Meals for the Mission Trip

Now to the fun part! I've explained about shopping and our kitchen in Honduras now lets talk about food....

Breakfasts - these are always full meals - every morning we'll have coffee, tea/juice, oatmeal/grits plus...scrambled eggs or sausage gravy & biscuits or pancakes or eggs & bacon. Lots of protein & carbs. You may be asking yourself "now how are they going to cook biscuits with no oven?", its really easy..there is a KFC in town and Mario will call and place our biscuit order and go pick it up for us. Yes, some may call that cheating, but its affordable and handy. Mario also has a farm, so we will have all the farm fresh eggs we need every morning. On Tuesday morning, we will have lots & lots of breakfast burritos. The team leaves at 7 and drives 3 hours to their mission for the day, and they eat breakfast on the bus. They take lots of snacks and drinks that day for the long rides.

While Greg & I are fixing breakfasts, the sandwich team will be assembling and fixing lunches for the day. Everyone will get a lunchmeat sandwich & a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips, cookies/crackers, water and soft drinks. Not everyone will eat 2 sandwiches but they will be eaten for snacks later in the day or given away. Each team will have a cooler for drinks and sandwiches.

Dinners - once again - big full meals. We've done spaghetti/salad/bread/fruit/dessert night, tostados/spanish rice/nachos/fruit/salad/dessert night, pork chops/vegetables/rice or noodles/salad/dessert night, shephards pie/salad/fruit/dessert night, chicken & dumplings/vegetables/salad/fruit/dessert night. Its a treat to have fresh local fruit in January to serve (& eat). The cantaloupe and watermelon is super yummy. We have found some really good bakeries run by talented bakers. We have bought beautiful cakes, yummy cookies and sweet breads to serve. Once again, the prices are great and the goodies are delicious. (Of course quality control has to sample to make sure we won't poison the team! Its a hard job, but someones gotta do it).

The first night, the whole team will eat at the local Wendy's for burgers and fries. This Wendy's serves nachos too! This gives us a chance to shop and set up the kitchen for breakfast the next morning. The last day, the whole team will have an "off" day and travel to a resort area for swimming, fellowship, walking on the beach, and eating lunch. That night, everyone is on their own for dinner. The cooks are packing up the kitchen. The last morning will be in the hotel lobby, we will have breakfast pastries, breakfast or granola bars, coffee, juice, etc. available. Then we head to the airport!

Any packaged food that is leftover will be donated to either the orphanage or feeding center, the church, or the Christian school. One of the things that Greg & I love to do is find folks to give our leftovers to, everynight. We will feed the night watchman, the pastor and his family, and anyone who comes and asks for food. One night, a man came in the gate talking rapidly in Spanish. I didn't understand a word and finally he said "I hungry". OK, that I understand. All we had left that night were leftover sandwiches from the teams lunch, but he took them graciously and left with many thank you's!

We take out our garbage everynight and put in the big, cage looking boxes for pickup. Its very humbling to come every morning and see that our garbage has been gone through. This gives a whole new meaning to dumpster diving.

Next, I will talk about some of the sights we will see on our walks through El Progresso!