Pineapple Wine – Jan. 20

Chepe, the President of C.P.I. Honduras, took us to see a plant that processes pineapples. For several years they have been making pineapple vinegar. The bottleneck, evidently, has been their final filtration process. They are using clay filters which take about twelve hours to filter a litre. When you want to filter several thousand litres this is a bit daunting. My task is to find out if there are some alternative filtration machines or systems available in Canada or the U.S.

While there, we talked about other product lines that they could pursue. That was a bit of a stretch as they were more concentrated on the problems of their one line. In the end, we went into their storeroom to purchase some Pineapple Vinegar to take back to Canada. I had five bottles tucked into my shoulder bag when I noted some other, different shaped bottles. Well, it turns out that they have started a second product line, pineapple wine. I was delighted to see them venturing out a little bit. They promptly cracked open a bottle and we had a tiny sample. Not too bad, especially the second taste. Of course, being of absolutely no use as a wine connoisseur, I will refrain from making any erudite comments. Nose, aroma, body, and so forth are well beyond my ken. Regardless, I bought a couple of bottles for my luggage. The opened bottle went along ... now, how to deal with that. I will struggle.

We have been having cooking classes at lunch time the last couple of weeks. Spaghetti is a mystery and so, any way that I can think of to serve it is seen as a huge culinary achievement. We have had a few meals of the simple, throw in what vegetables you have type sauce, which have been enjoyed by all. Yesterday, one of the girls went ahead to start cooking. Well, she had never cooked spaghetti so wasn’t aware of the tradition of using boiling water. Fortunately, the spaghetti she used wasn’t aware of that tradition either so it cooked as the water came to a boil. The sauce turned out well and covered any deficiencies in the spaghetti.

Today we had chicken and rice soup. Since I had the bottle of pineapple wine sitting on the cupboard we poured in a cup or so into the soup. It actually made the soup better and the pineapple flavour and aroma was quite nice. I was very surprised that it worked so well. Good thing it did as there are enough leftovers for supper and breakfast. While eating our soup, we were talking about various meals and they told me that they use oatmeal to make a cold drink. Will have to see and taste it before I try describing it. They add sugar to it so that may be the real key to its success.

Our trips to Tegucigalpa may have been profitable. Yesterday we were told that our project has met approval at all levels. Now it is with Person X to get the funding arranged. As Person X has had his hands on the project before that may or may not be good news. However, Person X was a classmate of the Mayor and so is much more amenable to pressure from the Mayor’s office ... we hope. The Mayor seemed to think so when Manuel talked with him this morning.

Not knowing the language is sometimes helpful. Twice, on Sunday, I benefitted from ignorance. I went to a restaurant in San Pedro Sula and ordered fish. The waiter tried to inform me about alternative fish dishes which I was able to decipher but which were twice the price. I stuck with the cheaper one on the first page with the appetizers. Well, it turned out to be a dish featuring small pieces of broiled fish in a very piquant salsa sauce. It was a cold spicey goulash consistency and very delicious. Great choice.

In the evening, I went to the “Crazy Tacos” to watch Honduras play Chile. I asked the proprietress what food was available (old African habits die hard – never ask for a menu – it will only contain about four pages of dishes that aren’t available) and she mentioned a word I hadn’t heard before. So, I ordered it. It turned out to be a submarine type bun with small pieces of fried meat, onions, cabbage and refried beans with a sauce. Again, unexpectedly delicious. Oh, Honduras won the game as well, 2-0.

Went to the carpenter’s yesterday to pick up my daughter’s Christmas present. It is at the glazier’s today getting the mirror installed. It turned out to be quite beautiful so I have every hope she will enjoy it. It is such a delight to find craftsmen who can turn my ideas and drawings into a work of art. Doubly delightful as there is a whole series of nerves missing between my brain and my ‘crafty’ fingers. The problem facing me is how to package it for the airplane trip to Canada. That is a worrisome thought.

Manuel is busy loading the computers with the first volume of Grade 7 & 8 along with the sound tracks. The girls tried it a bit and were very impressed. We will start them off tomorrow and watch their progress with this new system.

This morning was spent going over annual reports. These reports were a daunting task because neither Jessica nor Carolina had ever done anything like that before. As well, I insisted they be typed and put in to the computer. It took a long time but, they are into final revisions now. It has been good to get a better idea of what they were involved with in the last year.

A second day without rain so things are less sticky. I see though that clouds are gathering so we may be back to slippery mud again by evening. But, I love the green so can’t complain.

Bryan