Jesus Banquet 2.0

This year we decided to do something different with the Jesus Banquet.  We had a carnival.  There were eight games.  Tickets were given and with the tickets prizes could be purchased.  The prizes included toys, shoes underwear, socks, blankets, towels and other household items.

The carnival was to start at 10:00.  This is the crowd that awaited us when we arrived shortly after 9.00.  I do believe they were eager for this event to start.

The games were set up easily and quickly.  The prize tables took a bit longer to set up.

Moms and children enjoyed the games.

This was the first, last and only time the prize tables were neatly organized.

People carefully selected their prizes.  At least in the beginning.   Then chaos ensued.

And more chaos when the pizza arrived.











I thought I would be able to take more pictures than I did, but we were quite busy.  I watched many children pass the toys and go for the underwear and socks.  The adults were going for the blankets.  Nice thick warm blankets.  I was working the blanket table when a dirty little boy about 8 years old walked up.  He had blond streak in his hair, indicating malnutrition.  He wanted to get a blanket.  The blankets cost 15 tickets.  He walked by all other tables to get a blanket.  Eight years old.  My heart cried.

When there was only two blankets left and several people waiting in line to get one, I thought there was going to be a fight.  Fortunately, it was just a minor scuffle.

After the blankets were gone and then the towels, people were afraid they were not going to get anything and stormed in.  There was not enough of us to control this crowd.  My first thought was were is Little Emma.  She could have been trampled to death.  When I saw her safely in someone else's arms, I went about the business of trying to form lines  We were somewhat successful in making the people get in lines because we refused to let them use their tickets if lines were not formed.

The whole event lasted about an hour and a half, though at times it seemed liked all day.  About 500 people were served and again at times, it seemed liked 10 million.

Next year we need more people.  And more prizes.

Matt and Nicole did  an outstanding job of organizing this event.  Our workers were few, but blessings were many.

This little cutie is one of 500 reasons for the Jesus Banquet 2.0

Graduation

Finishing sixth grade is a big deal in Honduras.  The reason is that so many do not go beyond sixth grade.  Most schools have a graduation for their sixth grade class and graduation is a huge deal.  This year we have six sixth graders, five in public school, Ana, Cindy, Daniela, Fernando and Jose and one in Manos Felices, Rosy.  Rosy's school did not have graduation.  But, the public school did  Yesterday was the big day.

 Before graduation

Ana was one of the song leaders

Signing the book by both the student and the parent is very important.  Karen signed with the girls, I signed with the boys.

Daniela was so excited.  She was standing up and we thought she was going to go before her name was even called.

Then we had cake and coke and our kids were ready to get out of there.

Let's Just Improvise On That

I have always enjoyed preparing Thanksgiving dinner.  Things have always gone smoothly and been fairly easy, even here in Honduras where I have no workspace and we have to improvise on ingredients sometimes.  That is, things have gone smoothly until this year.  I dropped things, spilled things, broke things, and made one mess after another.  And, we still served dinner only an hour late.

Normally, the kids get to come down and help cook, but a few bad decisions on the part of a few meant that no one could come into my house.  The kids still got to help with the things that could be done in the Casa kitchen or outside.

The cheese graters

The celery choppers

The onion choppers.  I was part of that group.

The potato peelers.

Since the kids were not coming to my house, Haley spent the night on Wednesday night and helped me prepare.  She was so excited that she began packing a whole week in advance.  Matt brought her to my house as soon as school was out and I could hear her running as fast as she could to my house.  She kept me laughing most of the time.

 I had been busy all day, but one of Haley's first jobs was to help knead the bread.

The bread rose, just as it should.

Hard at work

 Every good cook gets some flour on them.

Emmy got flour on her and she was not even cooking.  She tried to add sugar to something and flicked it into her eye instead of a bowl.  Emmy is a little mess.  All of the time.

At last, the bread is in the oven.

Haley called the oven mitts safety gloves and she wore them most of the night.

We were able to get a pecan pie and the apple cobbler done before Haley went to bed.  She said, "Grammy, if I were not here, you would be up all night.  Little did she know that I was up most of the night any way.

That was Wednesday.  Thursday is when the bumbling, dropping, spilling, breaking, and comedy of errors really began.

Haley was so excited about painting the turkey with butter.  We got that done and got the first turkey in the roaster.  Matt and Nicole arrived about 8:00.  Around 9:30, I asked if anyone could smell the turkey cooking.  Nicole said I smell so many good things, I can`t tell which is which.  I went to check.  Someone had accidentally unplugged the turkey roaster.  There was no way we were going to get two turkeys done on time. 

I painted the other turkey and seasoned it and got it ready.  Matt and Nicole took it to Richard and Yesenia's and put it in their oven.

We usually use Karen's oven for some of the food.  We realized quickly it was not going to be dependable.  It just would not heat.  It often has that problem.  That left a huge problem as how everything would get cooked. 

Matt just kept saying we would have to improvise.  And improvise we did. 

I did not have enough milk.  I did not enough chicken broth.  We did not have enough big pans.  We have always had enough  before.  No one here in Santa Ana carries much stock of anything.  Nicole bought two pulperias completely out of milk.  I used cubitos and made some chicken broth.  The green bean casserole was in two pans instead of one.  And, Matt improvised so well with the sweet potatoes that he almost caught Karen's kitchen on fire.  She came running down here saying look at me, look at me.  Her clothes were wet and she had marshmallows all over her.  She said this is my last sweat shirt because I had dog poop on the other one.  I did not ask, but I wondered how she got dog poop on her other sweat shirt.  Nicole jumped up and said I better go check on the other turkey, I don't want Richard's house to be on fire.  It wasn't, but it was funny that Nicole said such a thing. 

We spilled our way through the day.  I hate those little bags of milk.  We tried to clean as we went, but it did not seem as anything was getting clean.

Finally, things started to get done.

 That is a lot of macaroni and cheese.

When Emma gets hungry, she comes and gets a bowl.  She walks around saying Emma bowl.  She got a bowl and we fed her a little snack.  She carried her bowl, a rather large bowl at that, around for a couple of hours.  Right before everything was ready, she gave it up.

After doing such a good job carving the turkeys, Matt and Nicole got to move to the big table this year.

When the last dish was ready and carried up, we found every one was there.  And, everyone was hungry.

And those sweet potatoes look like they just had a little fire.

There was plenty of food, plenty of laughter and plenty of wind.

Even though things did not go as smoothly as I would have liked, we have so many blessings and many things for which we are thankful.  I enjoyed the day.

When I got back to my house, I was thinking a haz mat team might be in order, but Matt, Nicole and I worked to restore some order.