Brownies for Breakfast? Well Sure!

During lunch one day in the clinic last week, the nurses asked Kyra (the other new volunteer in the clinic with me- love her!) and me what our favorite foods were. This eventually led to the topic of brownies. Kyra and I were aghast that the nurses had never heard of them! The nurses suggested we bring them to the desayuno de despedida (goodbye breakfast) for the old clinic volunteers on Tuesday morning. Kyra and I started to explain that brownies weren’t exactly breakfast food, but as soon as we saw the nurses’ disappointed faces (we had REALLY talked up brownies) we immediately agreed to bring them. Kyra and I picked up a box of brownie mix in Antigua over the weekend and were BEYOND excited to start baking Monday night. However, baking brownies turned out to be a little harder than either of us remembered…

Struggle #1- Turning on the oven. The instructions on the box said to heat the oven to 177 °C. Right, easy enough… Except for the fact that the oven only had a temperature range of 210-290 °C. Hmmmmm. (Me: “I just graduated from the UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME. I can figure this out. Think, Jess.”) After fiddling with the knob for a minute, I consulted with Kyra (also freshly graduated) who was equally stumped. During this process, we also realized that we would have to light the gas oven ourselves with a match. #oldschool (Me, again: “Um, what?”). Not that it’s that hard to do, but neither of us had ever used anything but an automatic stove/oven before. To top everything off, we couldn’t find matches anywhere. :(

Ovens, man. They can be trickier than you think.

Feeling a little overwhelmed, we sought out the help of Kim (one of the old clinic volunteers- the brownies were in her honor!) from a different house. Her older, wiser, more experienced volunteer self saved the day. She brought the matches, showed us how to light the oven, and told us to use a higher temperature since the ovens don’t get that hot. GREAT! Check, check, and check. We were back in baking business. Gracias, Kim! (I was also thinking that if I was doing this in America, the brownies would probably have already been baked and in my stomach by now.)

Struggle #2- Kitchen supplies, which were non-existent. Scrummaging in the cupboards, we made do with what we had and eyeballed all the measurements.

Improvising. Feel free to call me Betty Crocker.

Struggle #3- Baking the brownies. The oven didn’t have a shelf, so about halfway through we realized the bottom was burning. What followed was a delicate game of sliding another pan under the brownie pan to raise it off the bottom of the oven. (Look at us, putting our degrees to use!) After a long time of shooting questionable looks at the pan, we decided to call the brownies done when the knife came out sort of clean.

The next morning in the clinic, it ended up being just fine that Kyra and I brought brownies for breakfast. Most of the food was a little strange to eat for breakfast (at least in my culture), but all of it was certainly delicious! After we finished eating, all the nurses gave little farewell speeches to the old volunteers. It was definitely heartwarming to hear, and I think Kyra and I both felt fortunate to be joining the clinic family. This year, I’m looking forward to mastering baking brownies in the oven and making just as great of an impact as the old volunteers did!

A breakfast of plantains, nachos and guac, eggs, brownies, pan dulce, and hot chocolate. YUM.

I even got a little snuggle time in with this piece of heaven named Alejandro (4 months).

Old-New Clinic Crew!