Potluck dinner and birthday visit

Our group had been asked to plan on sharing a "traditional American dinner" with our hosts for a potluck one evening. We brainstormed about what was "traditional American" and what we would actually have ingredients for (or could bring with us). We settled on chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes, and the San Antonio group did mac and cheese with Velveta. (The Velveta was a TOTAL hit!) The kitchen was pretty basic and all our bi-lingual people in the group were otherwise occupied, so collaborative cooking was an adventure. 

We were a little surprised to be asked to prepare the meal several hours before dinner time, but it turned out to be a good idea (the power went out around sunset). The two traditional Cuban musicians joined us for a wonderful concert and dancing, and then we shared our dishes with each other. Washing up had to wait until the next morning when the water tanks were refilled. 

Our hosts had been serving us water from a Living Waters filtration system, but with so little power, they were not able to filter as much water for distribution, so we began getting purchased bottled water instead. They hope to get solar panels to power the filtration system for the future. 

At the end of the evening, we made our way down a darkened street with our flashlights and paid a visit to an older lady who was celebrating her birthday. Pastor Anier played guitar and we sang to her. Then she invited us in. She had made a special dessert with the keylimes from her backyard and the sweetened condensed milk that the San Antonio people brought her. She also played a few songs for us on her old piano. It was a wonderful ending to a full day of connecting and friend-making.

Homemade dessert with key lime juice.