Nuestro Pan de Cada dia

Paraguayan Bread = well, the way that I think about bread I would say that bread doesn't exist in Paraguay. Of course it does, but not in that fresh, whole wheat grains, out of the oven kind of way. Instead Paraguayans have "Sopa Paraguaya," "Chipa," and "Chipa Guasu." Sopa Paraguaya and Chipa Guasu are sort of like corn bread that are made with different classes of corn flour, with sometimes mixing in wheat flour, or "harina comun." Chipa, on the other hand, is made with Mandioca flour. I love Chipa. It is sold on the buses into Asuncion. The time of the year that it is eaten the most is during holy week, and the women in my community have started to prepare to make their chipa. My host mom is saving her milk to make cheese, my neighbor is buying firewood to make the chip in her "tatakua" or brick oven, another neighbor bought the fat that is in the chipa, and the women's comite have been makin the Mandioca Flour, called Almidon.

Makin Almidon is a HUGE project that can take up to days. Luckily the women were able to acquire the money to buy a grinder so now it takes less days.

Step One: Harvest the Mandioca.

This leaves a pile of mandioca sitting on the lawn that was usually transported on an ox cart.

Step Two: Peel the Mandioca.

After 5 times of making almidon I think that I am finally getting the hang of peeling mandioca. I first tried to peel it like a potato, but there is actually a thick layer of skin that you need to get off. I am really proud that I have accomplished this.
My host mom Estela is really bombin' at this.

Step Three: Wash the Mandioca

Pretty straight forward: Scrub scrub scrub

Step Four: Grind the Mandioca

Step Five: Wash the mandioca and separate the "Flour" part from the other part. I really don't know what this is called, and I think this is more like a few steps thrown into one, because I don't understand the purpose of it all. The women stand over baskets with feed bags that the ground mandioca that has been mixed with "leche" (or water mixed with some of the almidon) is poured into. Then there are a couple of more scoops of the leche that goes into it and then a couple of scoops of water that you pour over it and then squeeze the water and "leche" out.

Step six: let the leche and almidon mixture sit for 3 hours.

Step seven: Pour the water out of the tubs and scrape the almidon from the bottom.

Step eight: Dry the almidon on a warm sunny day.

Step nine: enjoy!

My Feet after a long day of helping the women make Almidon.

So I have yet to see this mass making of chipa. More on chipa making to come....