Tortilla makin’ hands

I had yet another interesting day volunteering at the church’s children’s breakfast. On the menu  today was  caffeine-less, Adventist approved coffee,  refried beans, scrambled eggs and soy chorizo,  and oranges. Halfway through the morning we decide we were also going to make tortillas.

 “Yay!” I said, “I’ve been wanting to learn how to make those.” 

“You don’t know how to make tortillas?” one of the volunteers asked surprised.

“Not yet.”  I sheepishly reply.

“You can’t get married until you know how to make tortillas.” She says matter-of-factly. I don’t think she’s joking.  

Correction, I can kinda  make ‘em,  they just don’t come out in circles, more like oblong-shaped, or squares. Okay who am I kidding, sometimes they look like trapezoids. But does the shape really matter as long as they taste good?  Apparently there is a lot of things I have to learn how to do before the stars align and I can get married. Like how to peel an orange and leave the rind in one whole spiral, or make tamales. Maybe that’s my problem.  That explains a lot, I think to myself.  I bet when guys look at me they instinctively know that I don’t have tortilla making hands. That’s a deal breaker.  Curse you hands for giving me away so easily!!!

So I eagerly set out to help the women folk make tortillas,  I think I’m doing an okay job, but I guess not.

“You’re making them too thin”, one of the women says. “They’re going to stick on the frying pan”.  Okay, how about you show me? I think to myself. Finally I get a 5-second lesson, but these women have done this for decades, the practically come out the womb knowing how to knead dough into perfectly shaped little circles, they don’t really have to teach anyone how to do it, people just know.  I keep messing up, they’re not perfect, edible but definitely not circular. After about 5 tortillas, not nearly enough to get the hang of this, I conveniently get asked to perform another task “because we’re short on time.” Of course we are.

So I have one question:  How am I supposed to learn, or more importantly, how am I expected  to ever get married if I don’t get the chance to practice making perfectly circular tortillas? I suppose I could take the easy route and buy a tortilla press, but that just sounds like cheating.

There’s a lot of other stuff I know how to make, like surrullitos, rice and beans,  arroz con gandules, I also make a mean batch of chocolate chip pancakes, doesn’t that count for something? I guess not.  Here, first and foremost is the corn tortilla, therefore I have failed as a woman.  Man cannot live on bread alone, but he can on corn tortillas.

Culture is defined as a society’s shared set of ideas, beliefs, knowledge and values.  It’s interesting to compare what knowledge is valued in a culture (not specifically here in Honduras).What’s valued in one culture may not be important in another.   Post-graduate education doesn’t mean jack if you can’t cook here, although most upper class families have some sort of housekeeper/ cook. It’s vice versa in the U.S.: why on earth would one spend the time to make tortillas when she could just drive down to the nearest grocery store and buy a 30-pack for less than $3?  Why would one cook dinner when she could call for inexpensive take-out and save herself the time for cooking and cleaning?  True, home cooked food always tastes better than store-bought, but time and convenience are higher up on the priority list for most Americans, especially if there are inexpensive options like microwavable meals, just add-water recipes, canned beans (what a luxury!!) and take-out restaurants galore. Don’t be fooled, Honduras’s proximity to the U.S. allows for the same items to be introduced here, but they’re not nearly as popular, and more importantly, not affordable to the average population.  

What about other types of knowledge, like knowing how to change a flat tire? Useless in places where most people don’t have cars. Knowing how to pump your own gas is a necessity in the U.S (except for Oregon), but here there are gas-station attendants that do that.  Knowing how to balance a checkbook: that’s great if you have enough money to open a bank account. Being computer literate and typing 60 words a minute, not that useful if you happen to be in a place with few computers.  So what would be useful in a place like this? For the average Honduran: knowing how to identify between regular mosquitoes and the Aedes agypti mosquito that are responsible for transmitting Dengue fever, knowing how to thoroughly wash your clothes by hand, knowing the days certain stores have sales, knowing how to haggle at the market, knowing which bus to take in the city. I may be done with school, but I don’t know any of those things. I do hope I can learn though.

tP, over and out.

Quote of the day: 

“To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.”

-Confucius