Day 1 - Injury 1 * Day 2 - Potatoes and Pita

I got up at 6:30am on Saturday which was day one of the retreat.  I'm one of 15 people serving the silent retreat for the 140ish people doing it.  I'm lucky enough to stay at a house in Bowie instead of having to stay in a tent for the last ten days while we're serving.  However, the house I'm staying at was freezing the first night/morning.  I can't really figure out how I was more cold in a house than I was in the tent.  At least I was in a nice comfortable bed.  Tit for tat.  I went to the grounds on morning 1 and started chopping veggies for lunch prep.  The main chefs for the retreat are from Israel so if you'd like to picture what my days look like picture a small kitchen with cutting boards everywhere, pots of steaming soup and rice everywhere there isn't a cutting board and several people speaking what seems like impossibly fast Hebrew.  

The injury isn't bad - have no fear.  All I did was slice my finger.  It's not a bad cut at all - one of those annoying ones thats just bad enough to remind you every time you try to do anything during which you have to utilize your hands.  I just thought it was funny that it was the first day and I had already bled.

The feeling in the house where we're doing all the food making and everything is so great though.  There isn't one person there for any reason other than that they want to help out - just because.  How often does that happen?  It makes working together really great.   I keep thinking about how crazy it is that a group of strangers can become a family when you're all thrown together for a common purpose.  That's the beautiful.  The crazy is that we never seem to have the supplies we need so we keep having to make trips into town to buy more food and things like 5 gallon buckets and a wooden toilet seat -- Don't ask.  The only thing I know for sure is that it can only get more interesting as the next 9 days go on...

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween.  My Halloween night consisted of washing towels and eating avocado and toast.  Well, I did have some candy corn.  Also, I had to run to the mailbox and on my way back I witnessed trick-or-treating Bowie, AZ style: A kid, in costume, riding in the back of a pick up truck.  The truck stops at one house - kid gets down, grabs some candy, jumps back into the bed of the truck, parent drives to the next house down the road.  It was very entertaining for me, a great end to the first night of retreat, and an excellent addition to the crazy that is my life.

Day 2 - Injury 2

Just kidding.  No more injuries thankfully.  Though there are 8 days to go and you never know..

Today was good.  I'm so tired I don't really know if I remember detail but I'll try..  The day started with Stacy and I doing breakfast prep.  Then came the potatoes.  I've never had to deal with so many potatoes in my entire life.  I'm not really that fond of potatoes to begin with.  I mean, sure, I like french fries, I'll eat a few kinds of potatoes - but given the choice I'd choose a different vegetable almost every time.  This morning, though, my job was to wash the potatoes.  At first I thought this was no big deal.  Rinse some taters - peel 'em - rinse 'em again - good to go.  NOPE.  These specific taters had to keep their skin.  Cool.  "Kim, can you scrub these and get all the dirt off?"  "Sure!"  Ummmm - do you know how dirty potatoes are?  Also - I learned that there is an art to scrubbing potatoes with  juuuust enough pressure so the dirt comes off but the skin doesn't.  Then they just kept bringing more potatoes.  I scrubbed one bag of potatoes and then there was another kind of potato to scrub.  Then I got done with those and they brought another bag.  And another.  And another.  I thought I would never want to see another potato in my entire life.  But then I ate the potatoes and it made the scrubbing worth it.  Hell, it made life worth it.  Razia - one of the chefs is probably one of the best cooks in the whole world.  I might move to Israel just so I can eat her food year round.  I'd inevitably get really fat but hey man, happiness is happiness.

Then I grilled pita bread for like 2 hours.  Pita after pita after pita.  But then I got to take the most heavenly nap in the whole world.  It was one of those naps where you don't know how tired you are until you lay down thinking you're going to close your eyes for 15-2o minutes and then you wake up 2 hours later wondering what happened.  Oh man, I love those.  

The rest of the day consisted of cleaning, organizing, eating, celebrating a birthday, and inventing a pouring device for honey out of duct tape and a rubber glove.  I'm not even kidding.  I'll post a picture ASAP but for now I'll let you use your imagination.