A Chicken Foot and Yuka Icing

You're probably thinking, "what type of title (not to mention picture) is that??!!". Well, let me tell you about my weekend...

If you've been following my blog, you might remember from last week that this past weekend, there was a jovenes "congreso" which is basically a training time for the various jovenes in leadership from around the country. This congreso was for the new leadership of 2010. I attended all the sessions with them and was able to spend time with them over their meals, etc. I didn't have to lead anything, I was simply able to get to know them and learn a bit more of their ministries and how things work here.

A little aside...It was also Kallie's (our internship student from Saskatchewan) birthday on Saturday so I wanted to make her a birthday cake...she was supposed to spend the weekend with me but since I was going to be so busy at the Jovenes Congreso, she spent the weekend with the Whittles (from a Step church in Alberta...they're helping at the Casa and Jireh for a year).

Ok, back to the jovenes...I had 3 girls spend the night at my place Thursday night who were part of the leadership team for the congreso. We ended up talking until midnight about various issues which was great (I'm now able to understand and talk at a deeper level...I still have much more to learn but it's getting there) but unfortunately I didn't get to sleep until 1am and then needed to get up at 5:15am to get them breakfast since they had to leave early to meet groups coming in to Cochabamba by bus. I got home from the Congreso around 10:30 that night and then it was time to make Kallie's cake. I was bound and determined to make a chocolate cake with coffee icing since it was her favorite. Everything was going fine until the next morning when it came time to make the icing. I should also mention that once again, I didn't get to sleep until around 1am.

Well, I had found a recipe that looked really good on the internet but it called for 6 cups of icing sugar so I had made a quick trip to the market to buy icing sugar but when it came time to actually mix everything together, the icing seemed very dry and well...it tasted absolutely awful. No matter how much I tried to tweak it with more sugar, butter, milk...anything I could think of, it was just plain nasty. So, I started again with a recipe from a high altitude cook book (I was thinking maybe for some odd reason, the altitude was causing it to go weird). Well, it happened again. At this point, I was out of ingredients, time and patience when I looked at the bag of icing and realized that what I had actually been using was yuka flour (it's a root grown here in Bolivia that is very popular but extremely starchy). In my defence of not realizing what I had bought (yes, I need to read titles more carefully!), the flour is packaged in the same bag as the icing sugar with the same design and is directly below the icing sugar. Go figure...So, I called Norma (Whittle) and she very sweetly told me she would make the icing :) Thankfully they had coffee and homemade cinnimon buns ready when I arrived with the cake and so I was able to get some breakfast and an infusion of coffee (and laughter) before I headed off to the Congreso again.

Well, I ate all my meals with the jovenes and so had my first experience with "Sopa de Mani" which is peanut soup...very delicious and rich with lots of noodles, a few veggies and you guessed it...a chicken foot or heart, etc. depending on which bowl you pick up :) So, there I was trying to discreetly watch them to know how to eat the foot (and not get the bones in my mouth) while they're laughing at me because they could tell I had no idea what I was doing. They were also surprised that peanut soup with a chicken foot was not a typical meal in Canada :) Well, I got at least some of the meat eaten but honestly, there's not much meat to eat on the foot! I will also fully admit that the soup itself was absolutely delicious but if there's wasn't chicken's foot in it, that would be fine with me :)

The congreso ended yesterday early afternoon with a boardmeeting (it was the first one I had attended). To say that I was tired at that point is an understatement but thankfully I didn't fall asleep and I was able to understand quite a bit of it. I was also able to meet with the main leader of Vida Joven (the adolecentes), president of the jovenes and the pastor/coordinator of the jovenes for Bolivia. We were able to nail down a few more specifics regarding my work and I was able to ask some more questions about needs, issues. In regards to Vida Joven, they would like me to focus on providing information/resources/sessions that specifically deal with adolescence, life issues, etc. along with leadership development training. Also, there's a lot of interest and need in Potosi (the highest city here) and Tarija (near the border of Argentina) so they'd like me to also concentrate in those two areas to start up Vida Joven.

It was an incredible weekend and it's a relief to have more specifics on what my work here will be but I fully admit to feeling overwhelmed with the upcoming year...the time of learning is certainly in no way coming to an end :) Please be praying for me...for wisdom for the best way to proceed, intelligence, peace of mind, and that I will constantly rely on God and not try to do this on my own. Oh, and some sleep would be nice as well :)

'til next time,

rebecca