The Kitchen: the heartbeat of the boat

The brazilian women at the table in the kitchen. 

I may have mentioned that one of the projects I'm working on is a cookbook of the food made on the boat. Because it is awesome. As I have explained to family members and others who know me and how much of a cook I am not, this project is challenging. I have to learn not only how to cook, but my Portuguese had to get better very fast as Joana and Amaris (both in hairnets at the end of the table pictured above) do not speak any English. All the ingredients are Brazilian, have portuguese names and all the portions are for around 40 people. Yeah. I'm slightly daunted. 

But as usual, the things that you may be the least enthusiastic for. Stop, I'll re-phrase. Something I was not all that enthusiastic for has turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of my life. 

The Kitchen; A day in the life. 

Amaris gets up at 3:30AM. The boat is dark and usually tied up to a tree somewhere. One time, a few years ago, she got up and went into the kitchen to find a coral snake had decided to wait for her in the kitchen. She closed the door and went back to Zezinho, her husband and deck hand and told him he needed to go kill it. Which he promptly did.  Even without snakes, the kitchen will be the only light on in the middle of a dark jungle. We've seen alligators off the side of the boat hoping for whatever gets thrown over. It can seem kind of lonely to be up when everyone else is asleep.  Only snakes, alligators, mosquitos and wasps are also up that early. Amaris first starts the coffee. There are priorities in Brazil and coffee certainly takes its turn at the top of the list. Joana, her assistant comes in at 4am and starts cutting up five different kinds of fruit, cold ham, and cheese slices. Amaris will work her way through 6 or 7 dishes for breakfast, not including the fruit. Some things like Bananas Fritas are not that difficult to make. Some things like farofa cake which requires you to mix it with coco milk and coconut, pack it into a mound, tie a dish towel around it and then leave it upside down on top of a large pot to steam, are obviously more complicated. As the kitchen heats up, the windows are opened and the mosquitos swoop in. These women never break rhythm as they chop, cut, mix, fry, pour and so forth, although the vicious insects attack. One morning, Amaris showed me where a wasp had stung her and she had rubbed some salt on it. It had happened about an hour earlier and I had not noticed. She didn't so much as wince. Just kept right on cooking. If it had been me, there would have been crying and wailing and much attention directed at the poor gringa who had received the injustice of a wasp sting visited upon her in the Amazon Jungle.  

As the crew begins to wake up, still in the dark, they trickle in for coffee and then head off to untie the boat and begin cleaning for the day. At 6am, when Pastor Djard is on the boat, the kitchen stops. A couple deck hands and Captain Rai stop in and everyone sits and listens. Pastor reads a Psalm or other passage of scripture. The first morning I was there, he read the 23rd Psalm. I remember the poetry in Portuguese flowing over me, then suddenly recognizing the phrase green fields and tranquil waters. I listened closer and recognized the Psalm, understanding preparing a feast and living in the house of the Lord forever. Its one of my favorite memories. Then Pastor prays for the day, the most sincere Amens you have ever heard quietly come from these lovely people, and then as quickly as it was quiet, they are back to work. 

At 7am, breakfast is handed up and the women immediately begin work on lunch. They start the rice to steaming and chopping vegetables for the beans. Around 7:45am when the breakfast dishes come down and two of the American or Brazilian team members are washing dishes, they will sit down and eat some breakfast, drink some coffee and laugh and share stories. When the dishes are done, its back to cooking. 

The kitchen gets excruciatingly hot. Amaris stands over that stove, all burners aflame in the middle of a steamy jungle for hours on end. To the point that a soft, spoiled, unaccustomed-to-hard-work-such-as-this white girl who steps outside the kitchen, might just find the Amazon refreshingly cool. Amaris and Joana will chop and dice and grate and blend and mix and freeze and boil another 8 or so dishes for lunch. Rice, beans, spaghetti, meat of some kind perhaps chicken or beef, perhaps a soup with pasta, salad of sliced vegetables, corn, peas and olives, fruit fruit fruit, and a frozen citrus mousse or a fruit salad with 6 types of fruit and condensed sweetened milk. It will knock your socks off.  As they cook throughout the late morning, Zezinho will be trying to catch fish over the side of the boat. One morning he caught a piranha and in return the piranha bit him on the finger. He was quite proud of that one. It needed a coupel of stitches. Fortunately we're on a medical boat. Or the dentist or doctor will stop in, grab some coffee before facing the line of patients. One morning late in the week, Amaris needed to get rid of left over food. She stepped outside and called to the first woman she saw. Spoke with her a bit then came back in and continued cooking. An hour or so later, the woman was back. Amaris gestured to me and I pulled out large plastic bags of pasta and sauce, put them in a grocery store plastic bag and gave them to the woman. The Amaris invited her to sit at the table and Mel, the missionary leading VBS, fixed a plate of soup and rice for her son. He was four years old and told us about his favorite film, Hommen do Forno. WHich of course I know as Iron Man. Here I was vehemently corrected. Not Iron Man, Homem do Forno! Clearly.  But with Amaris, there had been no hemming and hawing, no patting herself on the back for a good deed done or false sentimentality. She treated the woman and her son like neighbors. Not charity. 

Lunch goes up at noon. And the ladies will finally sit. Perhaps the doctor and dentist weren't able to stop seeing patience in time for lunch, so they'll drop into the kitchen where a plate has been saved for them. But regardless, several of the brazilians will find there way into the kitchen where they can grab some coffee and sit and snack on things. The stories are plentiful and usually everyone ends up laughing and laughing. Before I could follow the stories, it was wonderful to be a fly on the wall and just watching them laugh and talk and laugh some more. Unsurprisingly, this is my favorite time of day.

About 1:30 Amaris and Joana will take their siesta. While they are gone, a couple people might sneak into the kitchen for a drink of soda or guarana, but it stands mostly quiet. At 3pm, the ladies are back and so are the brazilian team members. The coffee is fresh and before facing the afternoon work, a few people will sip coffee, eat a cookie or two and then leave the ladies to start up the stove again. As the sunlight changes and the shadows get longer, Amaris and Joana will again chop and cook and boil and blend. Rice and beans, of course, a different meat, more fruit, watermelon, papaya, pineapple, oranges that look like large limes on the outside. Perhaps a dessert that Claudia (lead translator) calls "Chocolate dreams" which is basically frozen chocolate mouse with coconut and cookies resembling Nilla Wafers in it. Its delicious. Around 5pm, most of the food has been made and the women will go to the back of the boat to visit with anyone who has returned early. Perhaps the VBS crew or a couple of the interpreters. Zezinho and Manuel perhaps have returned from the village buying fresh fish from the local villagers. And with a slight gesture from Amaris, a large plastic sack of strange looking fish will go into the freezer. 

Dinner goes up to the dining room at 6pm. At 6:45 or so, the dishes come down and the ladies sit at the table or out back while the team members assigned kitchen duty finish up. Fresh coffee is then made again and cookies, crackers, butter or perhaps some dolce de leite is assembled to go up at 9pm for a snack for the team. The ladies won't be around by then. They will have showered, perhaps taken some time to sit at the front of the boat as it sails to it's next destination. But by 9pm they'll be headed for bed. That alarm at 3:30 am comes pretty early.