Saturday morning, I woke up to the sound of roosters and the boys playing soccer at the field below the station. I decided that I was going to have a special breakfast that did not involve the usual cereal and milk. I invited my roommate from a distance, Lisa, over and we made a gourmet breakfast of eggs and muffins. We had some awesome conversations about God over breakfast and things that He has helped us work through…talked a little bit about Genesis 22 and the personal application of that passage. Bottom line that God has taught me with the story of Abraham laying down Isaac is that God will sometimes call us to sacrifice things and usually these things are what are closest and most dear to us. Sometimes, we will receive those things back as Abraham received Isaac back, but that is not always the case…we have to be prepared to sacrifice for the long-term. In that, we show our obedience to God and our faith in him and his plan for our life. Because, when we do not obey God, we are simultaneously saying that we know better than God and have a better plan for our lives than God...Our breakfast conversation was a great way to start the day. I am so blessed to have Lisa (amongst many others) in my life!
After breakfast, “Operation Jungle Cookie Party” commenced. When I gave Christine Bataneni her first English lesson, we got talking about chocolate chip cookies and so I decided to invite her, the other surgical residents’ wives and my friend from Benin (Afoussa) over for a cookie party. Now, let me tell you, baking in the jungle can be quite an undertaking because recipes have to be adjusted because of the humidity. Needless to say, I was very nervous. In addition, my oven has a temperature regulation issue. Lighting the gas stove can also be a rather precarious situation. To top it off, I also ran out of gas as I tried to light my oven…Lisa helped me overcome these hurdles and I was finally able to commence baking the cookie dough...Lisa told Joanna, "Look at Christina! She's like Martha Stewart meets the jungle, but it works!"
In addition to making chocolate chip cookies, I also made shortbread (at Joanna’s suggestion). The reasoning behind baking shortbread is that the ingredients are easily attainable in Africa and any of the women could easily replicate the recipe. The ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, on the other hand, are NOT easily attainable. Brown sugar and chocolate chips (amongst other things) are not available in Lebamba.
Joanna & I with the first batch of oven-fresh cookies:
Cookies were already in the oven when the ladies came over at 3pm. It was quite the party (guest lists have a way of evolving in Africa :-)…I think there were at least twelve people over. They were all so cute and dressed up for the occasion.
Group photo (minus Joanna):
…Cookies were a total success. Desserts don’t really exist in Gabon and they certainly are not as sweet as American desserts, so the women really appreciated the less sugary shortbread. They enthusiastically wrote down both recipes and are going to attempt to make them by themselves…We all had a great time and I think it was a great break for all the women since some work at the hospital and others are busy taking care of their kids all day.
Christine Bataneni, petit Christine & me:
Maechat & I:
Afoussa, Me & Christine (they wanted to wrap my hair like Afoussa wears her hair normally):
Saturday was basically an eating-fest…Rachael Thompson invited Lisa and I over for some Cambodian food in the evening. There is no culinary task that woman does not succeed at! What a cooking genius. I told Rachael that I’ll be stealing her recipes…I finally made it home around 9pm and was able to do some skyping. I went to bed relatively early Saturday night because I knew Sunday would be an early morning…
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