Saturday, December 16, 2006

What's been happening?

December 9th at the Kluge house, we had a Thanksgiving/Christmas lunch for the kids at Casa de Esperanza. Melissa worked extremely hard to cook a feast. The food was incredible. However, the fellowship was amazing. Randy, Melissa, Alora, Katrina, one cat, two dogs, me, Jen, Karen, and ten little ones running around. The house was packed with food, laughter, and fun.

December 12th I started English classes. The first day had 5 people while the second class had 15. Word is spreading, and people are excited. I have made up my own curriculum for now but want to do some research when I go to Nashville for Christmas. Each class begins with a Bible verse and ends with a prayer.

Today, the 16th, we had a Christmas party in Mololoa for the paid employees (3 ladies) and the volunteers who are consistently involved (7 teens and 3 ladies)…AND their families. It ended up being around 40 people. Yesterday, Melissa stayed at the house to cook another feast. Once again, she outdid herself. This morning, Randy had to make two trips to take all the food and decorations. We arrived at the kitchen at 10am with the intention to serve lunch at 1:30. “Welcome to Honduras”—I sometimes wonder why I even try to plan anything here. With all the work to do and running around (Randy brought a lady by the kitchen for me to test drive a vehicle) we served at 2:30. Everything was wonderful, and it was funny watching the ladies and their kids try totally different foods. The losers of the day were stuffing, green olives, and cooked carrots. The winners were cornbread casserole, sweet potatoes, and roast. But nothing got left on the table. More about that later…

About the time we were beginning desserts, Randy showed up with 9 people from TN (most of them from my home congregation). They were originally scheduled to go to Choluteca but had several changes in their plans. So, they headed our way. They had yet to eat, and we had plenty still on the table. They got to join in our regular food, but by the time they had finished, the dessert table had been licked clean. Afterwards, they were wonderful to help with cleaning up and helping to prepare the gift baskets we were giving for presents.

As we were wrapping up, two of the ladies came to me asking if it was okay to take home the left-overs from the plates of their kids (we don’t allow them to take home food from the feeding center). I explained that this food wasn’t under “feeding center jurisdiction” and that I would return with Ziploc sandwich bags. Word must have spread because when I returned, I was asked for another 10 bags, then another 10. I ended up bringing the whole box. When it came time to clean up, they had emptied all the regular food and the left-overs from their plates into bags. Each family took about 4 Ziploc bags of food. Even the things they barely touched (like the stuffing) were GONE!

We had a good day. I promise to post the photos later—I have some good ones.

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