Cake Confections

Sunday was a day of pure excitement. Kim and I were SO TIRED when we had finally made it to bed after wrapping the Bibles and crashed out as good as you can given where we were and all the noise we had to contend with nightly. And like every day, I woke up amazingly refreshed. It was as if adrenaline was the thing that just kept me going. The night of Kim's freak out (referenced many times between our two blogs but kept confidential in detail to protect both of our real identities) I had only slept 2 hours prior to "the incident" and yet, I thought it was near morning. Honestly, time and energy were just dimensions that were warped beyond explination. They were not at all the way they are at home.

Anyway, so I woke up SO EXCITED about the day ahead. We were going to have a real party that we planned in a foreign country on spur of the moment and somehow, by the grace of God, we actually were going to pull it off! Amazing... and so truly, truly exciting. Our new kids were going to get their first gifts and REAL cake! Too cool.

But there was much to do. We had to figure out the cake situation first thing. This was going to be the hardest part of the day and with church requiring our driver to take a time out from his driving duties for 2 hours, we had to be sure that we got this done first thing. I had remembered eating lunch at the National Cafe and seeing cake down stairs. The kind of cake I would love to eat and then lick off my plate any left over icing, if no one was around to see me. The kind of cake I had been craving but afraid to eat for fear of the uncooked icing giving me the travelers runs... so I asked if we could stop by there.

Did you know that I am famous in Ethiopia? Well, I am. We ate at the National Cafe quite often and now, we bought nearly their entire cake supply all before breakfast was served. I was a face they never forgot from that point on. Not to mention, I was easy to pick out of the crowd! Anyway, they had no boxes to put the cake in. They had no Saran wrap to cover it with... nope, TO GO is not a word in Ethiopian. (Or two words for that matter.) They made Tom promise to bring back the huge serving trays they were displayed on and then put torn up pieces of cardboard in between a few of the slices to keep the paper they placed over the top and sides, from falling into the frosting. It worked, kind of. Good enough. What other options did we really have. Tom was excited. I could see it in his face. He whispered "The kids would never think they were getting THIS kind of cake even if you told them they were getting cake today. Most of them have never had this." It made me feel so good to think that this was going to be the special and memorable day that we wanted it to be for these worthy children. I was worried about the frosting spoiling. After all, the party wasn't until 3 and no one even owned a refrigerator. We would not have time to come back to the cafe, so we had to take it. Tom assured me that their stomachs could handle it and that we would keep it in the shade of the trunk. YIKES! With no other option, that is what we did. It was 5 birr per piece. And each piece was BIG! To give it to you in relatable terms, a wole lunch with meat and veggies was 14 birr there. A whole loaf of bread was 5 birr. This was indeed, a special treat. 69 pieces of cake which was 3 full trays, and we were off.

It was now time for Tom to drop us off and head to church to translate from the pulpit. He picked the shopping area (remember my story about the boy who took the beating... this is when it happened). Anyway, we would kill a couple of hours here while we waited for Tom. And then- we would need to get milk for the kids, candy, and head to the party.