When Byron suggested we stop for a little break, I didn’t mind!! We had just finished teaching and doing crafts with the children at a school way up in the mountains. So this short stop would be a nice treat – especially since it involved hot chocolate! The day was a little cool. (I wouldn’t have guessed it – being on the equator – but we were in the mountains, so I guess that made sense)
They brought us our hot chocolate, along with cheese sticks and bread sticks. The bread was not soft, it was hard, with a – different flavor. I don’t even know how to describe it, except that it was good. I always love the cheese in South America. They both came on a plate for us to all share from at our table.
The hot chocolate had cinnamon in it!! That took getting used to. It wasn’t bad, just different. In the end, I kinda liked it.
So, there’s two interesting things about their chocolate, besides the cinnamon. The second time I had chocolate, we were at an outdoor restaurant at night – so it was chilly… and hot chocolate was welcome! I got it while I was talking to our driver, Jaime. Since it was hot, I picked up the spoon to kinda sip it up little by little. I soon discovered something on the bottom – hmmm.. what’s THIS? Since we were deep in conversation, I didn’t look too much, just kept taking bits of it. Eventually I figured out that it was cheese!!! I guess the first time we had it, they gave us the cheese on the side, but it was supposed to be in the cup! THAT was different!!!
But, the first time we had the chocolate, on the way back from the school, I was again at Jaime’s table. I enjoyed talking with Jaime. He was a friend to Byron, and his job was to hire out his truck…. Since we really needed two trucks that week, he drove for us everywhere we went. He didn’t know English, but wants to learn it. So, anyway, when the hot chocolate came, Jaime filled me in on a few things I need to know before I drank.
In Ecuador, the saying goes – if you are mad at someone and you drink hot chocolate, then you will get sick. Your stomach, kidneys, liver (I think he said liver…) all would go bad! If you are not mad, then everything will be fine! So, I assured him that I would be fine, as I wasn’t mad at the moment.
That sounds familiar! God tells us to not even let the sun go down on our anger. Nor come to the communion table if we are upset with someone. So hot chocolate is another good reminder for me to keep short tabs on relationships!!
Harboring resentment eats away at the soul.
How true! Don’t you just love how the Lord gives us pictures in the physical world of the way things work in the spiritual realm? So true!
And… when I make hot cocoa from scratch, I simmer cinnamon in it!
Been making it that way for a couple of years. No cheese, though… LOL