My first dinner gathering

Today is Sunday, January 17 and the first day of the work week. It's going to get some used to this schedule!

Friday, Mark and I went to the apartment for the consultants and got it set up a little more. He went to the grocery store with me. Thank God they have chairs to sit on; he got to play with his phone while I shopped. He does not have a long attention span for grocery shopping. I was grateful to have another set of arms to help me get things to the apartment.

We went to a nice Asian restaurant Friday night and met a chief of party for a different DAI project and his wife. They were both very nice. The restaurant is located in Abdoun Circle which is just a few minute walk from here. What a busy place, especially on at weekend night! There were 2 ice cream shops and a pop corn shop! YUMMMO! As well as many other restaurants.

Yesterday evening Mark, Christina and I went to 5 o'clock mass in a very pretty church in Abdoun (I don't think I could tell you how to get there today). The priest is from Boston. Many of the parishioners are Philippino. The music and some of the prayers were a little different. But there was a lot of participation from the people. Communion is given out by the priest only and it is dipped in the blood of Christ and placed on your tongue not in your hand. I thought that was a clever way of giving out the body and blood of Christ.

Last night I decided to have a few people from Mark's team for dinner and charades. I felt comfortable around them enough to not worry that I only have one bowl, no can opener, and only a few pots and pans. I knew they would understand the pitfalls of being in a new place without many of your comforts and things from home.

What a great group of people! Christina is Mark's Deputy. She is waiting for her husband Leo to arrive next month. She is young, pretty, smart and a wonderful person. Eileen, one of the "component leads" (we had dinner at her house the other night). She is closer to our age and warm, lovely, and so sharp. David is here from DAI for a few weeks and Ann is here for short term work from Nathan Assoc to work on the project. Ann is Kelly King's twin! She looks so much like Kelly and she sounds so much like her it is uncanny! I keep calling her Kelly!

Well, we've all been hanging out together almost every night. I didn't want to go to another restaurant and so that's why I had them here. I made lamb chops with a balsamic honey dressing (a Giada recipe) that I really enjoyed. My pan was small so I had to cook them in batches. I couldn't keep them warm in the oven because I had nothing that was oven proof to put them in. Eileen, who enjoys cooking also, suggested that I deglaze the pan with the marinade - what a great idea! The brown rice was a little overcooked and was more like a risotto than rice...oh, well. I cooked some vegetables that were tasty but a little soft. I knew no one would get sick from my cooking, but I was disappointed that some stuff was overcooked. Not that big of a deal.

What I really enjoyed was that we were all standing around the island in the kitchen while I was cooking - Everyone pitched in to help with something, we drank wine, laughed and it was a wonderful time.

We played a round or two of charades. It was really fun. It was a work night and everyone went home by 10:30pm.

Today is laundry day and cleaning. The floors get so dirty here!!