“Teacher, we never forget this day.”

On Thursday, my English class and I met at the school to embark on a grand adventure: prepare lunch together.

We met at ten o’clock in the kitchen at the school, a small, tiled room equipped with a sink that doesn’t work, a set of plastic lawn chairs, a gas stove that only half works, a large pail of water, and a hodge-podge assortment of plastic silverware.

I have 8 students--bright-eyed, brave, and very unique young women, all of them. We began our effort in earnest, chatting gaily as we peeled our way through a mountain of potatoes. Soon, though, the situation evolved into a pseudo-dance party, as some of the girls hiked up their mulfas and taught me how to salsa, while the other girls ducked every time the gas stove went WOOSH!!!

We laughed, they inquired over and over again why I don’t have a boyfriend, they told me of their own love lives, they taught me how to clean and cook a chicken using only one pot, and we ran to a nearby tent to beg for some onions. We shooed away neighbor boys who were drawn in by the smell of cooking food—GIRLS ONLY!! We sang along to Celine Dion at the top of our lungs, and they taught me how to make salad dressing. They watched me with bewilderment as I demonstrated how to make “American Potatoes” (mashed potatoes). They scurried back and forth between the kitchen and our class room, eventually blindfolding me and leading me into the room, where they revealed with delight that they had transformed the room into a banquet hall.
Chicken, potatoes, fruit, salad, Coca Cola, yogurt, and bread—it was indeed a feast, and we had done it together. (They absolutely loved the American Potatoes, by the way…) We lingered over the meal for over an hour, laughing, gossiping, and eating—then, bellies full, we spent another hour scrubbing down the kitchen—a bigger adventure than the preparation, I assure you.

It is an incredible gift to be in these girls’ lives. To literally break bread with them, to hear their stories, to bless them and be blessed. It was an exhausting, 7 hour project….But when the girls announced they wanted to do this again, soon, I nodded as earnestly as the rest. What an honor.