Thanksgiving was pretty interesting...
Jen and I did all the normal work in the morning, cleaning, doing laundry and watching the children. Lydia typed emails for Betsie (who is still very sick). The children had off homeschool cause it was Thanksgivig. Once we put the children down for naps after a light lunch we dove right into the cooking. We made mashed potatoes, gravey, green bean
casserole (I made a white sauce for it and deep fried battered onion
slivers to make it like our normal green bean casserole), carrots,
stuffing, fried and then baked chicken (that I am pretty sure was
spoiled! We ate it anyway, as meat is hard to come by. ) canned ham and pineapple. It was a TON of work, Lydia, Jen and I worked for about 4 hours on the food. The day before I had, with some
help, made 3 “pumpkin pies" (two were with squash) and a pecan pie.
We girls were pretty proud of ourselves for running the whole house,
(Gordon was teaching all day, Betsie was in bed) watching the children,
doing all the house work and making a Thanksgiving feast without many
of the normal things to cook with. Like for the pecan pie I used
glucose, and molasses for the filling it actually turned out really
good. :)
We hadn´t seen our friend, Rosa (more on her story later), for a few days so Betsie sent me down to see her
the day before, explain about Thanksgiving, and invite her and her brother Kevin
to join us.
I was told to tell her to get here at 3 pm since we wanted to eat at
4:30 that way they would be here since Peruvian culture is always
late. So Rosa and Kevin showed up at 3:30 and Lydia sat and ¨talked¨
with them, asking them how to say things in Spanish, while Jen and I
kept cooking. We, all 11 of us, squeezed around the small table, we changed
around the chairs and added another bench to make room for everyone. We served the food on plates Peruvian style, since there wasn´t room on the table for all the food.
Gordon had bought coke (in glass bottles like they sell it here), that on the table with the table cloth (we NEVER EVER use a table cloth here) and a ¨warm cider¨ scented candle
gave the table a special feel. As soon as we were served and Gordon
had prayed there was a knock on the door, it was Maria and her two
boys, we all moved around a little, squashed in closer and somehow
made room for them…the table was now up to 14. Jen and I got up and
served them, by the time I finally got to eat my food was all cold and
I was very tired. The conversation was mostly in Spanish since our guests were all Peruvian. After the big meal no one was very hungry for pie.
casserole (I made a white sauce for it and deep fried battered onion
slivers to make it like our normal green bean casserole), carrots,
stuffing, fried and then baked chicken (that I am pretty sure was
spoiled! We ate it anyway, as meat is hard to come by. ) canned ham and pineapple. It was a TON of work, Lydia, Jen and I worked for about 4 hours on the food. The day before I had, with some
help, made 3 “pumpkin pies" (two were with squash) and a pecan pie.
We girls were pretty proud of ourselves for running the whole house,
(Gordon was teaching all day, Betsie was in bed) watching the children,
doing all the house work and making a Thanksgiving feast without many
of the normal things to cook with. Like for the pecan pie I used
glucose, and molasses for the filling it actually turned out really
good. :)
We hadn´t seen our friend, Rosa (more on her story later), for a few days so Betsie sent me down to see her
the day before, explain about Thanksgiving, and invite her and her brother Kevin
to join us.
I was told to tell her to get here at 3 pm since we wanted to eat at
4:30 that way they would be here since Peruvian culture is always
late. So Rosa and Kevin showed up at 3:30 and Lydia sat and ¨talked¨
with them, asking them how to say things in Spanish, while Jen and I
kept cooking. We, all 11 of us, squeezed around the small table, we changed
around the chairs and added another bench to make room for everyone. We served the food on plates Peruvian style, since there wasn´t room on the table for all the food.
Gordon had bought coke (in glass bottles like they sell it here), that on the table with the table cloth (we NEVER EVER use a table cloth here) and a ¨warm cider¨ scented candle
gave the table a special feel. As soon as we were served and Gordon
had prayed there was a knock on the door, it was Maria and her two
boys, we all moved around a little, squashed in closer and somehow
made room for them…the table was now up to 14. Jen and I got up and
served them, by the time I finally got to eat my food was all cold and
I was very tired. The conversation was mostly in Spanish since our guests were all Peruvian. After the big meal no one was very hungry for pie.
Jen and I took walk after we ate, Lydia was too tired to go, so she went and laid down. We ended up taking Samuel, Elisabeth and Anthony (Maria´s 7 year old) with us. Gordon reminded us before we left to be back soon cause it was close to dark and we aren´t allowed out after dark. We felt so free to be out of the house…we had been inside all day, very unusual for us.
We pretty much skipped all the way to the plaza. The wind was really
picking up and right before we got to the plaza the rain came down in
torrents. We ducked into a doorway, the same doorway that Tio (the man we call our uncle) was huddling in. As soon as the rain let up a
little tiny bit we made a dash (I was carrying Elisabeth, Jen carrying Samuel and Anthony was running) to a store across the street, we were getting wet just
standing in the doorway. As we ran across the street we got pelted with
hail. It was storming like CRAZY!!!! Tio came with us, we stayed in there talking with him for
awhile, until we started freaking out that Gordon was going to be worried
about us if we weren´t back before dark, cause he didn´t know where we had gone. So we took off running across town for home. I was carrying Samuel, Jen was holding Elisabeth´s hand and
Anthony was fending for himself. The storm was really dumping the rain
and hail on us and the weather had dropped to about 40 degrees. Elisabeth was
crying cause she was cold. It finally got so bad we couldn´t keep going
anymore so we ducked into another store. The water was running down the street like a river. We waited till the hail let up a little and then ran the rest of the way home. I was so winded from running all the way across town (remember we are at 12,000 ft. and so the air is very thin), fighting the blinding rain and carrying Samuel.
As soon as we got home we all changed into dry clothes and drank some hot cider. And then got ready for the church service that we have every Thursday evening, the dishes needed done from our Thanksgiving meal so we quickly did them while people gathered in. We didn´t have church over in the church house because the electric kept flickering and we have a gas lamp at the house and not at the church.
We pretty much skipped all the way to the plaza. The wind was really
picking up and right before we got to the plaza the rain came down in
torrents. We ducked into a doorway, the same doorway that Tio (the man we call our uncle) was huddling in. As soon as the rain let up a
little tiny bit we made a dash (I was carrying Elisabeth, Jen carrying Samuel and Anthony was running) to a store across the street, we were getting wet just
standing in the doorway. As we ran across the street we got pelted with
hail. It was storming like CRAZY!!!! Tio came with us, we stayed in there talking with him for
awhile, until we started freaking out that Gordon was going to be worried
about us if we weren´t back before dark, cause he didn´t know where we had gone. So we took off running across town for home. I was carrying Samuel, Jen was holding Elisabeth´s hand and
Anthony was fending for himself. The storm was really dumping the rain
and hail on us and the weather had dropped to about 40 degrees. Elisabeth was
crying cause she was cold. It finally got so bad we couldn´t keep going
anymore so we ducked into another store. The water was running down the street like a river. We waited till the hail let up a little and then ran the rest of the way home. I was so winded from running all the way across town (remember we are at 12,000 ft. and so the air is very thin), fighting the blinding rain and carrying Samuel.
As soon as we got home we all changed into dry clothes and drank some hot cider. And then got ready for the church service that we have every Thursday evening, the dishes needed done from our Thanksgiving meal so we quickly did them while people gathered in. We didn´t have church over in the church house because the electric kept flickering and we have a gas lamp at the house and not at the church.
The dirt floor was all muddy
from the rain and hail coming in through the wooden door.
from the rain and hail coming in through the wooden door.
After church we served everyone pie and did all the rest of the
dishes.
dishes.
I had started coughing when I was cold and then couldn´t
stop. I coughed most of the evening. I decided it was worth the fun of running through town in the hail though! J
stop. I coughed most of the evening. I decided it was worth the fun of running through town in the hail though! J
Since we girls did the dishes while everyone else was eating the pie, we took our pie and hot cider up to our bedroom and just chilled, ate it together and listened to the pounding of hail and rain on our thin tin roof. Very nice ending to a long, crazy day!
It had been one of the most unusual Thanksgivings of my life!!
Hugs,
Helena
We´ll post pictures when we can!
(Side note, we are in rainy season here in the Andes and so every afternoon the rain and hail come with all their strenght. I tried to upload this a few days ago but right as I started to the electric went off cause of the hail.)
