Fiesta

A friend of mine arrived on Iona this week. Originally he had planned to be here earlier in the year, but life changed those plans. Instead he was here mid-summer. Like the good friend that he is he had asked if there was anything I needed brought to me. And because this is a civilized place, I responded “no everything was okay.” So he brought me what he knew I would be missing – Mexican food.

Granted it was pretend Mexican food, freeze dried Black bean tamale pie, microwaveable taco filling and canned salsa, but nowhere else on the island was there anything close. When I mentioned to some of my housemates about my bounty they were envious, so I threw a Mexican Fiesta. In the dry stores of our kitchen I food flour tortillas that had been sued for wraps, and I baked these for tortilla strips. And we partied. It was quite fun. And it was a miracle of sorts. Thirty people shared a very small amount of food and there was enough for all. Seems like most everyone, regardless of their country of origin desired Mexican Food. Even my colleague from Paraguay admitted that it wasn’t that bad, actually it was the best Mexican food on Iona. So for what would have been a rejected, marginal meal in the U.S. became a fiesta feast on Iona, shared with an international collection of people celebrating the bounty of friendship.

This is a thin place.