Surprise!

A curious thing happened when we were going across the lawn to the Harvey’s Sunday evening. We look over and see a woman on the ground and one of the girls with us said she was having a baby. I was thinking no way because this woman didn’t even look in labor, but to our astonishment, she did in fact have a baby on the lawn. It was a very Bethlehem-esque scene: in the grass, under a palm tree, and with a donkey just a few feet away. Apparently this happens often because on the other side of the mission is the medical clinic where the women try to make it to when they are in labor. However, this one didn’t quite make it to the clinic, but luckily had an uncomplicated birth and had her baby bag right there with her so she was ready to go.

We had another cooking episode in our kitchen: Mexican night. The menu was intended to be beans, salsa, tortillas, and chips. At first, things were going well; the limes were juiced, the tortillas made, and I was moving on to making chips out of some of the tortillas. I was being a little clumsy with the cooking utensils, and ended up splashing a bit of oil on me, leaving little red circles all up my left arm. Meanwhile Joan had cooked corn and made salsa. We were tackling the beans together in the pressure cooker. Now, I didn’t even know such a thing as a pressure cooker existed until I came here and apparently they are used all the time. However, I have no idea how to use it and really shouldn’t have been within ten feet of the thing. We assumed it was finished since the beans had been in there for the designated cooking time, and we had turned the heat off of them for a while. However, we neglected to take off the cap to the pressure cooker lid to let them steam out. So we wanted to get the beans ready, and I being too hasty and not at all patient with this thing, pulled of the cap, let the steam run out for only about a minute, and proceeded to try to take off the pressure cooker lid. Now I know why it was so difficult to get the lid off because apparently it’s a safety mechanism to stay on there. I forced the lid off and, since the pressure had not been fully released, hot water, steam, and beans flew all over the kitchen and on me. My hand is a tad bit puffy and red, and I just take comfort in knowing that there is silvadene burn cream at the hospital. We did eventually sit down to our meal and did enjoy it, but needless to say, we won’t be having a Mexican night for quite some time.