Blenvy

When we moved into our training towns way back in March, I was in a nice house in San Juan de Oriente, Masaya. The other Trainees in my town were Ryan, Jessica, and Rosendo. Jessica’s host mother, Eveling, was a cousin of my host mother, Hilda. Eveling, who is hilarious and one of the biggest gossips I have ever met, lives in a very humble house. Her cousin, Hilda, on the other hand, lives in one of the ostentatious homes in San Juan de Oriente. Read Jessica’s take on her host family here, on her blog.

At times this living arrangement was hard for Jessica, but she persevered. Eveling’s family truly is wonderful. I’m sure that helped.

Early in May we found out our permanent sites and went to visit them. Jessica is one of my closest Small Business Volunteer Neighbors in the large city of Chinandega, to the north of León. In contrast to San Juan de Oriente, Jessica is living with a wealthy family in a nice house. They have a blender and a juicer and other modern kitchen appliances. I am also living with a nice, well-off family, but for some reason they do not permit me to use the blender. I truly have no idea why.

This predicament put me into a tailspin of what Jessica called, “blender envy,” or blenvy. And it’s true; I sucked many a C$ 50 down tall straws at batido shops dreaming of the bananos con leche that Jessica was making with reckless abandon. And finally, yesterday, I said enough was enough. I splurged and bought a 14-speed glass Osterizer. Who has blenvy now! I’ve been in batido heaven ever since.

So far my favorite concoction in the blender has been banana milkshakes with peanut butter (sent from home by my mom) and chia seeds. I also just made frijoles licuados (pretty much bean dip) which was also a hit. Once I get some tahini from Achuapa I am going to try making baba ganoush.

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