Thursday, we had our classes and we rode in the church van to Eliane’s apartment (we picked up Eugette along the way). We sat around Eliane’s well-set table, drinking tiny cups of coffee, and eating chocolate and cookies. Then, we sang many songs from the songbook and had a Bible study on the first chapter of Hebrews. Reading Hebrews more slowly, in a second language, was very illuminating. I was kicking myself for not having read it more seriously before; it’s full of good stuff!
We had a free evening.
On Friday, after classes and after our lunch we all walked to Saint Maur and had a tour of all the buildings. The Maitresse told us about the sorts of things we could volunteer to do there and we filled out forms about what we were interested in helping with.
Friday night was the kick-off of the first FOI en FOLIE, the group of 7-12 year olds at the church. They kick off the year with a Progressive dinner with one stage at each of the CEM apartments. Our apartment was the first visit, the Entrée. Afters, they went to the girl’s apartment above the church for the main meal, and then to the boys’ apartment for the dessert. Joelle and I worked hard all Thursday night and Friday afternoon for our entrée.
We had our first almost-argument fueled by a culture clash Thursday night. Joelle made mini-omelettes for each child, called “Tortillas”. A Tortilla in Spain is an omelette; different from the definition of a middle-American tortilla. We decided we should give the kids a little bit more, so I suggested we give the children carrots.
“You can’t just give a child a carrot? How’s he going to eat it?” Joelle exclaimed, and did a bugs bunny expression.
“Yes, that is how you eat a carrot.” I said.
“You can’t just give a child a carrot!”
“Yes, you can.”
“You must ‘rapee’ the carrot!”
I use rapee in the context of fromage rapee, grated cheese, but I was praying that in this case, it meant “pealed.” “you mean, remove the skin?” I said, hopefully.
“No, rapee!” and Joelle showed me how to grate the carrot.
The first law of cooking with me is that, if you don't have to, you don't. I did not want to grate a perfectly ready-to-eat carrot, and I thought maybe the children in this country need to learn to use their teeth a bit. But Joelle explained the concept; you grate the carrots, you cut up tiny pieces of tomato, you add her special sauce, and you have a salad for children. I had also never heard of a children’s salad, or children liking salad, but I finally ceded to Joelle’s superior knowledge of her own culture and began grating carrots.
The meal turned out to be a success: each child got the tiniest cup of fancy salad, and most ate it! As Joelle said “they’re children, they don’t eat a lot.” (I'd never heard that one, either, but I'm glad I went with it). The children came with Philippe, they asked us a few get-to-know-you questions, they gave us clues for a game of “name that Bible story” sang us “my God is so Big!” and left after 20 minutes, onto the next apartment for the main meal.
Saturday, I was thinking of going downtown. I went over to the other girls’ apartment, to see if any of them wanted to come with me. In the apartment under them, I saw that Djijiga had many guests, including Katie Young. They invited me in to meet everyone and say hello. The guests left, but Djijiga gave me coffee and I ended up staying. Her three children invited me in to watch a documentary about sea life, and after that we all ate lunch together. I had the children help me with my homework, which was to read Genesis. We read Genesis Chapter 37, 38, and unfortunately 39 (after which I said “sometimes kids, people in the Bible do things that God doesn’t want them to).
Tonight we have our first “Soiree des Jeunes,” a young adults group for ages 13-25. If everyone in this category shows up, we’ll have 30 people! We shall see. Joelle has made a beautiful "Carottes Rapees" salad and I made an apple pie and vanilla pudding.
There is a risk that this will become a food blog.
Words of wisdom for the week:
Why did God call Abraham? Because Abraham would listen; Abraham would say yes.
Why did God choose Mary? Mary admits she doesn't understand God's plan, and she doesn't see how the whole Virgin-bearing-a-child deal is going to work out, but she says "I am your servant" and agrees to play her part in God's plan.
What is so special about we CEMistes? Why are we here? Because we said yes!
*Grated Carrots. No direct translation into American.
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