Da Pan a los Que Tienen Hambre...

What is the food like?

Colorful.

Tasty. Not spicy!

Homemade.

A variety of vegetables in season. Right now, folks are bringing us a lot of chayote, ayote, tomatoes and interesting fruits whose names I can’t begin to spell. Aguacate too (avocado)… I am learning to make a good guacamole, but Mexican-style. Sergio says I need to learn to make it Nica-style, which involves hard-boiled eggs.

Today our neighbor killed a pig. Tomorrow he plans to bring us chanfaina…. a meaty mixture of all the parts I’d rather not think about (tastes a litttttttle bit like gritzy, Sisters! Non-nuns… you’ll have to ask an SND what gritzy is!)

Another neighbor brought us a donation of red beans; they had just dried them today on the cement in front of the church. I am proud of the fact I know how to cook beans that aren’t out of a can!

Our poorest neighbors subsist mostly on beans and tortillas, and sometimes rice. Neighbors share from their abundance with those who have less, but many of the kids really could use more vegetables and fruit in their diets.

Here is a common Nicaraguan prayer-before-meals:

“Oh Dios, da pan a los que tienen hambre,
Y hambre de ti a los que tienen pan.”

“Oh God, give bread to those are hungry,
And hunger for You to those who have bread.”

I like this version, too:

“Da pan a los que tienen hambre, y a nosotros que tienen pan, danos hambre y sed de justicia.”

“Give bread to those who hunger, and to those of us who have bread, give us hunger and thirst for justice.”

Amen.