Day 14

July 8
Today was pancake day! I made sure that I woke up extra early today (yes, I sacrificed my sleep-in day for the greater good of pancakes) just so that I would have enough time to make, serve, and eat the pancakes before it was time to go to kereke, or church. I had to wake up at 7 to make sure that everything was done on time.
The first few pancakes were a complete disaster. I made a few key mistakes when making these first pancakes. Mistake #1: I tried to recreate a situation similar to that of home, where we cook 4 pancakes at a time on a griddle. Well, there was no griddle, but there was a large pan that covered all 4 burners. Great idea in theory, not so great empirically. The pan was uneven, so only one part of the pan was touching the stove. This meant that one pancake burnt, while the others didn't cook at all!
Mistake #2: I again tried to recreate my home cooking environment by using butter to grease the pan. By doing so, I disregarded the label which read "for spreading only," because there is no such thing as butter that only spreads and doesn't also cook. Well, apparently, there is such a thing as butter that will only spread and not cook, so the whole pancake-not-sticking-to-the-pan thing I was hoping for didn't quite work out.
Mistake #3: Normally, at home, I can watch the flame and adjust it to my preferred pancake-cooking level. This is generally around the mid-range of the flame strength. Refilwe, who actually loves pancakes dearly, was helping me cook, and she turned on the stove. What I didn't realize was that she turned it on to the highest possible setting. The hottest the stove could get. For pancakes. It took me two burnt pancakes to realize that the burner was set to that level. I turned it down, but it was continually turned up again by the mysterious stove burner bandit. After explaining to Refilwe why I set the burner to not full strength, she let me keep the temperature down. But that didn't stop her from making comments about the temperature the whole way through! Hahaha!!
To combat these problems, I switched to a smaller pan on one burner and I used cooking oil instead of butter. This was much better. I felt like Paula Deen, deep-frying pancakes, but it worked! The end result was delicious, even if most of the pancakes were broken and in pieces. Everyone loved them! :)
After pancakes, it was time for kereke! Today, Rheame, Ian, and Thomas were all there. It was a good service. We were anointed the last time we went, so I guess I was a little disappointed when that didn't happen again. The more time in church means the more time with Rheame, Ian, and Thomas!
I came back with my family, ate lunch, and took a glorious nap. I have been so tired lately, it's probably not healthy hahaha!
After my nap, I met up with the rest of the group for some quality time together. We didn't do very much, but that was all I needed. Just some time with my friends.
We're going as a group to Gaborone tomorrow! I'm so excited. I get to go on the internet again! :D Hahahaha!!