Saturday, September 22, 2007

So today was Tony’s memorial, so I spent the morning wondering who all went to see him off, so to speak. Since it is the weekend, we Americans have to cook for ourselves, because the Haitian ladies that cook during the week have off. Erin woke up in the mood for pancakes so, I decided to help her make breakfast for everyone. Little did we know that a simple thing like making pancakes and coffee would result in more time spent and dirty dishes than most other meals. Before we attempted the pancakes, she was making coffee, and because of some extra coffee drinkers arriving yesterday, she decided to use the bigger pot. As it turns out it is a little harder to use that pot because of the size and the condition of the stove. So with our first defeat of the morning attempt number two was with the normal size pot, which turned out wonderfully. So next to the stove is a good size flat grill that I was excited to use, but found out that it takes like an hour for it to be ready to cook on, so we decided to use the regular oven. This normally would be an ok decision, just get a pan, spray it, and have pancakes, well not in Haiti. First we couldn’t find spray, so we used butter, and then found out that the stove slants one way so all the butter burnt in one corner of the first pan. Second, some of the burners don’t work and none of them work at the same pace, so the first pan got real cooked before we could get food on it. So we moved on to another pan and tried to administer the butter differently and succeeded but found out after the first two cakes were on their that there was not enough butter on the pan. During this time I found some vegetable oil, so when we got out our third pan, we used oil. A little too much though, and the first cake was like a grease ball. I dumped a little off the pan, and then managed to get about 12 cakes out of the batter we had made. We decided to not mix anymore batter though, because by this time no one was even awake yet. So we enjoyed them did ALL of our MANY dishes and moved out to the dining hall to check emails and blogs. After a while of just relaxing on my computer I spent some time with the interpreters watching some kung fu movie and just hanging out. I got a chance to talk with Heather and Janeil after that, which was nice because they made me feel better about working with the kids and learning Creole, and being a part of the future of the mission. I decided that I wanted to go to the market today to get some fruit for the week, but when I went to get Roland, they were just putting in Constantine and had never seen it so I let them watch that first. I actually joined in a little, even though it was in French. That was ok, because I have seen it enough to know what they were saying. After Constantine, we had a wonderful lunch prepared by Heather end Erin, chicken salad, pineapple, crackers and chips. Roland, Vogley, and I finally left for the market to pick up bananas, oranges, mangos, candy, and Tang. We found all but one of those things; Tang is going to have to be a Port-au-Paix purchase. We stopped back at the mission to drop off the food before we went looking for the Tang and we lost Vogley, because he wanted to rest before we went to Sonel’s. Roland and I walked all over to find Tang, but we failed, and almost every vender told us to go to Port-au-Paix. By the time we had exhausted all possibilities we did not have enough time to go back to the mission before the rest left for Sonel’s so we took another route and just met them there. We actually beat them there, which was good because we got Sonel out of his bed and took him outside on his wheelchair to hang out with us. He had quite a group of visitors today and was really excited about that. We found out that the air mattress that we took a couple of days ago must have a tiny pin hole in it because it was completely flat after only two days. Fortunately, he still had the egg crate that I donated to him so he was still laying on a soft surface. While we were there we sang, danced, and Mike told a story from the Bible, which Sonel loves because Mike tells them so well, it’s like you were there. When we got back to the mission we all showered and got ready for dinner, which was prepared by Mike and Teresa. We had BBQ chicken, coleslaw, green beans, Jalapeno cheese potatoes, and cake for desert. It was very very good, except the potatoes (cause of the Jalapeno cheese). While Erin and Melissa were cleaning up they got attacked by these ants that bite hard and their bites burn a little instead of itching. They were all over one of the trash cans and it must have gotten bumped by the girls because something rattled their cages. After, I did the dishes and helped put everything away; I sat down at my computer to journal, chat with some friends, and help Vogley understand some English words that were new to him. I was doing all of those things until about 1115 and then I went to bed. Peace