My host mom makes the most delicious empanadas.
I am getting hungry just writing about it! One of my favorite parts of traveling is connecting with local communities, and food is a great way in which to do this. After a long day of work in the mangroves or in the laboratory analyzing my samples, I am always super hungry. Luckily, the food here is amazing. I always feel energized when I eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies.
I heard you are growing a garden in your school. How do you feel when you eat the veggies you have grown?
Normally, the food is prepared by my generous host mother. She is an incredible cook and it is very important to her to prepare food that is healthy. For this reason, even though she herself eats meat, she always prepares yummy salads for me, often with ingredients from her farm!
Also, my host family has a compost pile. This is an uncommon practice in my neighborhood, so it is really cool that she started this. The compost pile makes sure that food waste is disposed of in a way that is good for the environment. In this way, fruit and vegetable scraps can go back to nourish the same soil in which they grew.
All of my food comes directly from the environment. My morning mangoes and the obos (a small, round, red fruit) that make my juice come directly from my host family's farm. The veggies in my salads also come from Ecuadorian farms. However, most of these vegetables are grown in the mountians instead of the coast, because they grow better in this environment.
