Sunday, December 24, 2006

Gotcha Day

Today it's two years since Steven came to America, so we again celebrated his Gotcha Day with a Kenyan meal. We decorated with carved animals and lesos (versatile dyed cloths), wore a few Kenyan garments, and tried to serve "real" Kenyan food. We plan to make this a Christmas Eve tradition.


Steven frying sakuma.

Making chapatis with a rolling pin from Kenya.
Jenny dishing up beans.


Our menu:
chai (sweet black tea with hot milk)
ugali (cornmeal mush with a play-dough consistency)
rice
chicken in gravy (since I can't duplicate the chicken sauce in Kenya)
sakuma (chopped collard greens fried with onions and tomatoes)
cooked pinto beans
bananas
fresh pineapple
chapatis (kind of like tortillas)

Steven always wishes we could have omena with ugali. And what are omena?

Quote of the Day:
Emily:They're these little hard fish with eyes that stink--the fish, not the eyes.
Steven:They do not, they're yummy!

6 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas, Dorcas!
    and Happy 2-year Anniversary to Steven. I'm happy for all of you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That Steven is very blessed boy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy Gotcha Day! We will celebrate ours on Wednesday--the 2nd Anniversary also--of Sophie joining our family. It's a challenge to make it special, since we have Christmas so close as well. Blessings...and I look forward to reading about your adoption journey! Publish the next book already!! ;o) Any target date?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Emily, you should visit the Sea of Galilee and eat a St. Peter's fish. They bring them to your table with the whole fish including the eyes. I was 13 at the time and wasn't adventurous enough to eat the eyes, even though some of my Zook buddies did.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aren't those lesos neat? I gave lesos (brought from Kenya by a friend) to ladies in my family last year for Christmas. My nieces have had lots of fun with them, wearing them, etc.

    The El Salvador counterpart is wearing an apron and having a towel slung over your shoulder.

    Linda Rose Miller (Hans Mast's aunt)

    ReplyDelete
  6. That meal sounds most yummy scrum-deliliocious!!!

    ReplyDelete