Smoothie in the tool shed

One of my most interesting kitchen experiences took place just the other day. What made it so interesting was that it didn't take place in the kitchen at all. But before I get into it too much I should explain a couple of things to you.

You must first understand that our campus has been having major issues with it's electricity lately. We have a big set of solar panels that charge several large batteries. These batteries are able to feed the whole campus with a certain amount of power. It's a beautiful luxury that we are incredibly blessed to have. But, living in the jungle, things are bound to go askew every now and then. And now is the time for power trouble.

The problem we have been facing is that one of the main fans that cools the inverter is broken, thus the whole system can only last about an hour at most these days. And that amount of time is only if very low wattage is being used (i.e. light bulbs). If you want to run anything that takes a little more juice to get it going you can expect around 5 minutes of use before all the power turns off.

With that little amount of background I have one more thing to woefully explain. Every morning, without fail, we have porridge. It takes the form of three varieties; oatmeal, plantain porridge, and cornmeal porridge. Many times the amount that is made is a vision of grandeur compared to what we can actually eat. Since leftovers are inevitable, the cooks have gotten sickeningly creative. They almost alway make "smoothies" with it. Sounds kind of good right off, right? But what comes to mind when you think of a smoothie? Perhaps a decedent mixture of frozen pineapple, mango, and banana, with some porridge to thicken it? If only. Unfortunately our smoothies are made with blended up porridge as the main ingredient, with Mixed Essence (a poor excuse for vanilla type of liquid), sugar, and, if we're lucky, a couple bananas or plantains.

In my humble opinion it is rather terrifying. Don't get me wrong, it is certainly consumable (if you're feeling brave), but I wouldn't dare call it a smoothie. That's like a sacrilege! SMOOTHIES ARE MADE WITH FRUIT!!! If we called it Porridge Froth Surprise, well then I might be really gung ho to glop it down, but smoothie?!

Anyway, now that that's off my chest I can get on with my story.
Sandra (one of our village cooks and also a supreme fan of the Guyanese Smoothie) asked me to make the smoothie of the day (oatmeal) to have for supper. Since the power on campus definitely wasn't working that day, and would have shut off pretty quick with the blender going anyway, I was to use the generator for the job. We only have one functional generator at the moment and do you think they lovingly put it in the kitchen for us? No way! Our men are constantly doing manly projects with all kinds of loud equipment that run off that generator. So naturally it was nestled tenderly in the tool shed where it was being used for something or another.

As such I had no choice but to make the smoothie in the grimy old tool shed. I can only imagine how silly I must have looked carrying the heavy pot of blended ingredients all the way across campus, going back to the kitchen, and returning a few minutes later with the blender and a pitcher in hand. I felt ridiculous! I pulled a paint-spattered bucket over to set up on and there, wedged in that little tool shed, surrounded by fumes and the roar of the generator, I made our smoothie.
Things are sure different in the mission field!