La Soyada

Yesterday all of my co-workers, three US guests, and I attended a Soyada in the community of Nance. A Soyada basically is a huge meal where everything is made with soy products. The women in this community began to grow and learn how to make food with soy beginning two years ago. They noticed their children were undernourished and wanted to improve their nutrition in some way. Meat is very expensive and beans are not as nutritious as soy. So after laerning about the health benefits of soy they began to grow it and promote its use throughout the community. The soy season begins in July, so our meal was kind of a celebration of the opportunity it brings to the community and was in hopes of a good crop this year.
We loaded a total of 12 people into our organization´s truck along with a pinata and sports equipment. Theorganization received money to buy sport´s equipment for the leagues in the different rural communities. We drove as far as we could into the rural area and then all got out and walked the rest of the way. When we arrived all of the women were in the kitchen of one of the lady´s houses cooking and the kids were in the yard playing. More women, men, and children began to arrive. I met more of the women, whom I had not met before and then proceeded to stand in the kitchen of this two room house with dirt floors talking and laughing with the women. They showed me what they were making and when I asked questions about it, they quickly grabbed a piece of the food or poured me a cup of the drink so I could try it. All of it was delicious. When I told them I liked it, especially this drink called atoule which has soy milk, sugar, and something else, they were very surprised and pleased. We joked that by the time I leave here I will be a Nicaraguan cook.
All of the women were very nice and happy. We laughed and talked about many different things including if I was married, had a a boyfriend, what I could cook, their reasons for growing soy, and their wealth of knowledge about food. There will be an opportunity for them to come to the church I attend to teach the women how to make different food with soy. They ar excited for that activity. I will probably be living in this community in the future for a week or so at a time. I am really excited to get to know them more.
After the pinata and distributing the sport´s equipment we ate. Our meal included gizo ( atype of soup), tortillas, rice, fried potatoes, a dish I don´t remember the name of, tamales, and a cold drink with soy milk, cinnamon, sugar, and pineapple. All of it had soy and was wonderful. AFter eating we bid them farewell and walked back to the truck.