Trastes....Dishes

So here is my little kitchen.  As you can see I have the modern conviences of a refrigerator, stove and electricity.  Also I brought along my juicer and blender.  We are using tables provided by the school for both counter tops and storage cabinets.  What a blessing they are!  You’ll notice that the thing missing is the sink.  There is no indoor plumbing in any kitchens here in Cacalote.  Lena was discussing this with our landlord’s wife, they live quite close on the same property as you can see in the picture below.  She was surprised to hear we have a sink in our kitchen where we live in Oaxaca city!

So, I am standing on our landlord's house and the tile house is where we live. We also hang our laundry out to dry up here.

In order to wash your dishes you bring them out to the sink/washboard.  

There is not running water there either, but there is water!  A good sized reservoir that is filled by pumping water (electrical pump, praising God for that also) from the well.  Using a bowl to dip out water you wash and rinse your dishes, then place them in a very diluted bleach solution.  Bring them back inside and place them on your drying rack. 

Although, our landlord’s have a modern oven/stove, she will often use this more traditional outdoor, fire fueled kitchen to make traditional dishes such as tortillas or mole.  Mmmmm...mmmmmm.mmmm....I think I just made myself hungry!  And it just dawned on me I should probably get some lessons from her on how to cook without my modern oven.  More on that later, in the meantime, I’ll be showing you the rest of our little hacienda, school and pueblita.  

Lena learning to make tortillas.

Turing the tortillas by hand.

Adventures in Tag Sales

I shopped Tag Sales Saturday morning. At least that is what Martha Stewart calls them. Tag Sale sounds so much more whimsical than yard sale or garage sale. I even saw a sign for a rummage sale. Whatever you call them, they are great fun. For 50 cents we got Adelina a pair of glittering red shoes that fit her glittering personality. Another 5o cents bought Samuel a two inch thick WWII History in Pictures book. He is obsessed with all things military right now. I got a small stack of very old books, one published in 1928 and one in 1905 for 25 cents each. One was written by Helen Keller and looks to be very interesting and challenging to read. It’s small and blue with delicate pages. The stack makes me wish I had better photography skills; they would make such beautiful pictures.
The girls and I went together and had a wonderful time. We hope to go again in a few weeks with my mother, who is a real pro. I have sweet memories going with her as a girl.
Happy Tag Sales, I hope you find something useful and beautiful that makes you smile every time you use it.