¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! Time for PARTY PREP! This year our menu was pulled pork, mac 'n' cheese, coleslaw, and an Oreo pudding dessert. Everything was delicious, but to be honest the dessert was almost a huge disaster. We were supposed to be able to get it ready in about 3 hours or so. Um, not so much. Ingredients are a bit different in Guatemala! First, we discovered that the pudding mix was actually flan mix, which is quite a different texture (more gelatin-like). Next, when we read the directions it said it had to be boiled on low to medium heat until thickened. Well, there's this other difference at Casa Bernabé called altitude. Everything takes longer (or doesn't work) at a higher altitude. After 2 hours of stirring we had burnt pots and pudding the consistency of chocolate milk. To say I was freaking out would be an understatement. In a last ditch effort to save the dessert, we stuck the pots in the freezers and hop...
We weren't sure if we'd have the opportunity to serve in a local village called Jocotillo this year, but one of our leaders made it happen! It was a privilege to serve the hungry. Thanks to the generous financial support of so many people, the team was able to provide $4000 in corn, beans, rice, sugar, and salt. Thank you, God, for providing food for the hungry. We estimate that we passed out about 300-400 bags of food. Each bag included 5 pounds of corn, 5 pounds of beans, 3 pounds of rice, a small bag of sugar, and a small bag of salt (if my memory serves me correctly). This should feed a family of four for about 3-5 days. Keep in mind that this may be the ONLY food this community has access to for a while. Also, most do not have an easy way to boil water (or access to water) so cooking the food is a huge task in and of itself. The majority of the community in Jocotillo works picking pineapple. We were told that working sun up to sun down would ear...