Part 2 trip to jujan

Fausto, Priscilla's father, had his grandson cut down this ginormous pod of plantains. Here the plantain is eaten when it is green or also when it turns yellow. It can be boiled, baked, grilled or fried.

Priscilla's Family

Visit to the country ( jujan)

Today Stella and I traveled to about 45 minutes outside Guayaquil to visit the family of my friend Priscila. She cleans my house a couple days a week and we always talk about what's going on in our lives. She has shared about her dad before and how wonderful he is. We decided this past week that we would go out and visit him today. He is a rice farmer. 

Stella with some new friends and clothes.

Eating Cacao or in English chocolate. All those pods hanging from that tree have chocolate inside...Very bitter chocolate. You have to add milk and sugar and then it's becomes delish. 

We are inside a house made of something that resembles bamboo here they call it Cana. This is Priscilla's sister holding Stella.

Saturday morning pancakes

Jorge has become quite the chef these days when it comes to pancakes. He always makes them from scratch, uses whole wheat (in Boise he would use freshly ground whole wheat flour) and natural ingredients. His perfect pancake is always evolving and always tasty. Stella loves them so it's a win win for him. 

My favorite time of the day

So you would think that this is my favorite time of day because Stella's going to bed and I will finally have a little break and don't get me wrong that is nice but that's not the reason. This is my favorite time of day because we read together every night and Stella loves it. She gets excited about the books, she knows all the books by their titles. She just got a new one for her birthday last Sunday and she has already memorized the title and asks for it by name. It just makes me happy that she likes to read because I love to read. 

Cousin time

Today we spent the day with Rebeca, Renatita and Nico and we had so much fun!

Baby Amada

Today Stella and I visited a new mom in our ward. She had her baby exactly one week ago and was at church on Sunday and had her baby blessed. She told me that because her daughter had been hospitalized for an infection she really wanted her blessed. She has tons of faith. So, her and her husband and baby live in one tiny little room around the back of a house. I brought over some of the fruit that I cut up yesterday and went to put it in the refrigerator and realized that they don't have one. It's so good see how other people live, it humbled me and the things that bug me about my house vanished.

 Don't laugh... I have a cold so I wore this mask inside the house. Being that the baby already had an extended stay in the hospital I figured it was worth taking a little extra precaution. Stella kept trying to pull it off i think she thought it was a game. 

In the kitchen w/ my assistant

Today Stella and I spent some serious time in the kitchen. I had bought tons of fruit for Stella's family birthday party that was supposed to be at our house on Sunday. The party was changed to my mother in laws because I felt so sick and I didn't go :(  can I just say that I have the best in laws a girl could ever ask for. They are always more than willing to support our family in everything. Anyways so I had tons of fruit and today we dug into all of it and cut it up. Stella was the official taste tester. Here she is holding the pineapple core, she knawed on that for a little while.

Now she is helping to put away the watermelon. Notice that she has something white in her hand. Can you tell what it is?

Here she's put the watermelon on the shelf in the refrigerator and you can more clearly see what the white thing is in her hand... (Yep, it's a feminine product that she grabbed out of my bag) (I can't believe I'm posting the inside of my refrigerator)

After cutting up all the fruit we made my moms banana bread. It was a big hit! Stella thought it was cake and kept asking for "more cake". Jorge loved it too. It was a little taste of home :)