A Lesson Learned Using Peppers in Belize

Gloria has considered herself, off and on, to be a pretty good cook, a very good cook or a so so cook.

market scene

Presently she would put herself into the pretty darn good cook (a special category for more successful cooking experiments than not).  So, it is with amazement that I have to tell you that Gloria didn't know what she was doing when she bought some lovely little, colorful peppers, but not too little, like habenero peppers, which are extremely hot.  Actually the peppers reminded her of the lovely, little, colorful organic peppers she bought in Calgary co-op a few months back.

When Gloria and her sister Judy were figuring out how to make salsa with habenero peppers safely, they discovered disposable, surgical gloves in the kitchen of their rented condo by the Carribean Sea, near San Pedro.   Everyone knows that if you cut a habenero pepper and then touch your eye, WELL, if you didn't know how to jump up and down very  quickly while trying to remember choice 'expletives deleted', you did now!  So Gloria wore a disposable,  surgical glove on her left hand while cutting half a tiny habenero pepper for a delicious tomato, onion and lime salsa. No problemo!   We didn't even dispose of the surgical glove. We just washed it for the next salsa -- the four of us LOVED the homemade salsa!


In Belmopan, the planned (because a hurricane in the 1960's all but destroyed everything in Belize City) capital of Belize, Gloria bought purple, red, orange and yellow peppers from a little market stall. Perfect for the salad she was going to make for supper.  There in their little one room casita, Gloria cut up the peppers while she was having a conversation with their landlady, Alexandra.

our landlady

As Alexandra sat beside the peppers Gloria was cutting, she asked if they were hot. "Oh no!" replied Gloria "they are sweet - for the salad!" 

'Are you sure?" Asked Alexandra.

'Yes, I think so," replied Gloria as she brushed back some hair strands from her face. "Oh, oh. My cheek stings!"

"I thought the peppers smell hot," said Alexandra.

As Gloria is madly removing all the pieces of pepper from the salad, Alexandra is reminding Gloria  not to rub her eyes. No surgical gloves here in Belmopan, just bare hands trying to stop a disaster.  Too late. Another hair strand in Gloria's eye and automatically her hand goes up to remove the strand of hair.  Ouch!  The eye is starting to burn. Alexander tells Gloria to wash her hands in sugar water.  SUGAR!!! We dont have sugar!  That's like poison to Stephen who has Type 2 diabetes. Xylitol yes, sugar no.

"Honey," said Alexandra.  "Do you have honey to put in water?"

"Yes!  We have honey,"  said Gloria.

Gloria tried to wash the heat off her hands with honey water then dried her hands in a paper towel. How was she to know that even wiping her drippy nose with THAT paper towel would cause PAIN?!  Her eye was smarting, her nose was smarting and even where she touched her lip was smarting.  But that was nothing compared to her hands, especially her left hand and under the nail of the thumb. A burning sensation would rise up and last for a few minutes at first. It really was like her hand or nose or lip was on fire!  The frequency and length of time lessened over a period of 4 days.  Yes, that was 4 days.

LESSON LEARNED:  Always ask whether or not the peppers are hot, and how hot, when traveling in a foreign country!!!