One for the Road
I started pizza dough three days ago and wonder of wonders last night when I finally finished the pizza it was still good. Now for a dessert. I'm too slow. I don't seem to get the meal I dream of all at once—only in bits and pieces.
Middle Mr. Fuzzy Farmer (I don't remember how this actually goes any more, only Old Fuzzy Farmer), so Middle Fuzzy Farmer sent home a 'new' type of healthy snack along the line of granola bars. This one had several kinds of small grains in it.
Old Fuzzy Farmer said it reminded him of a friend of ours and her bird feed. Old Fuzzy Farmer has done mission work with the aforementioned couple over in Jamaica. A person on mission trips—at least the kind we go on that are funded on a shoestring budget sometimes produce interesting happenings.
Often times the group from our end will send money to the local women for the food for part of the time our group will be there. The local women would provide one or two meals per day. It is interesting to try the Island cuisine.
In Jamaica they have a dish called 'gruel'. It's a mix of small grains and looks much as the grain you would find in a large sack of bird feed. I don't recall having it at all, but our friend Dorothy has a fondness for gruel.
The year Buddy turned eighteen he finished his schooling in May. He had lined up three preacher friends which he would spend two weeks a piece working with them. They didn't pay him wages, but they would have to feed and house him for the two weeks.
At the end of June he started his adventure by staying with Dorothy and her husband and since they lived within our state, and only an hour and a half from us we drove him there and went and picked him up two weeks later.
A number of things stood out in his mind about that summer. He found that traveling on Greyhound buses was not fun, but it was doable. He also found that he had friends in other parts of the country each with their own peculiar habits. He also decided he wasn't a big fan of gruel. Dorothy was sure that bag of bird seed would make a good gruel. Buddy said he could eat it, but it wasn't his favorite, and there was something just a bit off.
All in all it was a learning experience. There were some good experiences and some that weren't good. But he learned with them. There is something to be said for his willingness to try something that could be described as outlandish. I thought he was a real trooper.
