Pancakes anyone?

Notice the plate with what should have been American Pancakes? Well..... The Elders told Sandra and her family that they wanted to cook pancakes for them. She had tasted them ten years ago when the Elders who had baptized her while she was visiting her family in Brazil had made them for her. Ben and I were visiting with the family in the front room of their apartment when we noticed that the Elders were sure taking an awful long time to cook. Pretty soon one of them sheepishly poked his head around the corner and asked me to "Pleeeeeeeeeease come into the kitchen and help" Well the pictures tell the whole story. These guys will never be able to work in my kitchen if I have any say about it. The frying pan they brought with them was no better than the one they found in Sandra's kitchen, and I don't know what they put into the batter. I could tell however that they had so much salt in the mixture that all of us will be puckering for a week. I finally sent them out and told them they could do less damage in the front room so scram.

Twenty years ago Sandra and her daughter Michelle who was two years old came to Belgium from Brazil to work. She later had a son Steve who is now eight years old. When Sandra was expecting him, Michelle who was 14 years old had her daughter Jennifer who is also now eight. They all live together in a pretty pathetic apartment in a not so fantastic part of town. Sandra speaks French, Portuguese and some Dutch and English. Michelle and the children speak Flemish Dutch. The picture also includes the large black woman who is a friend of the family and is also an investigator. She does not speak Dutch or English even though she has been here 10 years so Sandra translates everything we say into French. Michelle is a hairdresser along with many "colored" women in Belgium. It is a profession here that requires not too much education and is always needed. I have noticed that most of the hairdressers here wear wigs. I was told that when nappy hair gets too many color treatments it will just come out in handfuls so a wig is much easier.