True Guatemalan Experience

A great start to a wonderful day with a perfect rainbow!  Patzun is gorgeous.  Mari and Anacleto invited me to their land for the day.  I was not exactly sure what we would be doing.  They told me to wear my working clothes, that we'd be gone most of the day, to bring fruit, and there aren't any bathrooms. 

We left Anacleto's house at 7:20 am with Mari, Estella, the three kids, and myself in the car.  It's about a 10 minute drive to their land.  At their land we meet two of Mari's nephews (13 & 14), Anacleto's brother-in-law, his son (13), and his father.  Before I go any further, although I am from Kansas, I have NO experience whatsoever in the farming business.  I will do my best and hope it all translates well.

They have 1.5 cuadros of corn.  I am really not sure what that translates to in English.  They don't measure in acres.  It's enough corn to feed a family of five for one year!!

The Process: (from the eyes of a Youth Development PCV from Kansas, with NO previous experience with farming)



The first step is chucking the corn.  There are a few different methods.  You can grab one hand on top, pull down, rip off the corn, and then begin to peel the leaves.  Or you can peel the leaves, and then twist the ear of corn off.  If the leaves are good and healthy, you leave them on the corn because they can be used to wrap chuchitos.  Chuchitos are super thick tortillas with a tomato sauce and meat inside, wrapped in the leaves.  Every single part of the corn is useful.  Whatever you think might not be useful can most likely be food for the chickens and roosters.

 

We each had a little tool, which I have in my right hand.  It is a large nail with like a thin leather belt wrapped around two fingers.  You poke the sharp end of the nail into the top of the corn to help you peel the leaves.



This is some delicious looking corn!  A lot of the corn was ruined this year due to heavy rains.  My students mentioned how bad the crops were this year, because of the weather, but it wasn't until this experience that I realized what a huge impact this has on their entire lives.

FOOD!  We had juice and bread with jelly for a morning snack.  After the snack break, I stayed with Mari, Estella and the kids.  We prepared caldo for lunch.  Caldo is a vegetable soup with meat.  Very yummy.  Of course, we had tortillas too.  Oh! And I brought watermelon.  And we ate oranges, as well.  We ate under their giant avocado tree.  Every time the wind blew strong, we covered our heads in fear of falling avocadoes.  For an end of the day snack we ate papaya.  We had worked up quite the appetite.

This part was super fun! Immediately after we chucked the corn we would throw it into a pile.  There was corn flying everywhere.  I was pretty nervous about my aim- shocked I did not hit anyone.  So after lunch, we went back to the piles, walked around to look for ones (mostly the ones I tossed) that did not make it directly into the pile, and then started putting the corn into bags. 

This next part was the most impressive- all of the males, including the 13 year-olds, carried these GIANT bags of corn (approximately 120 lbs) about a quarter of a mile to the road.  Ok, this is hard to explain, and I didn't take photos.  They used this headband type thing with a big string to carry the corn on their backs.  This part looked super exhausting.

The tower of corn!!  Here's most of the crew (minus three men and myself).  We loaded the corn into the bed of a pickup.  Drove to Anacleto's house, then unloaded the corn. 

It was an exhausting, yet culturally enriching day!  This eight hour process was just one part in the big picture.  I am not exactly sure what more they have to do, at least clean it and sort it. 

I have a much greater appreciation for anything related to corn. I am so thankful being able to participate in such an important Patzun experience. I am looking forward to next year!!