Nom Nom Nom

Oh, have I not mentioned that we ate on our trip? This was not something I was particularly worried about, considering that during my Peace Corps experience one of the first foods I scarfed down in-country turned out to be cow's tongue on a tortilla. In complete honesty, I may not have eaten it with quite as much gusto if I had realized what it was, but hey, I survived. I also survived tasting a marañon, which has the same olfactory appeal as a dead possum that has been in stored in a plastic garbage can in the sun during a Kansas summer. For a month. They're disgusting, is what I'm trying to say.

But if marañones are at one end of the gustatory spectrum, the food we ate during our week at Children's Haven International was at the other end. Oh, my, gosh. So good.

Just look at those mangoes in the snack tray above. Here is one five minutes later after I had fallen upon it making slurping noises:

And here is E.'s mango, which she did not love so much but that probably was because this was her first experience with that wonderful fruit and it obviously fought her back:

For breakfast, T. made a work of art out of the pancakes Hermana Maria had piled into the warmer. Why, yes, these have strawberry jam, peanut butter, and bananas on them, and we did not feel ONE BIT GUILTY because we knew we would be working hard.

Another day we chowed down on eggs scrambled with ham and green peppers, with a side order of the most delicious tortillas in the world. And a banana.

 

Betsy, the co-director of CHI, had warned us that most people who do work trips here waddle away a little pudgier than they were before they arrived just because Hermana Maria is a wizard in the kitchen, and after a week at home I haven't had the courage to step on the scales, what with the taco a la plancha, and the sopa de fideos, and the chicken mole, and whatnot. (Why, yes, I said CHICKEN MOLE. For lunch. Oh, my, gosh.)

But then when I would ask the CHI children what their favorite food was, only one food got multiple mentions, and any other food was in second place with no mentions at all. Ask a kid who can have CHICKEN MOLE for lunch what constitutes a really special meal, and you'll get what we were served at the Thursday night going-away dinner they held for our work team. 

Yup. Little Ceasar's Pizza. Hot-n-Ready.

If we didn't already know it based on the grins and hugs and general kid-ness, this confirms it: Kids are the same no matter what language they speak.

To Be Continued (but not for very much longer)


This is not an official statement from Children's Haven International. If I've made mistakes in information, they're my own, and not those of CHI. However, I asked permission before writing any posts or publishing any pictures of their residents and activities.