Spanish rice and tacos for refugees
Thursday was a great day. We got down to the Institute a bit early so my wife could start cooking for the refugees we would visit in the evening. She decided on a taco bar, so that the kids could choose what they did/did not want to eat. That's a pretty familiar menu for us, given all of our Taco Tuesdays, but we weren't sure how many people there would be, so she more than doubled the batches. We would end up leaving a whole bunch of great leftovers 😊. She also found a recipe for Spanish rice which we thought might be popular and a good filler. Anyway, she was very busy all afternoon, filling two crock pots and two 9x13 pans (or metric equivalent :) with taco meat and rice. Note the new rolling kitchen cart from Ikea that has been a great boon, effectively giving more sorely-needed counter space.
While she was doing all that, I worked on my Seminary lesson for Friday, as well as swapping out the "old" D-link router from the library for an inexpensive (under 50 euro) one from TP-Link. The old one will be used in the Roma 3 chapel to give better WiFi coverage there, while the new one allows me to plug in a small (32GB) USB flash drive as a network volume that we can use to share files within the Institute.
I also helped with the second batch of taco meat and did a bunch of dishes. By the time we left for the refugee facility around 6pm, the car was completely full of food, plus some pots, pans, and serving pieces, as well as 15 of the backpacks we made last week. It barely fit into the car and took several trips down the elevator to put it all in! The drive over -- almost an hour with rush hour traffic to cover about 7 miles -- was delightful, since the car was filled with the pleasing aroma of the Spanish rice 😀.
The location is rather difficult to get to, and we didn't start eating until after 8pm, so only half a dozen of our GANS kids could make it. We had them help chop and prepare the different taco items and set the tables. Claudia got there first on her motorbike, then we arrived with all the food, and soon thereafter Ugo arrived with four other kids in his car. One other young man, Ilario, joined us soon thereafter, taking two hours on public transit to get there.
The name of the group who runs the facility is InterSOS, apparently a well-known international humanitarian NGO. The entire kitchen facility was donated by Ikea and is very nice. LDS Charities has helped out with a van they use to transport their kids. There were only about 10 refugee kids, who come and go quite a bit. They were all from Africa, including Mali, Guinea, Nigeria, and Eritrea. In theory, all of the refugees at this facility are underage, but it seems maybe some of them are a bit older but give their age as 17, because the government can often kick them out one they are no longer minors. We sat with three girls from Eritrea who spoke very little English or Italian, so it was difficult to communicate with them. They met each other in Libya on their way up to Europe. One of the InterSOS workers, Sammy, is of Eritrean descent but has lived in Italy his whole live, so he could translate for us a bit. The young men were from other countries and spoke some English and Italian to varying degrees.
Ugo invited them all to come to our ward Christmas afternoon dinner, which he puts on for those in our ward who don't have family nearby. The chapel is only a mile or two from the InterSOS facility, so perhaps some of them will show up. Our GANS kids handed out the backpacks as dinner was ending.
The refugee kids all said thanks, but didn't open them up. Apparently they thought the backpacks were empty, until Sammy told them to unzip them. Several of them then got pretty excited about the winter clothing (gloves, socks, scarf), the cell phone battery charger, and the flashlight with a crank to recharge it. Cell phones are their lifeline to distant family and friends, so having a USB battery is a big deal for them. These kids come from climates where it almost never gets cold, so they suffer quite a bit in the elements here. One of the big concerns is that they will head north from here toward France or Germany and hit places in northern Italy where it is way below freezing, which is something they can't quite grasp. Several have died of exposure in recent years. Our backpacks can make at least a small difference.
After everyone was full, including some desserts that Ugo brought, our GANS kids helped Sammy clean things up. They seemed to really enjoy the whole evening, and it certainly makes you count your blessings!
We didn't get home until almost 11pm, but it was a wonderful evening. The young sisters who were staying in our apartment overnight for their Zone Conference Friday had already gone to bed, and we hit the sack pretty quickly too. After meeting the refugees, we were very glad for a warm apartment and bed.
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