While I was in the Congo, I asked Father Emmanuel if the sisters and Bea could teach me how to cook. The date was set for Tuesday of the second week where I was told I'd be cooking a chicken from alive to table ... thankfully when I was called to the plate to start cooking - the chicken was dead and even de-feathered. I was only about 3% disappointed since, um, that would have be the craziest I have ever done - and um, I had just flown to a village in the middle of a war-torn country on my own to village where about 2 1/2 people spoke English ... all by myself. Yeah, and killing a chicken would have been crazy! Anyway - I learned to make chicken, cassava, mashed plantains, rice, and preparing cocoa pods for eating. Here are some pics of the adventure! Boiling, Frying, and Steaming chicken on the 'stove' ... yup that's a camp fire! Mashing plantains in the biggest mortar and pestle I've ever seen ... this is much more difficult than I had imagined. ...
“You have prayed for patience, and I have multiplied the opportunities in which you could be patient.” God, speaking to St. Philip Neri ...Herein lie the opportunities the Lord is providing me to exercise this beautiful fruit of the Holy Spirit - Patience.