There was a knock on the dining room door while we were eating dinner Monday night. There was a man at the door who said he had helped do the plumbing for the camp back in December. He had been working in north county, but had been laid off. He said he knew we were all volunteers, but wondered and hoped we might have some paid work for him as he and his family were hungry...
I told him we had no work and was going to at least give him twenty dollars or so, when he mentioned that his wife had been selling tamales to try to make a little money. Since we were between cooks, I thought "aha!" and went to the car and asked her if she could make enough for dinner on Tuesday night. She said yes, but seemed a bit hesitent. Then I realized that she probably didn't have enough money to buy the ingredients to make six dozen tamales. I went ahead and paid her for them in advance.
I spent most of the next day wondering if I should perhaps thaw out some hamburgers to barbecue just in case there were no tamales... We went ahead and made a couple of salads and dessert. About fifteen minutes before supper, they drove up with steaming hot tamales. Were they ever good! Our short termers from Manitoba really enjoyed them.
I had asked the couple to bring their children and stay for dinner. But they said it was a school night and the kids had homework to do and they didn't want to leave them home alone with all of the trouble along the border. I think we'll try to have tamales for dinner again some evening!
Yesterday evening the leaders of the youth group from Manitoba wanted to know if we could have dinner a little early tonight so that they could go in their bus to see the Pacific Ocean. I agreed that it would be okay, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought they would barely get a glimpse before it got dark. So this morning I asked if they would like to work this morning and then take off for the coast after lunch. They were very excited about it -- though some of the kids did worry it might be an April Fools joke...
Tomorrow we have inspections scheduled for House #4 (to check the foundation and plumbing so that we can start putting the floor down) and for House #1 (to see how close we can get to a final sign-off!).
I loved your story about the family in need and how you helped them out while retaining their self-respect. It's what Jesus would do!
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