Mate

Mate

Last night I received a big surprise! My two new roommates brought a big bag of Mate and they were nice enough to share it with me and explain a little about how Mate is drank. From what I can gather (there Spanish was a little different that what I was used to) Mate is a drink made by mixing hot water into a metal container filled with herbal leaves. Then the drinker drinks as much of the water through a metal straw from the container as they can. The bowl is filled again with hot water and given to the next person to drink. Mate can also be served cold (given a different name) and with sugar. They tell me that mate was drank by people in the in the campo and farm workers on cold nights like last night. The mate tastes a little bitter like green tea but I really enjoyed the taste. We all sat around the campfire (space heater) on the hardwood floor and in our bunks, drank our mate, and talked about politics. I did not add much to add to the discussion (sometimes it was in Portuguese) but I followed what was said and enjoyed hearing other people ideas on what is going on in their country. The discussion was genuine almost like I wasn't there and everyone was just talking. The feel of the night reminded me of a sleepover - with bigger kids and more serious conversation. I would love to say that later there was a huge pillow fight and prank phone calls in Spanish but that was not the case