it´s harvest time

So this weekend was pretty tranquilo. I didnt go anywhere or do much, in a good way. I mostly studied for the gre´s and cleaned house. I filled my pila with water for the first time since april. It feels good to have a full pila again. Except the the drain is really far down there an I kind of have to hoist myself up so i´m tettering on my stomach to reach it. I´ve got the bruise on my belly to prove it.

It´s elote (corn) time here in ipala. ¨One´s in a hurry the other takes time . . .¨ Corn is sacred here in guatemala. You can thank the mayas for that. And by sacred, i mean holy. Like really holy. Like the tortilla is the ancient mayan crucifix. So everyone´s harvesting their fields now and giving corn to friends and family members. The thing about guatemalan corn is, it´s not that great. I know this is where corn was born and everything, but i really miss sweet corn. I mean Guatemalan corn´s okay, and if you load enough salsa dulce, mayo, hot sauce, salt and mustard on your elote loco, you can´t taste the difference anyway. nevertheless i really wish the genetically selected varieties of sweet corn that you find in Indiana would make their way south. Saturday nite nidia invited me to her house for tamalitos de elote and atol de elote. Corn tamales pretty much taste like they sound – like a bland corn log. Atol de elote is like a corn chowder that you drink flavored with sugar and cinnamon. It´s actually pretty good. But imagine eating these two together as a meal. A corn log with cream on top (not even sour cream mind you) and corn chowder to drink. You wouldn´t shit for a week. luckily i have a highly potent bran and fiber cereal that helps me out. Nidia´s tamalitos and atol were okay; i´ve had better. Like the next day when my neighbor sent over a dishful of atol. I put in in the fridge and had some later on. It was like a coagulated corn pudding. Yummy. I have to say, for how sacred corn is and for how many thousands of years the mayans had to practice in the kitchen, there´s not many remarkable culinary treasures to be found in the land of eternal spring. Selma gave me about 6 ears of corn to go, so i think i´m going to make myself some elotes locos. But i´ll have to buy a bag of mayo first.

Fernando*, you just spent one month crossing through mexico and the us border ilegally with your Coyote and now you´ve finally made it to your aunt´s house in L.A., what are you going to do next? I´m going to Disneyland!!!

*True story, but the name has been to changed to protect my friend. Maybe the INS reads blogs in their spare time, who knows?