Jordan cooked very little until she joined the Peace Corps.  She is now a Rural Health and Sanitation volunteer in San Jeronimo, El Salvador.  She lives in “el campo”, aka “the country”.  The cooked food in El Salvador contains lots of salt which gives her migraines.  So much for her host family cooking for her every night.

Volunteers get $400 dollars to set up house for their two-and-a-half year stay.  She didn’t have enough left over after she bought a mattress, a two-burner stove, pots and pans and hammock to buy a refrigerator.  El Salvador uses the American dollar as currency and things aren’t so cheap there.  Sometimes more expensive.  For a small fridge (we’re talking college size), she would have to pay about $300.

Before she arrived in El Salvador, she didn’t like beans, eggs or avocados, but she eats them now.  Jordan goes to the nearest pueblo, San Miguel which is 1.5 hours away, once a week to buy her vegetables and other stuff from the Super Selectos.  Sometimes the vegetable truck comes into her canton and she purchases them from the vendor.  She spends about $30 on food for the month that she prepares at home.  Vegetables are very cheap, so because she has no refrigerator, she saves lots of money not buying meat and processed foods.  She purchases her bags of water daily from the neighborhood tienda.

Jordan “eats to live” now instead of “lives to eat”.  She’s lost 30 pounds in a few months time and is still losing.  She has unwillingly cut out sugar, protein and diet coke from her diet. She claims it’s “too hot to eat”.  She is in the hottest part of El Salvador where a simple walk across the street can necessitate a wardrobe change.

Her kitchen is outdoors on her balcony and consists of a plastic table with a two-burner stove on top fueled by propane.

There is plastic seating for two.  She has one tea towel, which she uses to wipe her hands and doubles as a pot holder.  She has a small metal skillet and a small pot with a lid, which looks like something you played with at pre-school when you were 5.

She has one coffee cup and a couple of dishes and cups and a few utensils.  She has one decoration which states “So Much To Do, So Few People To Do It For Me”.

 A small bowl holds her vegetables and eggs and a basket holds her non-perishables.

Jordan’s “No Refrigeration Necesario” Pasta

Jordan used:  Green pepper, onion, pipian (a small green and white squash) and tomatoes.

Add a small amount of oil in a skillet and saute all vegetables over medium heat (except for the tomato) until soft.  Then add the tomato and cook for 1 minute.  Add “salsa”, or spaghetti sauce.  Keep warm.