40 days?

I have to admit it. My 40 days of solidarity has gone out the window. Who put spring break in the middle of Lent, anyway? And then we were submitted to Embassy and then things went all kinds of haywire. And now we are planning to go back and running around, freaking out about things that don't matter and not thinking enough about the things that do.

But making lentils hasn't really been on that agenda.

I can tell you that we vacationed on an extreme budget.
Except for when we didn't.
Then again, when we paid a lot for food, we were eating at an Ethiopian restaurant (and the pizza joint next door).

I can tell you I had coffee every single day.
And thought about Ethiopia every single day.
But not necessarily at the same time.
And I took my coffee with creamer.
(As do my daughter's nannies, but.....)

There have been a few times when the kids will ask who we are having solidarity with.

My answer is simple: people who eat out of their pantries.
People who are on a budget.
The middle class.

Better luck next year.
I'd say maybe I'll try to finish strong, but my plan for tonight is to concoct something out of the ingredients I found in my deep freeze.
The fact that I have a deep freeze, that is running, with enough food in it to concoct something, kinda takes away from the solidarity aspect.

40 days: day 21-22

Oh Ethiopia, I'm so glad that your foods are diverse.
I know Italian occupation stank mightily for you, but the fact that I can serve pasta to my family and call it solidarity with you makes my life so much easier.
And potatoes.
And when all else fails, fall back on your coffee.

I know that mostly your people eat teff, but.....

You are on my mind and in my prayers, and I guess that is the point.

40 days: day 20

I think this week will mostly be solidarity with the American poor. That is, eating what is in the fridge. As evidenced by last night's fare.

Sheepherder's breakfast. Basically potatoes and eggs with some bacon and cheese thrown in. All on sale last week.

I don't expect tonight's dinner to be much different. There comes a point when you just need to eat what is on hand because it makes no sense to spend money to buy staples to eat like someone else.

Or, if it makes you feel better, we had potatoes which is a staple food in many cultures. Like Haiti, the DR, Uganda and even Ethiopia.

And in the US where you can buy 15 pounds for $3, it should also be a staple here.

And it is in my house. Which makes it hard for me to pretend that eating a potato is having solidarity with anyone but myself.

40 days: day 17-19

The weekend was crazy. We had a birthday, we had the flu, we had a trip to the city and we had daylight saving's time. Solidarity was a big stretch, but as such was still on my mind as I thought, "how can I make this work for something?" The following is my leap:

Friday: Brent and I had fish and vegetables. I prayed for a Cambodian fishing village. I don't know if Cambodia has fishing villages, but there you go.

Saturday: Four of us met with a Ethiopian adoptive families group and two of us ate the buffet at an Ethiopian restaurant. (The other two ate Chick-fil-et) Obviously, Ethiopia was on our minds.

Sunday: I could take this two ways. We had gyros for lunch. Greece? Shoot, they've had their problems. Pitas? A lot like amboosh which they serve in Ethiopia. Or.....cheap frozen pizza, America's poor and our poor taste. ;)

So, like I said, sagging a little here in the middle, but that's all I have. As next week is spring break there is a good chance I'll falter completely.

40 days: day 16

Solidarity with: Ecuador
I ate: left over beans and rice.
I prayed for Malawi and our sponsored child Bupe. Before I realized they don't eat beans and rice in Malawi. Rice is very expensive and beans aren't even mentioned.

Yeah.

It's Charming's birthday. Charming's grandparents wanted to celebrate him and they were going to be gone today, so they had us over for dinner. A very un-solidarity type meal. I could find something if I stretched. We had salad. We had potatoes. We had corn. Any one of them would have worked for somewhere. But I wasn't sure, so I had leftover beans and rice for lunch in preparation.

Let me just say that it was better going down on Wednesday night than it was for Thursday noon.

By evening, I was gagging just thinking about it.

I worked up some really good solidarity on that one.

Too bad it was for the wrong country.

Though I would assume the people of Malawi and our son Bupe don't mind the prayers, anyway.

40 days: day 15

Solidarity with: Uganda
We ate:

Rice and beans. I, together, Charming, separate.
I'm sure the tableware brings out the utmost envy in your heart. Enter the plastic Wal-Mart clearance bowl and the garage sale melmac plate.

We prayed for the people of Uganda and our sponsored child Juliet. I also prayed regarding this Kony 2012 fiasco. I don't know who is right, but the people of Uganda could really just use a break from atrocity and could use some rebuilding years.

Interesting aside: When we were still dating, Brent called me and while on the phone, asked what we were having for dinner. I told him "beans" which we had often. Either cooked, mashed, refried, wrapped in a tortilla, with ham or without and sometimes with cornbread. It was very normal eats in my childhood. He asked what else and I told him just beans. He responded with something very near to, "If my mother ever just served me beans for dinner I would kill her."

That's the way I remember it. He will probably deny that conversation ever took place. It is also surprising, because he doesn't say things like that, so he might have said, "...I would be so mad." or "...I would go eat out." or... I don't know, he might have said the P word.

After I got to know him better and ate at his house a few times, I realized that his mother's version of beans would be pork-n-beans and even then are a huge rarity. They aren't a bean family. It makes a little more sense now.

Once we got married, I eventually gave up making beans because I'd have to endure Brent's comments about the smell of beans cooking "gross" and when we'd have burritos, he'd fill up a tortilla with a pound of ground beef and nothing else and there would be nothing left for the second burrito.

So.

Then last year, he read a book that told him the solution to all his weight problems was beans. And suddenly he wanted me to cook beans. I gave him the "You have GOT to be kidding" look and lecture. But after 15 years of a nearly bean free existence, I can now cook beans and he pretends to be grateful.
Or maybe the solidarity thing is kicking in across the board. Because no one complained last night. (Charming did ask for a tortilla, as did Eldest. I complied.)

I found that beans and rice is actually very substantial. Where after eating spaghetti for dinner, we are usually all very hungry again by 7, I was satisfied all evening.

40 days: day 14

Solidarity with: Haiti
We had:

squash, rice, oranges, and yes, Caribbean chicken.
Princess prayed: God, we are having solidarity with Haiti, so I pray for Estras, our Sunday school's sponsored child. And help the people of Haiti raise above their current circumstances.

So I left it at that.

When I googled "What do people eat in Haiti," someone responded with "after the earthquake, nothing, that is why people sent food."
Gotta love it.
But other people said rice, beans, yams and fruit. And very spicy.

I accomplished that.

The only people who really ate were Princess, Brent and myself. And it took a lot of water for me to get it down.

40 days: day 13

Solidarity with: Laos
We ate:

Oh my word, I wanted to stuff my face long past the time my stomach said "satisfied." I don't think we had solidarity with the poor of Laos (unless we were eating chopped stomach and even then (I'm guessing finely chopped chicken and no innards, but she was pretty vague about what we were eating other than, "eat with your fingers, kinda like lettuce wraps but with cabbage")) as much as maybe the middle class. Too much food. Too much meat. SO spectacularly GOOD.

However, it did produce some conversation starters, like, "where is Laos?" and "how did Mr Wendi meet Miss Wendi if he is from Laos?" and "what is that?" as well as immigration and refugees and wars and the fact that we don't know Mr Wendi nearly as well as we should considering how much time we spend with Miss Wendi. We need to rectify that.

Thank you, Wendi and Wendi's mother-in-law, preparers of our day 13 solidarity supper.Everyone should have a friend who marries someone from somewhere else. It makes the world more interesting.

Now.....who can make Ugandan flatbread?

40 days: days 11-12

Last Wednesday, Princess came home from school with a fever of 101 and a cough that sounded pretty fake, if you ask me. On Thursday, she was burning at 103 and still "fake" coughing. By Friday, her fever was down to 99.7, she was still coughing, but had enough energy to sass me.

Friday at noon, I had an irritation in my throat. By three PM I was coughing in a manner that sounded awfully fake. By 8 PM, I was hacking so bad, I put myself to bed.

This weekend I have basically drug myself out of bed to cook, eat, cook, eat, church, eat, cook. drink.

Last night, when I was coughing so hard I was vomiting, I decided this weekend was solidarity with all the people who die daily of Tuberculosis.

I have no idea what it feels like to die of Tuberculosis. I don't know if you cough yourself to death, or if you just drown in your leaky tubers. I think coughing blood up is a by product. But I might be confusing it with CF. I know that tubers have the consistency of cheeze whiz. I know that you can be exposed to tuberculosis and never get it. I know that the tuber is the germ encapsulated in the lungs and might never unencapsulate. I know that stress increases the likelyhood of active tuberculosis. But I can't, for the life of me, dredge up what the moments before death are like.

But last night I thought, "If I feel thisclose to death and I know I'm not dying, I'll bet that people with untreated tuberculosis are even more miserable."

Dramatic. Yes. I know.

Guess where people are dying of tuberculosis: underdeveloped countries. You get it in the US, you get treated. The treatment sucks, I understand, but you can get treated. In Ethiopia it is a death sentence.

All that aside....

Saturday lunch:
solidarity with: Ethiopia
we had: a very basic shephard's pie and sliced oranges
we prayed: for the children in the care centers/ orphanages/ schools that see oranges as a very special treat rather than something to be taken for granted

Saturday supper:
Solidarity with: Latin America
We had: burritos
The kids prayed, around the table:
Charming: Thank you God for this food and bless our bodies and let us have a passport and Iris
Princess: and since we have a passport let us be submitted to Embassy.....whatever that means
Eldest: and for the people of....Mexico...or South America....or wherever...
Amen

My kids are getting to where they demand to know who we are having solidarity with before we even set the table. This is good. Because I might have petered out at this point.

Sunday Lunch:
Solidarity with: Fiji
We had: Polynesian Chicken
Because: my mother in law is awesome. Otherwise it would have been burritos, again. Or maybe shephard's pie.
It is a huge stretch, I know, to call what we ate anything but yummy goodness. But there was rice involved and I know from House Hunters International that besides really amazing $350K houses on Fiji, there are also poor indigent peoples. Who probably eat rice.
We prayed something about the food and church and I sent good wishes to the poor peoples of Fiji for coming up with delightful combinations of food.

OK, OK they were only on my mind because I was desperately grasping for a way to make it work and I didn't even talk about it with my kids. I was coughing my head off and shouldn't have even been there.

Sunday supper: popcorn and fruit shakes
thank you Ethiopia for making popcorn my fall back.
we didn't even pray.

I beat my kids to bed.

In a really poor representation of solidarity....

Solidarity with: the border communities
we ate: taco salad
we prayed for: "the people of south Texas and South America"

Or

solidarity with: people on a budget
we ate: what I could come up with without going to the grocery store.

I'm pretty fortunate, I am, to be able to come up with a well rounded meal without even really trying.

Weak in solidarity, I know, but it's what I've got for today.

40 days: day 9

Solidarity with: South Africa
We ate: Eggs, tomatoes and onions.
We prayed: for the children who, as a special treat, get one hard boiled egg a week when they come to church.
I knew about this because of my friend Meg who went a couple years ago. But just now when I went looking for the egg post, I realized she went to Sierra Leone. Which is nowhere near South Africa. Ah well, that's why God is God. He can take my wrong prayers and make them mean something anyway.

I'll have to figure out something about South African food and then pray for Sierra Leone.

And yeah, the tomatoes and onions are because they are in just about everything Ethiopian and I extrapolated.

We also had turkey bacon. And cheese. Neither of which are in much of anything in a meal of a person in poverty in any of the aforementioned three countries.

My heart is in the right place, I think, but the execution is pitiful. I know this is what I set out to do, have ONE side dish on the table that would be someone's main dish and talk about it, but the more I'm into it, the more I feel obligated to put more thought into it. Because how hard can it be to have rice on the table for 40 days?

My friend, Wendi, said she was bringing me Lao food next week. I hope she was serious. Better look up some facts. It's probably time for me to jump out of Africa and into the lesser known Asias.

40 days: day 8

Solidarity with: Guatemala
We ate: papaya (and pasta. My brain is mush today and my creativity ran out.)
We prayed for: the nasty adoption situation that so many people are stuck in in this country. For there to be a workable solution and for no further corruption.

hint: papaya in Kansas in February....not so good. Tastes like a tasteless cantaloupe.
I suspect that papaya in Guatemala from someone's backyard tastes much better. If they don't have to sell it to survive.

40 days: day 7

Solidarity with: Ethiopia!
We ate: chicken wot (doro wot)
We prayed for: the people of Ethiopia to to grow in prosperity, for our sponsored child Amenesh and, of course, for Iris.
It was pretty good. A little too tumeric-y for my taste. We ate it with tortillas because I didn't feel like attempting injera. And garlic mashed potatoes so that my children wouldn't starve. Three of four ate it, sorta. But were glad there were also potatoes on the table.

I at until I was satisfied.
I am now hungry.

40 days: day 6 updated

Solidarity with: China
We ate: Chicken and vegetable fried rice
I prefer it: made by a restaurant, slathered in Chang's Spicy Chicken.
Homemade costs approximately $2. Feeding a family of 6 at PF Changs is I don't even know how much because we've never done it. But Brent and I can sneak out of there at $30 if we drink water and share an entree. We could do it for less, but the banana spring rolls are really the reason we go.
We prayed for: the women in China who feel like they must abandon their children due to the one child policy and for their children that they will know the love of a family.

Charming declared it "delicious" because I left everything but the rice out of his.
Frodo kept "forgetting" to eat his because as soon as he saw what I was making, and could see the writing on the wall, he quickly filled up on a yogurt.
Princess ate seconds, as usual. She's my experimental eater.
Eldest picked out the peas and topped his supper off with a left over half a pig in the blanket.
I ate until I couldn't eat another bite without gagging.
Brent will be scrounging in the pantry for something to eat as soon as the kids are in bed. But he ate politely.

It's not that it was bad. It was just...subsistence eating. Which makes it really easy to stop once the hunger monster has been quieted.

Today I'm thankful for cream, butter and bacon.
It may clog my arteries, but it sure tastes good going down.

**update**
Just after I hit publish, Brent came into the room and said, "I'm already hungry." I laughed and told him about my blog post. "How did you know?" He asked. I told him that maybe it was his lack of enthusiasm about dinner. And he protested, "I loved it! I ate three helpings."

So there you go.
But he's still standing in the kitchen eating yogurt and crackers.
Rice. Not a main dish in the center of the US.

40 days: day 5

Solidarity with: Latin America
We ate: rice, beans, shredded chicken, cheese, lettuce, salsa, lime water and some rice milk, chai tasting drink. Oh, and some kind of soaked cake.
We prayed for: our church sponsored missionaries in their various locations
I let myself get: too hungry.
I: snarfed
It was: excellent
Particularly: the salsa

Thank you Missions Dinner for making today's solidarity far too easy for me. Especially in light of the fact that I tend to not cook on Sundays.

40 days: day 4

Country we were going to have solidarity with: Ethiopia
What we were going to eat for supper: popcorn
reason: tired mom

Country we had solidarity with: Russia
What we ate: bierocks
Why we ate it: Mother in Law Awesomeness
Who we prayed for: Suzanne. As well as the other children in Russia being institutionalized because of a chromosomal abnormality and also for the children aging out of the system far too young to provide for themselves and ending up as a sex slave. (How mom worded it: ending up in precarious circumstances)
Comments: Grandma is awesome! Mom underestimates how much we eat. Can I have another? We're going to clean out both pans!

I guess we can have solidarity with an Ethiopian coffee ceremony another day....

40 days: day 3

Solidarity with: America's poor i.e. meal we could buy on food stamps
We had: grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup; all store brand
It was like: any other lazy day around the house
Princess prayed: Lord, be with America's poor and help them get back on their feet.
I realized: that I like Sure Fine tomato soup. A few years ago, I decided that if I bought Campbells on sale, it was only $0.15 more expensive and it was so much better as to be worth it. I don't know which store brand I was comparing it against back then, but Sure Fine is darn good.

40 days: day two

Solidarity with: Mexico
We ate: burritos,tostadas (tortillas, pintos, hamburger, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa)
We were: not at all left feeling like we had it better than them.
Number of people who ate until they cold hold no more: 6
Funny/snarky comments about the food: none

In the interest of full disclosure, I believe that if we were exercising solidarity with the poor of Mexico we would have needed to use only corn tortilla and leave off the cheese and ground beef. Also, before I started this project, I mentioned to my mother that Mexico would be my country of choice if I was going to do a full 40 eating like another country because that's basically what we did growing up. At which point I told her that maybe then I would be exercising solidarity with my childhood.

We left the tortilla chips in the cabinet.
No one missed them.