Kitchen Crew in Action

Here is a video I took on Saturday. It's brief, but still gives you a taste of how it is to be in the kitchen. 

Bible School for Christian Couples

Saludos.

Instead of sharing a brief overview of what I've lived every month since January, I've decided to blog about certain activities or particular events that stand out from these last 6 months. I will begin with the one privilege I have been able to experience for four months now.

  My family is still in Mexico, back in Rosarito and we are in a Spanish congregation. The last time I blogged I think I had mentioned that we had moved to Playas de Tijuana, which we did do for four months. Those few months were a great start to living back in Mexico. I was able to have a room all to myself, which was quite wonderful while it lasted. I also liked that my family lived next to two witness families. Although we lived on the lot precisely right of the Kingdom Hall, we chose to go to a smaller Spanish congregation that met at the other Kingdom Hall just a few blocks away. It was very refreshing to be a part of a congregation that was small, had few kids, yet no other teen girls (avoiding drama), was mainly made up of couples and older sisters and had a small territory. It wasn't daunting for me to go there. We walked again to and from the territory with more frequency and met new brothers and sisters.

View to the Cafeteria entrance from the Kitchen

Inside of the kitchen one of the first times. 

  The brother that lived two houses down from us, Hirales, is one of the elders in charge of having a kitchen crew available weekly for the couple schools that go on at the Rosarito Assembly Hall. Yes, the Bible School for Christian Couples. He told my mom and I about it, and we happily volunteered and started going twice a week. The first BSCC began in February and every Friday afternoon after 3:15pm a couple from my hall would pick us up and head to the Assembly Hall to cook. It was normally just us four, but sometimes one or two other sisters would come or switch places with one of us and help prepare meals for the students participating in the class and their instructors. At first we would feed them all at the tables in the cafeteria, but after about one month it was decided that the food would be served in a to go box in the kitchen and the students would just pick them up before heading home. It was more practical this way and we continued doing it this way with both schools.

  The first school finished the 5th of April and the next school began the 26th or so of April and ended just this past weekend, the 22nd of June. My mom and I continued going Fridays with the Vazquez' and on Saturdays we would join Cesar and his wife Adriana, aka the Hirales in the mornings at 6am. For breakfast or lunch the meal was still served in the cafeteria but another group of brothers and sisters attended to them while they ate. We worked very closely with the waiting staff and their captain. After all the couples finished eating, the kitchen crew and waiting staff would have breakfast together. Any day we cooked we would have to leave the kitchen clean, but on Saturdays after we washed what we used for cooking, the waiting staff stayed to wash the rest of the dishes used during breakfast. I really enjoyed my Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings and learned a lot.. I came to appreciate the Hirales a lot and although we moved away from Playas and no longer are neighbors with them, I'm glad we became good friends.

Cesar and Adriana Hirales

  This past Friday was the usual routine but Saturday was a bit different. We were asked to come in two hours later than usual and help prepare an elaborate meal for their last day of school. This is something that has been done since the schools first started happening at this Assembly Hall. All of the students, the instructors, the bethelite speaker and the two other brothers who form part of the Assembly Hall Committee were invited along with their wives to the Gala meal. A total of 40. That took a lot of preparation and work, therefore, more hands were needed and our kitchen crew totaled 8. The three course meal was served after 1pm to all the guests. It felt like a very special meal, the tables were all decorated, the brothers all gave their wives a rose, everyone was taking pictures, thanking us, getting emotional. It was very happy to see the joy on everyone's faces. After they finished, and we ate, my mom and I helped wash and dry dishes in the kitchen. We had to leave by 3:30 to cross the border, but everyone else stayed until like 6pm that day.