Potluck, Iquitos Style

We were told, through the grape vine, of a potluck after church on Saturday. We invited friends, packed a bunch of food, and headed off to church.

Internal thoughts: Awesome, everything is going well.

After church we went to the courtyard to figure out how to do this thing, and then someone broke the news. “Which group are you apart of?” said a nice church elder. In reality we are apart of about 6 groups. Apparently this whole potluck thing is based off of small groups and some of our groups were not participating, and others had already started. We were too large to become apart of another group and apparently breaking up and joining other groups were not options.

Internal thoughts: So we have 30 people, enough food for about 25, hungry kids and no where in the shade to eat. This could be an interesting lunch.

Someone opened up a room for us, and in we shuffled. I quickly ran across the street to purchase bread, water and some crackers (Kelly and I scrounged up about $6 that we found in random pockets). There were a few minor complaints, but once we started eating, it all stopped. As we passed out the food, to our amazement, there was actually enough for everyone. A kind old lady came and brought some leftover beans and gluten. Someone else brought over some extra rice.

Internal thoughts: Cool! We have gluten.

After everything was said and done, we had just enough food for everyone to be full (me too!), and you could see smiles and hear laughs. Everything worked out fine. God provided. Although it did not turn out quite like I remember of Adventist potlucks in the States, the experience was still great.