Sunday, September 9, 2007

Neighbors cooking together








Today I made some new friends. The ladies across the street were working together to roll out dough and cook meals on a portable stove. They were in an empty cement garage directly across from our apartment, and I've been wanting to learn how to make this dough ever since we arrived. This was a golden opportunity. However, I had one thing holding me back. (Warning: for the squeaminsh, skip the next paragraph.)

I've had the nastiest intestinal thing ever to hit this body. I weighed myself today, and I've lost 5 pounds in 2 days (I wasn't too sad about that). For 2 1/2 days I've hit the bathroom within 5 minutes of eating food (I went 32 times in 2 days). Today I had already gone to the restroom 5 times before lunch, and I saw these ladies out there, and it was an awesome opportunity to meet them and learn some tricks of the trade with cooking here. Everything except my stomach told me to go down there. I said a prayer before I left , asked if any kids wanted to go with me, and Emma and I trotted to the street.

I used my Tarzan-speak to communicate. "Excuse me. I want to learn. May I?" It worked! They welcomed me in and gave up their own pillows for me to sit on. Friends here get together to prepare food. These ladies had a system for preparing thin dough, filling it with a meat mixture, and cooking it on an open outdoor stove. There were 2 ladies preparing dough and shaping it into balls, 3 ladies rolling out the dough into something thinner than you thought possible (much thinner than a tortilla), and 1 lady cooking it on an open outdoor stove.

Withing minutes I was offered one that was fresh off the stove. It was kind of like a quessedilla filled with ground beef, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. Exaclty what I needed considering I had the worst case of intestinal yuck I'd ever experienced. I completely went off my BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast), and I ate it. It was yummy, and within the next two hours I had three cups of tea and a plain cooked thingy off the open stove.

I know my Father above completely intervened with my intestinal yuck. I am writing this blog at 10:30 p.m., and I have not had one cramp or inestinal bout since I went to meet my neighbors around noon. I know He's blessing me for stepping out in faith. I made some new friends, I learned a bit about making dough, and I was cured of intestinal yuck by eating spicy meat and peppers. How cool is that?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you counted the times (32)
ha ha

great to talk with you on Fri.
it made my weekend

Carrie said...

I've got this intestinal thing too, except they are calling my thing 'pregnancy'. I wonder if spicey meat and peppers will help me solve this?! Due any day, now!!