Cloudy with a Chance of Papya

I have come to love how when kids are hungry/bored they can just go up to whatever tree or plant is in season and find something to eat or chew on. I feel like I should come out of my house with a bib and a fork and knife. What's on the menu now you ask?

Silver Creek Cafe:
~Papaya:the trees are so laden with fruit they have to prop them up with sticks, Mr. Santiago gave us one from his in laws' farm.
~Mop (Amy thinks it is called susap in English): This is a hard, green, round fruit that grows by the hundreds at the top of one kind of palm. You find them on the ground. A little girl at the river peeled it for me (Kind of picture a jaw breaker with a slightly less hard shell) with her teeth. Is it bad I didn't think twice about popping it in my mouth? The inside is a creamy yellowish/ white meat that is really hard and tastes like dough kinda. Most kids just stick it in the cheek like a chipmunk to suck on all day at school. Once your done (as another kid deftly showed me) you crack it open with another rock and eat the small hazelnut-sized nut on the inside. You just chew it until all the flavour is gone then spit out the fiber.
~Tuts (cahoon nut): Picture 11 kids aged 3- 14 all in underwear or less (Brendon was completely naked the whole time I was washing and eating at the creek)... climbing up a tree that fell into the water, running down the bank with arm fulls of egg sized nuts dumping them on the washing stone that Kendrick (a standard 6 boy) squats beside lifting a huge rock high above his head and slamming it down on the nuts. Shells litter the water and bank beside him and sever children happily munch on the nuts while others eagerly wait. Tuts tastes like a coconut but is a small almond sized nut. Again you chew it until the flavour/ milk is gone and spit out the fibrous remnants.
~Unripe Mango: Mango season is at the end of May (much to my delight since we have one in our yard) but that doesn't stop us from eating it. Villagers eat the unripe mango with pepper (see plum description of pepper).
~Calaloo: Like a spinach ...grows naturally all over the place including outside of the preschool door.
~Tambran: Looks like a brown pee pod and the soft fruit around the hard black seeds tastes like fruit leather. Also a popular drink flavour.
~'Plums' :Not at all a plum but a green grape sized fruit. It is hard and you lick it and dip it in pepper (as in dried and ground up hot peppers) and salt. There is a big seed so you only eat a couple of millimeters of meat off but it is tasty. Tart and spicy...yum.
~Coming Soon: Ripe mangoes (end of May), Pineapple, and Pear (Avocado)! All of which are in my yard

FOOTBALL:
Our girls won the zone competition called a 'Football Marathon' on Wednesday. Even though we had the smallest (size wise). We kicked Greg's school's butts...even though one of my girls wouldn't play because she said they were, "too 'fat' miss" in reference to the two tall and, well fat girls. Our boys lost to Greg's boys. It was like Slytherin vs. Griffindor. Their school had matching uniforms...and socks and even some had pegs (cleats). They had this super intimidating warm up routine...we lost before we began. We brought one pig tail bucket for water and two cups. Their team had new buckets (3) with a whole stack of new disposable cups (which were used once and tossed). There is even a boy on Greg's team who looks and acts like Malfoy. But I digress...

Our girls heading out for the first game.

A bird (alive) that Sheldon found and the bus to the football marathon

Boys team

Girls team

Dinner with Bryan and Marla...we will miss you guys!!!! Off to Honduras they go!

They treated us to PIZZA...and inspiration.

I can get people to do anything for a good photo.

Happy birthday to Erica and Kristen

Clams from the Nim li Ha' (big water) delicious.

One last funny story from Greg:
He was sitting outside our house with the family while I was bathing, Ms Cecilia in the hammock, when he saw Mr. Santiago stealthily moving towards the cocine. He snuck up behind Ms. Cecilia and attacked her with kisses... ignoring her protests. :) Village love.