Richmond Outreach and Brazilian Lunch

Saturday was a very busy day for us. It was the first Saturday in I don't know how long that Shawn didn't have a freelance project to work on because he turned in the final installment on Thursday!!! It would have been nice to stay home and enjoy the time together, but we planned a day full of things to do. First we met up with our Sunday School class to do an outreach project for a widowed woman in our church. We spent the morning raking leaves, spreading dirt, cleaning out gutters, and eating! She had enough breakfast food there to feed a large army! Just like a grandma...always wanting to feed the young 'uns! One of the guys drove over a wrench on the way to the house and got a HUGE hole in his truck tire. There were many attempts to put enough air in the tire to drive a few miles, but eventually the truck had to be towed home. Oh well, a minor inconvenience in a day of good fun and hard work.

After a few hours at home, we headed to my friend Myrna's house for a traditional Brazilian lunch. In a house with 11 adults, we were the only ones that couldn't speak another language fluently...us selfish, egotistical Americans! She made Feijoada...essentially beef (or pork) cooked with black beans, served with rice and a side of collard greens (kinda). Since Myrna knows how picky I am, she also made some chicken nuggets in case I didn't like the feijoada. Shawn loved everything, and even put some of his favorite Sriracha sauce on it...I liked the beef and rice, stayed away from the beans, and ate quite a few chicken nuggets! Dessert was Key Lime Pie...delicious! Conversation was good for the most part...things got a little tense the few times that politics came up. Someone always graciously changed the subject though, and time at the Brazilian lunch flew by. We were so full when we got home that we didn't even eat dinner. I think that is a first for Shawn!!

Now that we are planning to adopt a baby from Colombia, I guess I'm going to learn how to cook some Latin American dishes so we can introduce our child to his or her birth culture. Maybe I won't start with Feijoada...I'm not sure how I would explain the chicken nuggets on mom's plate!!