Cooking for a Crowd

The week got off to a slow start but has since progressed nicely. Monday morning I went out to a rubble site, feeling pretty nasty from this cold, and was somewhat ineffective. In the afternoon I decided to stick around base and help around where I could. I ended up going to the market with one of the base managers to pick up food for today.

Today, the entire kitchen staff was attending a funeral, so we volunteers were tasked with making lunch and dinner. I jumped on the opportunity. We had a small team to prepare food. It turned out to be a lot of working (preparing meals for 80 people), but we had a good time and made some delicious food along the way. For lunch we made pastas; some with a spicy peanut sauce, some with pesto (made with basil from our garden), and some plain. We had boiled hot dogs, which were a nice change from the fried hot dogs we usually have. And we had a nice salad (including radishes from our garden) with dressing. I was surprised when the food came back in and there were a ton of hot dogs leftover. It was later explained to me that the local volunteers didn't eat them because they didn't look familiar. Haitians, I found out today, are extremely reluctant to eat anything unfamiliar to them (evident by their lack of interest in both lunch and dinner).

In the afternoon we prepared dinner, which consisted of chicken (boiled, rubbed, then baked - as opposed to fried), potato salad, rice, red sauce, lentils, and salad. The meal was extremely well received (by the international volunteers at least). Making a meal for so many people, most of whom seemed to enjoy it, is exceedingly satisfying.

Tomorrow is my last day of work. I can't believe it. It's unreal how quickly time passes being at this project. I guess time flies when you're busy and having fun. Tomorrow I'll be working on bio-sand filters. It's before 8 o'clock and I'm nearly ready to go to sleep. Cooking took a surprising amount out of me.

Until next time.

Love,

Daniel