Our cupboards have been nicely stocked with no-bake desserts, cereals, breads, mixes of many kinds, and various spices and seasonings the entire time Adrie and I have been here. Biana decided that it was time to put all those into use. So this morning she made us gluten-free pancakes (delicious) and went to work getting together peanut-butter chocolate no-bake cookies and preparing for our big dinner tonight. I realized right away it was going to be a nice relaxing day at home.
Taking the advantage of having no set plans I enjoyed reading more of my book and got some homework assignments further along before lunch. After eating Adrie, Kristen, and I enjoyed some girl talk around the kitchen table and spent a lot of time laughing over sibling stories. I was brought back to a time in my life where I peeked inside boxes hiding Christmas gifts and was always willing to be the sick patient playing doctor because I knew Erin was always right! Kristen and Jon have definitely become part of our family and it is going to be really tough to see them leave on Thursday. I still can’t quite picture what life in Nigeria is going to be like without them around, they have been here every day of our trip thus far!
A nice pilates session in the middle of the day prepared us for the food coming later and gave us all a good stretch. I wandered down to the Clinic to make some important phone calls (making sure I stopped by Sonny’s booth to say Hello) and was glad to talk to my family and my boy. As rustic and adaptable as I would like to seem, I don’t know how I would survive being this far away from home without the convenience of the internet and phone lines. Sometimes you just need to hear certain people’s voices to remind you of what life normally looks like. After hanging up I rushed back to the flat to see what else needed to get done before our party started.
At 5:45 I walked into the kitchen where Naomi, Biana, Kristen, and Adrie were all working quickly to get our dinner on the table. Frying, dicing, mixing, arranging. Another body would have made things a little chaotic in such a small space so Jon and I decided to be mature adults and help out by sitting in the living room watching Eight Legged Freaks until someone acknowledged we were needed. Once everything was out on the table Joshua and his family arrived so we could get things started. We gathered around for prayer and then Biana reviewed what we had: chicken tacos (thanks to Sally’s corn tortilla contribution), creamed corn, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, homemade guacamole (well done Adrie!), peanut-butter chocolate cookies, and a Jello cheescake. I was able to demonstrate how a taco is put together for the Nigerians who were trying them for the first time, after which we all dug in. It may not have been Super Burro quality, but it was darn near close! After not eating anything remotely resembling Mexican food since the day before I left on my flight this meal was exceptionally wonderful. We ate in the living room and enjoyed each other’s company, a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Once we were done, Joshua’s children JJ (age 6) and Jonelle (age 2) became our entertainment as they jumped rope, ran around the room, and found new uses out of a piece of cardboard lying around. The adults decided to play Uno when the kids stopped caring if we were watching them. I was able to teach Joshua how to shuffle cards like an American (he did a great job) and he in return showed me how to deal like a Nigerian (I was not so good). Our first round of Uno went quickly with all of us laughing, trying to see how many cards we could make the person next to us draw. Joelle would come up periodically and throw all the cards to draw onto the floor so we had to keep an eye on her sneaky hand coming in. Joshua and his wife Vicky made the mistake of sitting next to each other (they were out to make the other person lose!) and we continually modified the rules to make the game more exciting. We decided on a second game but after an hour of people saying “Uno” and then picking up ten cards we all cheered with delight when Joshua placed his winning blue 0 down on the stack. By then it was 9:00, past the kids (and Kristen’s) bedtime so we thanked them for coming, picked up the cards, and headed off to another restful night.
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