Gusanos (written 9.17.08)

That'd be worms in Spanish.

I was proud of myself today, and it was directly connected to me finding these fun little guys in my spaghetti noodles. Don't worry, this isn't Fear Factor, so you're safe to read on.

I started cooking early (which was to save me later) and made a delicious spaghetti sauce, complete with ground soy that I made a point to seek out last time I was in the capital. As you can see, this dish has been pre-meditated for quite some time. I was even lucky enough to time it perfectly, putting the noodles on to cook at just the right moment so the sauce would be thickened but still hot. Since I had deviled eggs and cheetos for lunch (how American of me!), I was pretty excited about a big, early spaghetti dinner. I took off the lid to the noodles, preparing myself to drain them sans-collander, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but 10 worms here and another 20 there! Obviously they were dead, and I have to confess that I did momentarily consider picking out the "good" noodles (the sauce was so tasty!) but there were just too many, so I refrained and begrudgingly set out to look for more noodles. Of course, the nearest colmado was closed, for the first time in the history of the world, at 6:00, so I trudged on to the colmado where I had bought noodles earlier this morning.

After making my purchase, I set out toward the house again, pausing about 50 feet away from the store to check out the noodles. I expected them to be fine (I assumed the worm host had been the noodles that I had had in the fridge for a while. I had bought extra this morning to make a big dinner to share with my handyman helper), but low and behold! More worms!!!!

I immediately marched back to the colmado (enter the part where I'm proud of myself) and all but demanded (ever so politely) that the owner replace not only the noodles I had just purchased, but the ones from this morning as well. This seems like a given, but it's a bigger deal here than one might think, especially for a non-partisan volunteer, to hold someone accountable like that. Or maybe it's not a big deal at all, but I was still proud that I got my pound and a half of noodles, sans maggots.