Saturday, February 26- "You know I like my chicken fried..." (aka AMERICAN DAY!)

Oh, beautiful... Oh say can you see... that glorious sight? Why-- IT'S AMERICA!

I have missed my homeland so very much this month, but today it almost, almost felt like I was home again; or at least it tasted like it.

Emily and my day began at 4:00am.  After not leaving ourselves with enough time last time we were called on to cook we decided to start as early as possible.  the looks on some our dorm mates' faces were quite hysterical (and I'm sure our tired eyes and bedhead hair was quite funny too). You could almost hear their thoughts: "What? Those two American chicks who we never see before the breakfast bell rings?? What are they doing up."  The question really should be what are the kids doing up!?! It's Saturday! If we had made them follow American tradition they'd be in bed for another 6 hours or so, but old habbits die hard and we were already giving them enough change for one day.

We headed for the kitchen around 4:30am and started the french toast right away. This worked SO much better than pancakes. We purchased 12 loaves of bread and 90 eggs to make french toast and scrambled eggs for approximately 50 people. We'd much rather get too much than too little.  Well we indeed did have extra, but that was fine.  I made 110 pieces of french toast 4 dozen scrambled eggs (and we made 10 liters of orange juice).  This alone was amazing considering the cooking equipment.  We have this huge and incredible heavy medal slab thing sitting on top of two gas burners but the front one doesn't go higher than 'low'. I couldn't cook more than 6 pieces of toast at a time so the early start was very necessary.  We  were completely spent after one meal, but it tasted delicious, and the kids were all smiling and getting seconds.  The syrup was also a HUGE deal to them. Meal 1: Success!

[This segment is dedicated to Lauren Bain. Who else could I chose?! I think French Toast I think Lauren... cannot wait to pick that tradition up again when I return! Love]

Full and feeling pretty proud of our first achievment, Emily and I meant to start on lunch right away, however we both went to our rooms to change and we BOTH fell asleep.  We did a film showing the night before with the kids which had us up until 10:00pm and the 4:00am wake up call really killed us.  We were grateful for our cat nap but were back to work by 10:00am to take on an even more difficult task: Hamburgers. Emily and I were by far the most excited for this one having been craving a burger for weeks, however we were also very nervous about pulling this off.  We assumed our positions back in front of the strange make shift skillet and this time Emily (and our kitchen helper Melvin) got started on cooking the patties while I worked on condiments and, a fun addition, nametags! We gave all of the kids and house parents American names.  It was hysterical-- they totally loved it! A lot of them called each other by their American names for the rest of the day.  It was difficult to think of names especially for the girls since we wanted them to be similar to their given names and we have a Mary Lyn, Maricel, Mary Joy and Marivel.  We got it done though and it was great.  After over an hour of cooking and over cooking just to be on the safe side and setting up everything we bought (including DISPOSABLE plates, cups and silverware-- the American way) we once again rang the bell and got the kids in for another meal.  They looked confused when they entered since we had rearranged the room to provide a space for the buffet-style burger station.  We told them we'd explain and demonstrate after we prayed.  This was another fun chage, because the children just rotate around the room and one person prays at each meal.  Today though, they had to pray in English.  The really don't like doing this, but we really hate not ever knowing what they say when they pray, so in the name of American day, they agreed and did a swell job.  The line formed and they got their burgers complete with the options of ketchup, mustard, mayonaise and cheese, and then further down the line the got some Cheetos or Sour Cream & Onion chips and then finished the line with their choice of Sprite, Coke, Coke Lite, Pepsi, 7Up or Mountain Dew.  After we did crowd control we went down the line and looked like giddy children the whole time. Our faces after one bite and the faces of the kids said it all.  Burgers are good... all the time!! When we announced they could get seconds it was less than a minute before that was no longer an option.  Filipinos, it turns out, love them some burgers.  We even have video evidence of more than one of the kids saying burgers are better than rice.  I think I'll keep this hidden a while since I believe you can be convicted as a traitor for a comment like that, but I'll get it out when I'm back in the land of the cheeseburger.  Meal 2: HUGE success!

[This segment is for my dear Janey who is my consant companion via email while I'm here, but who is my Freddy's buddy at home.  As good as these burgers were, Freddy's will always win... and Freddy's with you can't be beat. Can't wait to see you!]

We had enough time for a nap after lunch but we procrastinated doing computer stuff and all of a sudden we were rushing again.  We had a small activity for the kids but then it was back to the kitchen for the least glamorous part of the day.  Unlike American chickens, we explained to our dinner assistants, Filipino chickens have bones :). For the American (ehem, Mexican) meal we were preparing for dinner, we had to de-bone the chicken.  For anyone who has been here, you know the agony of the meat market experience. Well, this wasn't that bad, but it was pretty nasty. I've done this at home plenty of times, but somehow the manufacturing companies take care of a lot of nastyness for me. With 3 very blunt knives (and 1 machete) we went to work pulling flesh from bone and fat from meat and finding all kinds of hidden treasures. (If gross stuff bothers you, maybe skip ahead a few sentences, but I think it'll be theraputic for me to document this.) One particular piece was giving me a considerable amount of trouble and I flipped it over to give the other side a try.  When I did this, an at the time unidentified organ plopped down in front of me.  A split second later I reaslized this was the heart and I darted to the kitchen to have a minute alone.  It is little things like this that push you over the edge even if just for a second and you need to take a minute to pull yourself together and calm your stomach before returning to the task. Thankfully our helpers (Brindy, Joel and Jojet) are super friendly and understand that just like American day was weird for them, everyday is Filipino day for us.  Anyway, we finished that lovliness and got to marinating with some yummy teriyaki sauce.  Then we once again cooked and over cooked and cut up onions and lettuce anf cheese for our fajita toppings.  To Emily's sadness we could not find salsa and to mine, no sour cream.  However the kids were once again pleased and even more so when the saw the familiar sight of rice on the table. Most of them opted out of putting the rice in the tortilla (or tortilia as they say) and just ate it alone. Strange people. :) Meal 3: Another success!

AMERICAN DAY: SUCCESS

Throughout the whole day we had our "American Music" playing which was really whatever Bekah and Em wanted to hear, but we actually did download some some songs specifically for the day.  We had a loop going of The National Anthem, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, God Bless the USA, Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue and Take Me Out To The Ballgame.  Emily's song was "Mississippi Girl" and mine was "Come Back To Texas".  We thought they were both very appropriate and the kids like to hear songs with our states' names in them.  We also had the song "Chicken Fried" in the list (hense the title of this post) and we had a little party every time it came on repeating each time how much we missed jeans and dancing and driving around listening to the radio.  And of couse we had our "traditional folk dance" song (which we never did anything with) "Sweet Home Alabama" and "All Summer Long." We enjoyed our day of food, music and a little feel of home.

[This part is for Jeremy Alvis.  You'll be happy to see that that song list is heavy on the country side and I enjoyed every second of it.  That could be because it sounds like home... but either way. :)]

I certainly hope this day can hold me over until I get home.  I never again want to cook for this many people.  Please remind me to never have 40 children. Hahaha....

Well, tomorrow is church! Four hours of Ilonggo.  I miss English church. (Dad, can you come be a guest speaker please. :)

Good night, America!!!!!!!!!

This part is for my dad. Miss you so much! You should come to the pastors’ conference in April!!

See the exhaustion in our faces.