Nice Day

Elise Frederick and Dr. Brent Burket from Mission Doctors Association arrived yesterday. Today, after rounds and clinic we had a wonderful time talking about Mission Doctors, our families, and sharing life experiences. After an afternoon rest, we took a walk to buy food for dinners this week.  We found green lentils, white beans, peppers, sugar, flour, bananas, cucumbers, and hot pepper sauce at Don Baca’s and Dona Irma’s stores. We continued down the main path to the church. The church is actually a big barn, constructed 50 years ago by a group of Canadian farm boys that came to help out. In front of the church, where they were constructing booths of bamboo poles for "The day of the Indigenous." While watching bamboo be tied into place, we ran into Cesar. Cesar is a kind modest man who recently had a metal plate (that was placed 27years ago after a fracture) removed from his leg. He invited Elise, Brent and I to have aguaje at his house. Aguaje looks almost like a pinecone and after you peel the hundreds of little flecks off the skin, the deep yellow layer of fruit over a big central seed tastes almost like an unripe avocado. They were so good I ate four! Then they gave us 2 grapefruits and two smoked fish with 4 plantains. The gesture of hospitality was amazing, and the fish was delicious. 

Toni

7 August 2012