced show-roke) means “to make a tortilla” and “to applaud”. If you’ve ever seen a lady clapping one out, you know why.
o The first time I accidentally grabbed two tortillas instead of the customary one at a time, I was worried I had committed a horrible cultural mistake. When my dining partner asked me with a serious face if I knew what the q´eqchi´ people have to say about that, I replied with a nervous “no”. 
“Well,” he said with a sudden smile on his face, “it’s just like having two women at the same time!”

Ah man, the people here are great. I’m still having a good time and looking forward to seeing my dad and sister next month. I can’t believe it has been close to a year since I have seen anyone from home. Hope all is well with you. Let me know. 

B´ex