So this extra help wasn’t exactly invited, nor did we keep him very long. The scary part, I have seen one other twice his size in the depot, and another one smaller and darker, and somehow meaner looking!  He was glaring at me when I killed him. Yes, sometimes I do kill spiders and cockroaches. And being the girly girl that I am, I am slightly embarrassed, but mostly proud that I am willing to kill cockroaches (and the occasion spider only if brandon is nowhere around). I know now that if I don’t kill them right when I see them, they will come back when I least expect it.  I am too used to this job because the only ones that bother me are the huge ones I swing at and miss, only to watch them fly back at me in retaliation. Yes, cockroaches fly here!!

We “borrowed” Sonya from one of the organizations we are feeding. Since the first day we made food Brandon and I made it, and it wasn’t as great as we had hoped. Turns out, when you follow the directions, it asks for way too much water, and when you mass produce it, it turns into a shlopy goulash. So, the next day we asked if Sonya could come and give us a few tips. She added some tasty seasonings and used half the amount of water it called for-and it turned out great!!

So Sonya cooked for us for a few days, working hard to cook lots of food that would be tasty. Then, we hired Madame Finance. She is great, like I mentioned, and so asked Sonya to stay a day or two to show her how to use the pots, and what tasty things she added to it. The first way was, well, interesting. I speak enough Creole to understand I think it was a bit of “too many cooks in the kitchen” .. and it kind of make me chuckle to myself to see them both telling the other how they do it and why their way was the best. Either way, they both made great food that day. I gave Madame Finance the option to keep Sonya around for a few more days, if she still thought she wanted help. I figured she would say no seeing as how the morning went, but turns out she wanted help the rest of the week! I was surprised, but grateful I guess that she was willing to say she needed a bit more help before she felt comfortable on her own. So all last week, the two ladies worked together, nicely. 🙂 Whew.

Madame Finance.  She is adorable. She has cooking experience, which is great. She has has cooked for serveral nutrition programs in the past, and brings a lot of experience to the table.  This is a wonderful thing considering the difference between the food Brandon, Jeremy and I made on our first day, Thursday, kind of left one wanting. We followed the directions, but turns out that makes the prepackaged food more like guloushy shlop.  It’s all part of the learning process I suppose!! So, since we had not hired Madame Finance yet, we borrowed the cook from the first organization we gave food to. Sonya. She helped us make it the second day, and wow, what a difference! She make a tasty spice mix with peppers, onions, garlic, and oil first and then added it to the packaged food. It only costs a few extra dollars, but makes the food, well, edible! It was great.

Friday we added beans as well, for added flavor and extra protein. That was quite the procedure. I went with Sonya to the market to buy the beans, and we took them upstairs to our house to cook. (Cause the huge pots have a “hole” at the bottom to drain and the spices and few beans would just get stuck in there) So, for now, we take the spices and beans and cook them on our stove in our house. Well, we bring the beans upstairs-and they didn’t come alone. I think there was 1 creepy black bug per every other bean!! They were crawling everywhere! The ladies were laughing at me as I insisted on smashing all of them. They kept telling me in Creole, ‘it’s okay, they will float to the surface” but what they didn’t understand was I also  didn’t want them in my house! Ah, now we have additional friends in the house. The next day, I made them sort and put the beans into the big pot, and then come upstairs to cook them!

Pictures to come of madame Finance.. you’ll love her too!