The Question is Why, Why, Why?

Each day after school ends at 1:00, we walk toward the Town Center on the cobbledstoned streets of Ayacucho, 10 De Agosto, Primera Constituyente among others.  We are hunting.  We have become hunters, and we are hunting for food.  Riobamba has corner after corner of family kiosks, but we must be vigilant of what we ingest and drink.  So, we have a choice: prepare food ourselves or find little restaurants.  
Here are the steps of dinner preparation for a simple meal:


1. Identify the meat in the supermarket as chicken
2. Buy fresh vegetables at the indigenous open market
3. Buy fresh bread at a bakery
4. Buy 5 liters of bottled water close to home, so we don't have to carry it far
5. At home, scrub the vegetables to death, soak them for 20 minutes in Vitalin to kill things on them
6.  Skin chicken and season it, place it in an oven with a Centigrade dial (figure that out mathmatically  and pray for the best or call our missionary friends in Quito for advice.)
7. Rinse the vegetables with the clean bottled water that you carried home
8. Steam vegetables
9. Two hours after arriving home, place dinner on table. 
10. Eat like there is no tomorrow
                                           
 OR

Go to one of the quaint little restaurants tucked away on the side streets that we've walked miles to find, and buy a complete dinner: soup, salad, entree, bread and dessert for as little as $3.00 per person.  Meet the people at the table next to us who ask us where we are from and who want to practice their English.  Answer their question, "Why are you here?"  Tell them, "We work at the Nazareno Unidad Educativa Escuela.  We teach the children there."  They all know where the Nazarene school is. We are proud.

We pay and leave our business card that says in Spanish on one side and English on the other, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  (Jeremiah 29:11)

The question is why, why, why prepare a meal at home when we can go out and be filled!