Well, it’s not called that. It used to be called Homemaking, and some of us mocked it by calling it Home Breaking. Now it’s called Enrichment Night or something like that, but since we have it during the day, it doesn’t quite suit. . . Yeah, whatever.
So, for those of you who are not LDS (aka Mormon), Homemaking, as it used to be called, takes place typically once a month and it’s a get together for the women in the ward or branch. The purpose behind it is to learn something that will enrich our lives, hence the new name Enrichment Night. There’s typically a ten to fifteen minute lesson to start off with and it can be on anything from appreciating beauty to budget basics to, oh heck, think of something. And it usually ties in to whatever we’re doing for the rest of home braking, which can be anything from cooking, canning, sewing, quilting, massage, crafts, or . . . well, generally, it’s learning the more practical side of things. You know, things that will benefit you in every day life. I think you got a bit of an idea.
So, as Homemaking Counsellor, I’m the one who has to come up with all the brilliant ideas, organize it, and generally run the show. I elected to have my first Homemaking (and the first the branch has had in a half year) fairly soon. Today was the day.
We were doing fabric painting taught by Barbara, and honestly, I don’t know what her last name is. She’s here taking care of her grandchildren while her daughter-in-law Michelle takes care of business in England and the Caribbean. Barbara is English but lives in Holland, having married a Dutch man.
Anyway, I digress. Oh what the heck, I always digress, and I always talk about me digressing. If anything it can be called a hallmark of my brian. Or brain. Or, wait. I dunno.
Anyway, it was a very small class. Barbara, who was teaching the class, Visaka, who’s the Relief Society President, and myself, who was running the show, were the only ones to show up initially. Rosemary, another sister in our branch, showed up an hour later. Anyway, Barbara provided us with cloth bags and the paints wherewith we were to paint. Barbara is on the left, Visaka on the right.
I think I’ll digress further. Visaka is an actress, and apparently, she’s in a local soap. I haven’t seen it, or I haven’t seen her in it, but it’s not surprising since I don’t go out of my way to watch Sinhalese programming.
Anyway, here’s what I did. Be gentle with me, dear reader. I have no artistic ability whatsoever. My sister got the entire family’s allotment.
After the craft portion of the programming, we moved on to refreshments. Since we never know exactly how many people will show, we buy more than we think we’ll neeed. Perhaps I should start by saying that I had Fahim buy a bottle of Mango Cordial the night before, and on the way to the church, I had the trishaw driver stop off at a couple of bakeries to get some sweet sugary stuff. I bought enough for fifteen people.
The mango cordial – first off, I love the flavor. it’s oh so wonderful. But this bottle was somewhat defective. Oh, it still tasted great, no doubt about it. It wasn’t bad or anything like that. No no no no no. It’s just that the top layer was very thick – almost like a mucuous plug, not that I know what a mucuous plug looks like. But I’m pretty sure this is what it was like. It was so thick I had to slice it with a knife. Only way to get anything out of the bottle.
We ended up giving the leftovers to Rosemary to treat her seminary students. Yeah, that’s fair. Give her teenagers hopped up on sugar. That’s exactly what she needs.
