Cooking Classes

Elaine Smith (my partner in this co-mission:) brought along 4 solar stoves with the last team from Oregon. The women exchanged a hammock for a stove. The good old fashioned way of “purchasing” an item adds value it. Introducing something new can be a bit challenging. There was quite a bit of doubt as to how the sun could cook up a meal in this crazy contraption! We remembered that a couple of years ago, several women said they would like to attend cooking classes. Perfect timing to convince them that this solar thing really works!

Dorotea, was thrilled to be the hostess of our first cooking class! A spanish women (who was working & visiting Ek Balam for a couple months) volunteered to team up with me on this project. Together, we women gathered up the chaya leaves (similar to spinach) in Dorotea’s backyard. A little bit of water, one bullion cube, a bag of arroz (rice) and a handful of leaves turned into quite the dish 4 hours later! Well, it was finished off on the open fire during the fifth hour due to an afternoon rain shower! Hey, it worked!!

These solar stoves will especially come in handy after a hurricane. It takes 3 days of sunshine for the leñas (logs) to dry out in order to cook on that fogata (campfire)! In the meantime, four families will be enjoying gourmet dishes while the rest of the village will be eating bread and cookies (which is what they ate after the last hurricane hit)!

For the second class, my Spanish friend taught a group of ten, how to preserve mango marmalade in a jar! If we can get them canning, that would make a difference and add variety to their usual meals of rice, beans and tortillas!

I plan to continue these classes because it provides an opportunity to teach about nutritional diets; as well as a social time for women to connect. Dorotea had once mentioned that she is home alone with 6 kids because her husband is a construction assistant in Playa Del Carmen. Since he only visits 2-4 nights a month, she gets pretty lonely out in the far corner of the village day after day! These classes provide the perfect environment her to connect with other during those lonely times.

Elaine is coming with a team to Ek Balam in the beginning of December and they will be bringing more solar stoves. If you would like to help this mission by purchasing a stove for the women of Ek Balam please contact elisa@thecause.org