An amazing cooking lesson

Today began just like the last three days -- the morning at a coffee farm collecting data, lunch at our lab and field center, then data analysis for a few hours in the afternoon.  Our work ended about 3pm, and we headed off in our Land Rover to visit Felicia's self-sustaining farm in the nearby town of San Pedro.

Felicia is an amazing lady.  She works for Earthwatch but also does tons of other things, not least of which is starting her own organic, self-sufficient farm, which she plans to turn into a community educational center.  She invited us over for a visit so we could see her beautiful one-room home on her farm.  We went way up into the mountains over a dirt "road" so rough we could only go about 5 miles per hour and several times I was sure we were stuck.  Once we arrived she explained to us how the bathroom and kitchen plumbing are designed to process all waste into compost that is used to enrich her soil.  She is going to install solar panels next so she doesn't need electricity.  It was fascinating.

 Then something even better happened.  Felicia's neighbor, a Nicauragan woman named Xiomara, called her to invite her over for coffee and extended the invitation to all of us.  So we all went over to Xiomara's beautiful little home, complete with lovely gardens and an outdoor kitchen with a wood burning stove and clay oven she made herself!  She was making us homemade tortillas, pressing them out one by one and cooking them on a simple metal pan on her stove.  She showed me how to do it and I made my own.  It wasn't as pretty as hers for sure but it looked OK and tasted great!  Her darling daughter spoke a little English and she told us about her school while we explained that we were teachers.  It really was an unforgettable experience.