Guatemala City, Guatemala

Today I arrived here in Guatemala City in May by airplane of course in the small airport they have where I met my host family that has taken me in so I can experience life on Guatemala City. The family I have been assigned is a family of 4, a mom, dad and the twins 2 fourteen year old boys Miguel and Felipe. As we collected my bags we departed walking to their house during this i realized how poverty stricken the city was and I was wondering how this would influence the culture. When we arrived to their house (which to me looked like a shack) I placed my bags on the floor when all of a sudden Mrs. Castillo asked me if I wanted to accompany her and her sons to the Mercado central (central market) to get some food to prepare dinner. On the way their Mrs. Castillo told me about all of the fresh produce that we can get since the weather is so good here. Coming to a foreign country I did some research about the weather to see what to pack for clothing and I found that here in Guatemala city in the spring the average temperature was between 60-75 degrees and rainy most of the time. since were near the equator and surrounded by oceans on to sides most of the time its hot and wet which i kind of like better then up north. This weather is almost the perfect temperature for growing their main staples of food. in the market I heared mostly Spanish but also some German and Korean which i find pretty funny when their trying to talk to each other . Here we picked up some fresh grains, meats(which was still alive) , fruits, and vegetables which looked oh so delicious to me better then what we have in America.

This is Mercado Central the market where we bought all the delicious ingredients for tonight's dinner.

At dinner time Mr. Castillo slaughtered the live chickens we had bought while Mrs. Castillo ground up some maize into flour, and chopped vegetables. In the mean time me, Miguel, and Felipe played a pick up game of soccer with some other kids and in about an hour the Castillo parents called us in and it was time for dinner yum. When I sat down at the table i saw some of the best food I have seen in awhile their was spicy chicken, maize on the cob, tamales,black beans, and lastly tortillas it made my mouth water. when everyone was cleaned up Mrs. Castillo said dig in and we did. It was like pack of lions on a new kill, the chicken was nice and moist with a little kick to it while the tamales were litte packs of flavor that after a second of being in your mouth explode with a mixture of simple flavors that combined to make what I called an mmh mmh good moment.when we were done with that food we still weren't done Mr.Castillo brought us all a mixture of fresh fruits which i think cleansed our pallet. Now when we were truly it was about 10 at night so I'm gonna hit the hay(because i thinks that's what my beds made of) and think about all the good things that happened to me today...Oh yeah before I go here's the recipe to some of that spicy chicken just follow the link http://www.recipezaar.com/pepian-de-pollo-391207



Michael