In which we try cooking by the seat of our pants...

Today Beth and I rode with the Ronald’s to the assembly in Ikelenge. It was a nice church service, and we both had fun reacquainting ourselves with singing in Lunda. Some of those words are so long and have so many syllables that it can be quite a challenge to get them all out. Not to mention the fact that even familiar tunes have been ‘afracanized!’ It was so good to hear the beautiful singing again as well as to greet the brothers and sisters in the Lord. Apparently Beth and I have our work cut out for us—we are expected to learn Lunda, and on the double!

Last night we made a casserole with what we had in our cupboards (quite an odd assortment I can tell you!) as well as some fresh vegitables we found in the garden. We weren’t sure how it would turn out, but it ended up being delicious. We wrote down the recipe and plan to make it again. Here is it for those of you who might be interested:

Lina and Beth’s Losu Casserole

½ cup uncooked losu (rice) (ends up being 2 cups cooked)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 tin ham (tuna can sized)
3 small carrots
1 ½ handfuls of snapped green beans
Spring onion to taste
1 red pepper
Good dash of Italian herbs mix
Dash of garlic powder
Salt and Pepper to taste (we added a bit of salt as we were eating, but it doesn’t really need it)

Cook the rice and boil carrots and beans until slightly soft. Chop up ham and put in a bowl with the soup, seasonings, and pepper. Add rice and drained vegetables and put in a glass dish and bake at about 350(f) for roughly 15 minuets. Will serve about 4, or 2 hungry teachers with some leftovers.

This afternoon and evening are staff meetings both to plan out the term, and as a time to fellowship together. I’m looking forward to seeing the term take shape, and it will be nice to get to spend time with everyone. The children will be arriving on Tuesday, and there is still a lot to do to get ready. We would all appreciate your prayers as we plan and start this term. I will post pictures of the house this week, but as bandwidth is limited I’m trying to not use too much the beginning of the week! Thanks for all your comments and prayers—they mean a lot.