Learning Curves

I wonder if someone that hasn’t been given the talent of cooking well, whether they can become a chef?! I do know that walking into the kitchen here at the compound didn’t transform me into one. I was an up-and-coming pro at cooking rice in the states with instant rice but that all flew out the door when I attempted it here because it was not instant rice. The ladies here have fluffy fried rice that tastes amazing. I tried my hand at fried rice, mine miraculously turned into porridge. It was to late to try another batch. Everyone dutifully ate some but it wasn’t the top favorite of that meal.

I find it difficult to choose recipes that I have the ingredients for. My mom gets many messages from me asking, can I skip this ingredient in this recipe and it will still turn out, okay? How do I cook a whole chicken? How many cups is 2 cans of mushroom soup? Do you have a recipe for mushroom soup? I don’t know what I would do without her.

Being with some other missionaries this past weekend I was able to tuck away a few ideas for cooking and I am ever so grateful. Also, we will see if I will be able cook fried rice and it not turn out being porridge. A friend of mine gave me pointers. 😊

A group of us ladies went plant shopping. It was so fun seeing the different varieties they sell compared to Pennsylvania. I found some strawberry plants for sale. I really wanted to buy one to try. I asked Ms. L if they are hard to keep alive. She said she hasn’t heard a success story in our area so I left them there. Our climate is to hot for strawberries. I saw mint tea and I thought it’d be fun to try but it had the same story as the strawberries so it didn’t come home with me. What did I get? An Orchid, Hibiscus and Succulent.

Nursery

I saw an orchid sitting in a box with a fig tree. It was the only orchid I saw in the entire nursery and so I pick it up. It had no price with it. I looked around for my friend to interpret. She asked the worker a price. He says it in recuperation so it isn’t for sale. She asked if they had others. They pulled two out of the directors’ office. We hope it wasn’t her favorite orchid I picked. I do know they weren’t for sale till then.

The Healthy Orchid

Wednesday night Tristan and I both bolted up at 5:20 AM. We heard a noise that sounded like a child dying. We knew that we had no overnight company that night. We can hear noise off the street but this was a chilling noise. Tristan whistles out the window. Then yells. Finally, the noise quits and neither of us know what happened. We eventually fall back to sleep. Next morning Tristan is sharing what happened. The others laugh, yes, it’s cats. What you mean? Cats climb on top of the buildings next to us and our roof and fight. Sigh, they make the worst noise.

Mid-morning, we hear Mr. L yelling and running at a speed we didn’t know he had. Well, he found the dumb cat that was the culprit of the early morning noise. They chased it through the compound and lost it somewhere, we don’t know where.

Now, last night I was sound asleep. Tristan at 11:00 hears the cat again. He gets up and walks outside, his mission is to get it to be silent. He never finds it. Mr. L hears it at 4:00 this morning. At this point, it is still around to haunt us.

Tristan is trying his hand at welding. He is currently working on making a shoe rack for me.

Aside from cooking, cleaning and laundry. I started painting bookshelves and dressers that are built in the woodshop here at the compound. I have to think of my dad while I do it. I hear the men in the woodshop and smell the wood. I can see dad in his. Hopefully some day he can visit this one.

I wish you all the Lord's Blessing as you enter into 2024, Lord Willing.