I have heard many people say that a wife's duty is in the Kitchen, (Thankfully I have not hear that from my husband yet) but I never knew how much of your life would revolve around the kitchen if you had to cook every meal and you had about...lets say 70 children. This past week Andreas and I were assigned to Kitchen duty. There was a group from the college who were having and outdoor training camp for that week and they needed to eat, (obviously). Breakfast was at 7:30 so we were up at 5:00 plugging in the coffee pot, and cutting up fruit or whatnot. Then for the noon meal, we also prepared the food and with the help of a retired couple we served and then they took over to prepare the supper meal. After our cooking was done, just like any average house wife, we moved on to clean the bathrooms, all 6 of them. Well, if you have 70 children you will need to have enough bathrooms for all of them, you know how girls are. By the time all that was finished, Andreas was needed for something else and I would go home and sit down. Then about 6:00pm we would go back to the kitchen to prepare for the next day's meals. Our first day of making breakfast, no one told us that these 70 children (who mind you were actually our age) ate like they were 100 hungry men. We prepared the amount of food we were told and those 100 eggs were gone after 10 people went through the line. Then I had to leave for a Dr. Appointment and Andreas was left alone to make lunch for the over eaters. Which he had no idea how to make because the recipe had no measurements. To make matters worse, after we were done cooking, The basement sewage backed up and we had a dandy of a mess to clean up. That hectic day ended in a lot of frustration and tears. Although it got better and with each day we got a little more use to the food calculations, you make enough for 70 people then you do that again, and figuring out where everything was located in the kitchen. The elderly couple were such a good help that when they had to cook this weekend, we decided to help them.
The college group left at about 1:00pm and then we cleaned and the youth group arrived by 7:00 for their weekend retreat. Our retired cooks were cooking all the meals for this weekend, and we told them that we would be there to help them, the only thing was that Andreas was also the co-director for the retreat weekend, so he had to be present for everything. So Andreas stayed up until about 12:30 working with the kids then woke up at 6:30 to get to the kitchen to make breakfast. I stayed for all the meals and was in charge of making meals for the children with allergies and washing dishes. Then I stayed till all the children went to bed at 12:00, cleaning, putting out snack and other things. The last morning of this crazy week we got to sleep in till 7:30 then we worked until 2:00 and had to go to a meeting half an hour away by 3:00. In total, I worked about 78 1/2 hours this week and Andreas worked 88 hours. To some this may not sound like a lot because they do it all the time... this is what we have to say... stop. You should not work that much it's unhealthy in every aspect of life. God created a day of rest for a reason. So Boo! It was a lot, there were many days of tears and tiredness. The other staff that were there said, "oh yeah this is what camp is like all the time!" and I know, I've been to camp, this is how camp goes, but I'm married now, and sick quite a bit... for a week it was ok, we could do one week and lets be honest it was nice to get more hours in, but if we had to do this longer than a few weeks, I think we would fall apart like a rusty old tractor :). It was a good experience but it's a little silly to have everything happen all at once. Seems that's the way it goes.
To end off the silly week, we were invited to a church party. The Mennonite church we attend was having a get together half way between the church and where we live, so only 10 min away. We decided to attend and it was the best way to finish off the week. We almost fell asleep during supper but it was still very nice. Andreas got some exercise in by playing boot hockey, (I tried but I couldn't remember how to hold a hockey stick or stand on the ice) and we got to actually take time to talk with people and find out who was who and meet the congregation. So it was good.. and now, we have a few days off.. but I am so bored! :) just the way it goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment