Cooking Classes with Mothers

This past month I completed a cooking class with mothers in two schools. In each school I did the same activity on three days from 9-12 so that I could work with smaller groups. The first day I worked with mothers with children in the 5th and 6th grades, second day with mothers with children in the 4th and 3rd grades, and the third day with mothers with children in the 2nd and 1st grades. Each day about 15-20 mothers showed up. Because large families are common here the majority of the mothers had multiple kids in the school. Therefore, the first day always had the largest turnout and the numbers decreased with each day.

I started out with an hour and a half lesson on nutrition and good kitchen related hygiene. The nutrition part of the class included: the three food groups and "my plate" - which recommends that you divide your plate of food so that 1/2 is covered in protection (fruits and vegetables), 1/4 with body-building (protein), and only 1/4 with energy (carbohydrates). From what I have experienced in this country, meals are not so well balanced. Probably around 3/4 of the plate contains carbohydrates and the other 1/4 with meat or vegetables or more likely beans or an egg. I asked the mothers how many times a week they and their families ate fruits and vegetables. The majority said that they only eat vegetables a couple times a week - once or twice! And not much more frequently for fruits. I was blown away. I don't cook meat here (due to the lack of refrigeration both in my house and with and in the butcher's shops). Therefore, I eat a lot of vegetables (and eggs). I digress. I told them about the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day (which they were shocked by). I know that this isn't reasonable to expect them to eat the recommended number of servings, so I asked them to please try and eat at least one serving a day. Poco a poco (bit by bit).

As for hygiene, I talked about kitchen cleanliness (no cats, dogs, pigs, chickens) wandering around the kitchen. Drinking only purified water (boiling the unclean water that comes out of all taps here for at least 5 minutes). Cleaning fruits and vegetables that aren't going to be thoroughly cooked or peeled (by using bleach). Basic hand washing steps (and not drying their hands on their aprons that they wear all day).

Each day I had a teacher from that school co-facilitate with me. I would explain a section in Spanish and then they would explain it in K'iche'. I was really happy with this set-up because I am still working on improving my Spanish and so it was helpful for the people who understand both languages to get the information twice, and obviously much more clear for those who understand very little Spanish.

Me with my posters and a banana. I gave each mother a banana when
they first arrived as a small morning snack.

You can't see it in this photo, but I drew out pictures of different foods and
each participant had to categorize it into energy, body-building, or protection. 

THE THIRD WOMAN FROM THE LEFT IS TAKING NOTES!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

After the lesson we put it all into practice. We made sautéed beet leaves and pasta with tomato sauce that had protemás (a protein enriched meat substitute), carrots, broccoli, and onions. I supplied all of the ingredients and the mothers brought their own cutting boards, knives, and a couple pieces of firewood. In one school we cooked with my little two burner electric stovetop and in the other school we used their wood burning stove. I like telling Guatemalans about eating beet leaves, because the majority of the people have never thought to use them. They go straight to the rabbits or the pigs. Because of this, a lot of people discard the leaves or leave them at the stand at the market. Therefore, sometimes the vendors give them to me for free or I buy a big bag for just a few Quetzales. 

One thing about Guatemalan culture is that it is very rude to not accept food that you are offered or to not eat everything you are given. This has sometimes been difficult for me, but for these classes it worked out excellently! Everyone ate all of the food! "Would you like some more beet leaves?" "Yes." "Perfect." :)

Passing out the pasta and sauce.
I used styrofoam cups and plastic spoons. This was clearly not an
environmentally friendly workshop. Perhaps this will be the next workshop.

Chopping carrots.

I also had a good number of babies and small children
"participate" in the workshop.

Eating beet leaves for the first time.

Stirring up the beet leaves.

The women seemed to enjoy the class and appeared to have learned new information. At the very least that day they learned a little new information and had 1 serving of fruit, 1 of carbohydrates, 1 of protein, and around 2 of vegetables. Which from what I heard is possibly more fruits and vegetables than they normally eat in a week. They all seemed to genuinely like the food. I would call it a great success!