We went shopping at Lidl on the way to the Institute, with Dee filling up the cart with food for the evening. The fridge at the center has been stuffed for some time now with food for all the different cooking events, and with holidays coming up it could be that way for a while still. It was my mom's 94th birthday, so I called her briefly during the afternoon to wish her a happy one. Dee helped Fabrizio with his family history on the nice new computer we have for that, but apparently they were not able to find the records he needs (yet).
Ugo sent out a link to a local news article which said that the police had just razed the Baobab refugee camp. That is where we had gone many times to bring and serve dinner for the refugees. Apparently it had gotten violent there. We had seen some signs of that the last time we went some months ago, after which we decided not to go back. It is a shame, because the folks there will be mostly without any place to stay, but it was dangerous enough that the authorities felt they needed to do something.
Samuel came by in the afternoon to do some Pathway assignments, including over 30 minutes with me as his English study partner. I help him with vocabulary and pronunciation. He thanked me for forcing him to slow down a bit and put the proper ending on words as he reads, because he tends to drop the 's' or 'ed' at the end of words. He still has a hard time making the vowel sound "ur", as in "word". It comes out as an 'o', so apparently that sound is just not used in his native Nigerian dialect. Dee suggested that I find some speech therapy videos on YouTube to help him, as that could make his pronunciation much clearer. I can't figure out how I make the sound to teach him, and we both laughed as he tried unsuccessfully to copy me. We also discuss the meaning of the short essays he reads to me, and his comprehension is pretty good.
Just before 6pm, the Peruvians started arriving. Jhon, a nonmember friend of Almendra, one of our GANS, showed up and went right to work. He was immediately in charge of the kitchen! Apparently he makes Peruvian food at home to sell and wants to open his own restaurant. Anyway, he worked for hours preparing the dishes, with significant help from Vania and her mom. They basically took over the kitchen and knew just what to do, stopping occasionally to ask Dee where some utensil or container could be found. Dee had boiled some potatoes for them ahead of time, and the quantities she bought (doing her best to estimate something she had never made before) worked out well. Almendra invited her extended family and friends, not all of whom were in our 18-30 age group, but it was fun to see them all there to support her and enjoy the food. We ended up with almost 30 people, who waited until after 8pm to eat. The place smelled amazing, and the food was incredible! A couple of the kids brought some Inka Cola, which is more popular in Peru than Coke is.
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| The menu |
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| Dee, Vania and her mom, Jhon |
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| Vania with Inka Cola |
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| Blending the sauce for the potato dish |
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| Almendra joins the team |
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| Cooking the pollo |
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| Almendra and cousins |
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| Vania's mom preparing the potato dish |
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| The eating begins |
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| Fun design: potatoes, sauce, hard-boiled egg, and olives |