[what’s brewing: the familiar taste of comfort]Do you ever have no good, terrible, very bad days where you need something comfortable and familiar? I do. Today was that day! The car had a dead battery. Using one foreign language to learn another was just too much effort. And when my email went haywire--that was the last straw.
How I would have loved to find a Starbucks drive-thru!
We are in our second field term in East Africa where people grow coffee and drink coffee, but do not serve any variety of 'fancy' coffee that is so comfortable and familiar to me (I grew up in Seattle with a coffee shop on every corner). I may not get to choose the exact way God provides what is comfortable and familiar, but there is always something somewhere, anywhere, in this, our Father's world.
Something as simple as a favorite staple food can be the 'taste of home' for me.We have African friends who have moved from a sweet potato area to a plantain banana area and craved their familiar 'home foods.' I can relate. Is it universal to need the comfortable and familiar once in a while?
In case you were wondering, we are officially in the sweet potato region, and their cousins, potatoes, are definitely my home food! You can bake 'em, fry 'em, boil, mash or steam 'em—add some form of cheese or butter— and I am a happy lady. I'm so thankful good potatoes are grown here locally. While I'd like to think my 'home food' is chocolate creamy coffee goodness, it is deep down something simpler. Potatoes. Comfort food. A tangible taste of God's goodness and provision.
So while you may be in a place where your most comfortable and familiar foods are not available, what comfort foods are available?
How do you take in a tangible taste of God's goodness and provision this week at your house? It doesn't have to be food. Drink in the goodness of a gorgeous sunset, a child's laughter, some hidden flowers. Taste and see. While I'd rather have that venti decaf mocha, I'm looking forward to steamed potatoes with homemade butter next time I need to taste and see. What's your 'home food'?
Kim in Congo
[Editor's note: yummo, Kim! You've got my mouth watering for...]
7 comments:
Kim - I totally understand the potato comfort food - in Honduras - we only have 1 type of white potato, and one type of (kind of) sweet potato. Not that exciting. Coffee is the same here - grown, but nothing "fancy". Growing up in California we were the same as Washington - a coffee shop on every corner. My comfort food - chocolate chip cookies. The butter here is different, the sugar is not refined, and there are no chocolate chips to be found - so I have my mother in law send me chocolate chips once in awhile. However, because it's SO HOT in Honduras, often times they come completely melted together. So, it's only once in awhile that I get to savor that oh so yummy, slightly undercooked, hot chocolate chip cookie with a cold glass of (unfortunately, but what can you do), boxed shelf milk. Yum!
Kim, what a lovely article! You show a mature attitude, a glass-half-full attitude, that I've known you to have for quite a few years now! I witnessed your sweetness many times in Nairobi! Bless you!
It's potatoes for me too! I love that Peru has so many potatoes and it's so nice, even if I've run out of potatoes to run down the street to the little store and get some to fry up or boil or mash or, or, or.
I also am thankful for "raw sugar" that I grew up using as a kid in the U.S. and in Peru it's even more affordable.
What I miss is pretzels when I am in Peru.
For our family a "home" feel is popcorn on a Friday night with a video. While living in Turkey we added fruit smooties to the popcorn night menu (we could get some amazing cheap fruits there). But the mainstay seems to be the bowl of buttery, salty popcorn. You smell it and all things just feel "right" for a moment! :)
Here in Niger our "comfort home foods" are few and far between! Thankfully I have a little stash of things people bring over, but i think cheddar cheese tops my list of favorites! Biggest things I have learned is not to focus on those things I miss, but to be thankful for the new things I have found here that are totally better than back home. Being content in all things God as given me is key!
Comfort Food: macaroni and cheese. We take whatever cheese we can find (which is normally a different kind each week since none is familiar) and make it ourselves. I keep the crusts of our loaves of bread in the freezer and crush them up with a little bit of melted butter and garlic to make homemade bread crumbs for the top when I take the time to bake it. We have also found two stores that sell Vanilla Coke and Mountain Dew. Heavenly!
We are also learning new comfort foods, like many of you. There is a Chinese food stand that's perfect for a quick Sunday lunch and Inca Kola is always a nice treat. =)
Being where I can get much of what you all crave right now, but not all of it, I am smiling. Because my comfort food might be totally different. Things I grew up with but are just not here. Thankfully, there is one place I can get one of my favorites, and I just flew out of a place where I filled my belly with another of my favorites!
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