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Want to know something about Peru, ELCIC's missions here...about ILEP (the Lutheran Church in Peru) or about Pastora Fran??
Ask me, and I promise to respond.....
Friday 19 November 2010
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Papa a la Huancaína
THIS is a fantastic recipe from Peru:
Potatoes in a fresh cheese and chili pepper sauce!
Potatoes in a fresh cheese and chili pepper sauce!
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 6-8
Ingredients:
1kg potatoes (preferably yellow if available)
6 fresh chili peppers OR 1 TBSP ground aji
250 g fresh white cheese (ricotta or cottage cheese are good choices)
1/2 red onion
1/2 c vegetable oil
4 saltine crackers
4 saltine crackers
1 c evaporated milk, canned
1/2 TBSP fresh lime juice (or sour orange juice)
Salt and pepper to taste
Garnish:
4 hard-boiled eggs, halved
lettuce leaves
8 black olives, pitted
Preparation:
1. Boil and peel potatoes
2. Wash chili peppers to make them milder (Note: to make hot chilies mild, seed and devein peppers and wash in cold water. In bowl, cover chilies with boiling water and soak for a few minutes; rinse and repeat three times changing hot water every time.)
3. Sauté onions and peppers until soft.
3. Sauté onions and peppers until soft.
3.In a blender, mix together chilies, oil, cheese, milk, crackers, lime juice, onion, salt and pepper, until smooth and medium thick.
4. Cut potatoes in thick slices, place them over the lettuce leaves on a platter, top with cheese sauce and decorate with black olives and halved hard boiled eggs.
Serve cold and ENJOY!!!
Thursday 11 November 2010
The Rabbit Hole
Dear Friends, Family, Supporters, grace and peace to you!
"Alice in Wonderland" wasn't exactly my favorite childhood book, but the characters really came alive in Grade 8, when my elementary school staged a production of the musical. My best friend and I played Tweedledee and Tweedledum, not sure who played which part now! There were so many fun, colorful characters in this "other" world and alternate reality. Alice, changed by her experience down the rabbit hole, allows us to enter this strange place where her body grows and shrinks, where she is sometimes tricked by what she sees or think she sees, where she is amazed by the new creatures and by what she thinks is "real".
Perhaps I can relate to Alice in a better way now, having gone down a rabbit hole of sorts, too. My rabbit hole: serving as a missionary in a developing country and young, developing church, ILEP. Like Alice, I have witnessed many contrary realities and encountered a variety of characters, mixed cultural clues, and new situations. Living cross-culturally can do this; it changes us. If we are open, as I pray and hope I have been, we can deepen our understandings of ourselves, our faith, and our world-view. And while one can observe and ponder the exterior differences, those noticeble to the eye, it seems to me that the most subtle nuances of difference are only pronounced when one returns from the rabbit hole. That is to say, upon returning to Canada, others noticed many changes in me that I hadn't even considered. And to the contrary, I noticed many things about Canadian culture, customs and traditions, once normal, that now seem foreign. Back from the rabbit hole, I found myself questioning why things are done this way or that, why money is spent on this project or that, and why some are more apt to hear a changed perspective or not. The returning to Canada; a fascinating, stimulating and sometimes uncomfortable experience. I relate to Alice in a new way.
One of the more pronounced issues: money. Money or the lack of money is a constant in this country. With those whom I serve in Lima, where every centavo (cent) is thought of and used to its fullest, even leaving electrical devices plugged in all day (while no one is at home,) adds a significant cost to the energy bill. As with those whom I serve, I have become accustomed to unplugging everything when it is not in use. Not so in Canada! In a country that has money, or perceived money in the form of credit, there are many more new cars on the streets, anything that anyone could ever need or want can be easily found and easily purchased. Some things glitter brighter in Canada, like the street lights at night that seemed to shine brighter with a surge of more electricity or perhaps just cleaner bulbs? But between these two countries, there exists a blurred line between need and want, between what one has money for or not. Perhaps upon returning from the rabbit hole and this new world of colorful characters and new realities, some things about my own culture have become clearer. At one point, I could not turn my brain "off" from thinking about all of the contrasts and differences. A friend explained, it's reverse culture-shock. Whatever it's name, it sometimes made my head hurt!
My sister and I watched the new Tim Burton interprepation of Alice in Wonderland at the end of my home leave. Like Alice, when I was first in Peru I found myself asking what is real and what is being dreamed. Upon returning to Canada, I asked myself the opposite question, is this the home I left two years ago? Have things changed in the last two years, or is it just me? Hmmmm, turns out, it probaby is me! The world looks different now, not just Canada. But my whole self has changed because of living and serving in a new context and culture. Obviously, the world looks different from this strange new perspective, my new perspective. In this new reality, the marginalized, rejected, and poor have names. I know where they live, they are members of my church. I know their worries and fears, I know their realities, I know their struggles. They are mine now, too, as we seek to be faithful to the Gospel in this context. Like Alice, I am a part of the rabbit hole now. I am one of the characters in the story. And so, we work together, we search for solutions and answers, and we struggle theologically and politically together.
Perhaps this is yet another reason why missionaries are sent in the world: not only to accompany and walk alongside global companion churches and to preach the Gospel to all nations, but also to share our experiences of another reality back home. During my time in Canada, there were so many enriching, profound, and challenging conversations. Many are curious about Peru, and the ministry and mission here. Down the rabbit-hole and back again, maybe we missionaries come back to our home countries to offer a new perspective that differs from that of the comfortable, complacent, self-indulgent message the world would have us buy. We offer a disruption or interruption to the previously self-focused or ego-centric lifestyle, to help others open their eyes to the world around them, to see the neighbour down the street or those in our communities with other realities than our own. I would hope that we missionaries are not only valuable to the countries and churches we are sent to serve, but that we can bring the wealth of our experiences and challenges home back with us, back to Canada, back from the rabbit hole, so that we can call others to a wider vision, a deeper mission, to reach out to those whose lives have been destroyed by injustice, broken homes, additions, or violence. We, perhaps, can offer a wake-up call to a self-occupied society; to share God's love and grace in the world; to accompany others in their times of stress and difficulties; to live a life beyond ourselves, a life in service to others. My prayer is that in our (yours and my) accompaniment of others, we are moved to a more profound understanding of the Gospel and can challenge political and institutional structures that work to keep the humble exactly where they are, that we are moved to be prophets and truth-tellers not only in our churches or in our communities but to those who would be rulers and emperors (maybe like the Queen of Hearts), so that by God's grace, our world can be just and transformed.
Changed by her experiences, Alice not only finds her self-identity, her own strength and her own voice, but she really becomes an advocate for those in her strange, new reality, "Wonderland". Shocked by my own return from the rabbit-hole, I pray for the grace and strength to speak for justice, truth, and faithful living-out of the Gospel we proclaim, against the empires who would contol us, sell us more of what we do not need, and lead us away from the Gospel, the ture heart of our Christian faith and the mission to which we are called.
With love, grace, and hope,
Pastora Fran.
"Alice in Wonderland" wasn't exactly my favorite childhood book, but the characters really came alive in Grade 8, when my elementary school staged a production of the musical. My best friend and I played Tweedledee and Tweedledum, not sure who played which part now! There were so many fun, colorful characters in this "other" world and alternate reality. Alice, changed by her experience down the rabbit hole, allows us to enter this strange place where her body grows and shrinks, where she is sometimes tricked by what she sees or think she sees, where she is amazed by the new creatures and by what she thinks is "real".
Perhaps I can relate to Alice in a better way now, having gone down a rabbit hole of sorts, too. My rabbit hole: serving as a missionary in a developing country and young, developing church, ILEP. Like Alice, I have witnessed many contrary realities and encountered a variety of characters, mixed cultural clues, and new situations. Living cross-culturally can do this; it changes us. If we are open, as I pray and hope I have been, we can deepen our understandings of ourselves, our faith, and our world-view. And while one can observe and ponder the exterior differences, those noticeble to the eye, it seems to me that the most subtle nuances of difference are only pronounced when one returns from the rabbit hole. That is to say, upon returning to Canada, others noticed many changes in me that I hadn't even considered. And to the contrary, I noticed many things about Canadian culture, customs and traditions, once normal, that now seem foreign. Back from the rabbit hole, I found myself questioning why things are done this way or that, why money is spent on this project or that, and why some are more apt to hear a changed perspective or not. The returning to Canada; a fascinating, stimulating and sometimes uncomfortable experience. I relate to Alice in a new way.
One of the more pronounced issues: money. Money or the lack of money is a constant in this country. With those whom I serve in Lima, where every centavo (cent) is thought of and used to its fullest, even leaving electrical devices plugged in all day (while no one is at home,) adds a significant cost to the energy bill. As with those whom I serve, I have become accustomed to unplugging everything when it is not in use. Not so in Canada! In a country that has money, or perceived money in the form of credit, there are many more new cars on the streets, anything that anyone could ever need or want can be easily found and easily purchased. Some things glitter brighter in Canada, like the street lights at night that seemed to shine brighter with a surge of more electricity or perhaps just cleaner bulbs? But between these two countries, there exists a blurred line between need and want, between what one has money for or not. Perhaps upon returning from the rabbit hole and this new world of colorful characters and new realities, some things about my own culture have become clearer. At one point, I could not turn my brain "off" from thinking about all of the contrasts and differences. A friend explained, it's reverse culture-shock. Whatever it's name, it sometimes made my head hurt!
My sister and I watched the new Tim Burton interprepation of Alice in Wonderland at the end of my home leave. Like Alice, when I was first in Peru I found myself asking what is real and what is being dreamed. Upon returning to Canada, I asked myself the opposite question, is this the home I left two years ago? Have things changed in the last two years, or is it just me? Hmmmm, turns out, it probaby is me! The world looks different now, not just Canada. But my whole self has changed because of living and serving in a new context and culture. Obviously, the world looks different from this strange new perspective, my new perspective. In this new reality, the marginalized, rejected, and poor have names. I know where they live, they are members of my church. I know their worries and fears, I know their realities, I know their struggles. They are mine now, too, as we seek to be faithful to the Gospel in this context. Like Alice, I am a part of the rabbit hole now. I am one of the characters in the story. And so, we work together, we search for solutions and answers, and we struggle theologically and politically together.
Perhaps this is yet another reason why missionaries are sent in the world: not only to accompany and walk alongside global companion churches and to preach the Gospel to all nations, but also to share our experiences of another reality back home. During my time in Canada, there were so many enriching, profound, and challenging conversations. Many are curious about Peru, and the ministry and mission here. Down the rabbit-hole and back again, maybe we missionaries come back to our home countries to offer a new perspective that differs from that of the comfortable, complacent, self-indulgent message the world would have us buy. We offer a disruption or interruption to the previously self-focused or ego-centric lifestyle, to help others open their eyes to the world around them, to see the neighbour down the street or those in our communities with other realities than our own. I would hope that we missionaries are not only valuable to the countries and churches we are sent to serve, but that we can bring the wealth of our experiences and challenges home back with us, back to Canada, back from the rabbit hole, so that we can call others to a wider vision, a deeper mission, to reach out to those whose lives have been destroyed by injustice, broken homes, additions, or violence. We, perhaps, can offer a wake-up call to a self-occupied society; to share God's love and grace in the world; to accompany others in their times of stress and difficulties; to live a life beyond ourselves, a life in service to others. My prayer is that in our (yours and my) accompaniment of others, we are moved to a more profound understanding of the Gospel and can challenge political and institutional structures that work to keep the humble exactly where they are, that we are moved to be prophets and truth-tellers not only in our churches or in our communities but to those who would be rulers and emperors (maybe like the Queen of Hearts), so that by God's grace, our world can be just and transformed.
Changed by her experiences, Alice not only finds her self-identity, her own strength and her own voice, but she really becomes an advocate for those in her strange, new reality, "Wonderland". Shocked by my own return from the rabbit-hole, I pray for the grace and strength to speak for justice, truth, and faithful living-out of the Gospel we proclaim, against the empires who would contol us, sell us more of what we do not need, and lead us away from the Gospel, the ture heart of our Christian faith and the mission to which we are called.
With love, grace, and hope,
Pastora Fran.
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