Po-tae-to, Po-tat-o = Love

Dinner with Rigoberto, Family and Friends

 

We were invited for potoatoes at our Pastor’s house, just potatoes.  Pickup time was scheduled for 6 pm and we were given simple instructions, “wear pants.â€�

 

Wednesday night, 6:30 pm our pastor pulls up to the house.  We all pile into the van.  The foil wrapped baking dish in hand does not go unnoticed.

 

We arrived and were quickly ushered through the house and to the back. 

There is a large pile of …hay? Weeds? Trash?…it’s actually rice that’s burning.  A boy stands in charge and digs through the rice and uncovers the reason for the evening”potatoes dulce: sweet potatoes. J

               

 

Before we can finish our first round of potatoes, we are off…down the road to gather coconuts.  A friend of Rigoberto’s quickly shimmies up the tree and sends coconuts plummeting to the ground.  One cracks on impact and Rigoberto runs over to take advantage of the ready flowing water. It was perfect “kid in a candy storeâ€� behavior and satisfied grin!

 

I offer to carry our treasures back to his home and am glad when he simply tosses them one at a time into my arms.  The ease of this interaction makes me smile.  I feel a part of the group, a part of his circle.  This turns out to be only the beginning.

 

The night was so much fun; full of love, joy, camaraderie and smiles that I can’t do much else but list all the things that I mentally noted as “special:�

 

Consideration/Preferance for others:

·        Before we all got outside, Rigoberto and his younger brother rushed to provide enough seats for us all.  There is always consideration for others.  It is a priority for the people of Mogollon.

·        So in the small house we had 5 American girls, our 18 year old translator, the pastor, his 3 girls, his wife, our other pastor, his wife and daughter….then some friends pop over.  I mentioned before that there is NO bad time for company. Three couples join the gang and now its officially a party. 

·        I learned over the kitchen counter like a little girl and watched as the women helped themselves to the contents of the fridge and made themselves dinner. They chatted, laughed, cooked, and I smiled.  They diced onion, tomato and peppers. Heated a bit of oil, sautéed the veggies, then added eggs.  I smiled more…this is one of my favorite combinations and is perfect anytime of day.  The translator helped me communicate my pleasure at getting to observe them and my love for their tastes.  Now I’m not lying when I say, when the main cook was done, she put some on a spoon for me and said, “make sure it tastes ok.â€� When I gratefully declined and motioned that I was full, I was told “we need to know its ok, eat!â€�

·        If one of us is standing, ever, we are immediately given a seat.  The men are highly attuned, respectful and gentile.  They remind me of my Southern gentlemen, just Dominican.

Couldn’t have imagined it, never expected it:

·        After gathering coconuts we were treated to another round of potatoes and small garlic crackers.  As we ate and pieced together conversation I caught a note of a familiar tune…any guesses?

·        Boys To Men was coming out of a small shed/home apparently belonging to our Pastor’s brother.  It was such an odd composition…in the back yard of an evangelical Dominican Pastor eating sweet potatoes plucked from a pit of charred rice, with fresh coconuts, watching the sun go down across fields of bean and acres of corn…we hear Boys To Men playing in English! I love it! J

My cup overflows:

·        Back into the house we go because they have purchased Coca Cola for us to enjoy.  It only makes sense that we should have a fizzy drink for this joyful gathering.  As they pour us Coke, we unveil our cake!

·        Yay.  They are crazy for cake here…I mean crazy.  Manuel has requested another cake, chocolate with chocolate icing, and more chocolate.  I really wish I could buy the Ghirardelli Chocolate Fudge mix to bake for him J He seems to like chocolate as much as I do!  Its not just Manuel that asks for a second piece of cake; Hector, the translator, the girls …basically everyone is in love.  Crumbs are picked and even the foil is licked clean.  Cake is a success to say the least.

Family:

• Sitting in a circle as the little girls became mesmerized by a cartoon, we did what grown up girls do…we asked about the wedding photo.  Bilma, Rigoberto’s wife, didn’t shy away from the conversation; actually she brought out her wedding album!  It was a big event with an even bigger cake and even bigger shoulders on her white lacey gown.
  
• The girls jumped up and down on their beds with their insurgence of sugar (thanks to our cake).  Slowly we all ended up in the room.  It was a total tickle fest-Tickle Torture I call it!  The Americans were basically big sisters to play with…good thing there were 5 of us to attend to all the children, lots of energy to keep up with, but we are more than prepared to love of them for hours of giggling. J